Social media have become the integral part of women’s lives all around the globe. For businesswomen, high school and university students, mothers with babies and children of all ages, enthusiasts of sports or handicraft. Find out how you can use social media to learn more about your female customers, participate in fruitful conversations and build trust for your brand.
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Long time ago, computers and Internet were the men’s thing. Right now, it doesn’t matter why it used to be so – what’s more important is that it’s a thing of the past. As Finances Online data show, ladies have caught up with gentlemen and take an important position in the world of social media, outgrowing men’s audience on selected portals. Women use social media more frequently and in a more varied way. What’s especially interesting is that they use smartphones and tablets more often than men. That calls for a mobile marketing challenge ;).
Talk, recommend, discuss…
The key takeaway for you should be the fact that women are much more keen to interact with brands on social media than men. This gives you a wonderful opportunity to obtain useful information about your potential customers… from themselves. They can tell you a lot – they trust the information gathered in social media, actively participate and engage in discussions by leaving their opinions and recommending products or services.
Communication – dos and don’ts
The power of communication between women in social media is recommendation. Ladies love to give advice and follow it, especially when supported by other users. Do I need to mention that recommendations on the Internet influence their decisions when shopping? The thing brands often forget is that even though men are often the families’ breadwinners, it’s the women who manage and spend the household budget . Your brand can only benefit from learning to speak their language, listening and responding. This is how you do it:
- Work on the visual side of your communication. Post pictures and videos of your products, but also encourage the users to send their own pics and vids. Authentic fan-generated content is the most valued marketing content at the moment.
- Stay close, listen, react. Good social media communication means you don’t keep the usual distance from your customers, but approach them instead. Reply to posts and comments quickly. Answer questions precisely, but comprehensibly. Every social media conversation with a customer is a free insight you can use to build your future promotion strategy.
- Rely on telling captivating stories, don’t just bombard your users with numbers and stats.70% of mothers make a decision based on recommendations and real life stories appearing on social media. This appeals to them much more than dull numerical data.
- Think outside the box and don’t rely on stereotypes. The female side of social media is not only about pink, dresses and hearts!
These tips will help you take the right direction when communicating in social media. The choice of channels is ours. I will tell you more about the two that are a little less obvious than Facebook, but definitely worth your attention. Each of them has a specific atmosphere and presents content in a slightly different way.
Blogs
When you start exploring the female blogging community, you’ll surely find out how much women love to tell stories. They talk about their everyday lives, hobbies, jobs, things they relate to and find important for them and other women. The most popular blogging topics among ladies are:
- food and cooking: recipes, table decor ideas, diets, food culture and eating habits.
- fashion: everyday looks (OOTD – outfit of the day), tips and recommendations, DIY tutorials.
- Beauty: cosmetic reviews, make-up and beauty routine tutorials, make-up swatches.
- health and fitness: workout programmes, day-by-day workout progress, tips on diets and exercise combinations.
- parenting: child development, baby products’ reviews, parenting tips, everyday family stories.
- lifestyle, which means everything mentioned above with a hint of articles commenting current events, emotional issues and all other thoughts that the author decides to share with her audience :).
Leading female blogs can boast with amazing popularity – for example, Fashion Toast, one of the top American fashion blogs, is visited by more than 400k visitors monthly. You can be sure that if your product appears on a blog with an engaged audience, the interest in this item will grow instantly. How to make it happen? Of course, you can wait and pray that the blogger will discover your products one day and love it so much she will share it with her readers. But there are more effective methods to sort this out. As a brand, you can offer a number of ways to cooperate:
- a product review – in return for the reviewed product or on financial terms,
- a sponsored post,
- a contest with prizes sponsored by your brand,
- purchasing advertising space on the site, if there is any available,
- unusual promotional campaigns – for example, you can invite the blogger to take part in a campaign held within another communication channel, such as newsletter , Facebook or your own website.
If you decide to cooperate with bloggers, remember about three points of view that are relevant for every promotion: the blogger’s, the brand’s, the readers’. Every promotional campaign makes sense only when all the parties are satisfied with its conditions and actual proceeding. Make sure the agreement terms are clear for the blogger and that both the author and her readers feel totally respected when participating in the promotion.
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The idea behind this portal is both simple and genius. It’s a virtual pin board to pin everything you liked on the Internet: places, infographics, articles, photos, videos. Anything that impresses or interests you. You create the boards on your own and fill them with content referring to a particular topic or idea. You also share your pins and boards with others or repin their pins to our own boards. As simple as that. What’s so special, then?
Pinterest has become a place dominated by women (33% female vs. 8% male users). The most popular topic categories are the ones related to wedding (venue decor, wedding dresses, make-up ideas, hairstyles, etc.) and recipes- only blogs outrun Pinterest in this category.
What’s more, Pinterest lets you present your brand in a more sensitive fashion than on other social networks. You don’t have to pin your own content only – feel free to add what your followers may find inspiring, beautiful or intriguing, what reflects the way they perceive the world. And what helps them take decisions during shopping:
- discount coupons,
- product usage ideas,
- pictures and videos showing your products – with a link to purchase them with a single click.
The female world of social media is a colourful place full of inspirations and true stories told by your customers. Is your brand already there? We’re curious about your experiences!
By: Kasia Pietka