Girls In Tech

As the World Wide Web 2.0 turns, women are disconnecting with melodramatic TV soap operas and logging onto social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. According to an analysis by Information Is Beautiful, Facebook and Twitter boast 57% female membership. So why the gender gap? And what does this mean for the future of social media and advertising?

Explaining the gender gap is quite simple: just look at the modern woman’s lifestyle and behavior. Her time is divided between work, school, and social life — not early afternoon soap operas. Through it all she stays constantly connected – always on her iPhone on Blackberry – whether negotiating a big contract or picking up the kids from soccer practice. She no longer has time to read the morning daily, but will definitely use social media to exchange fashion and beauty advice, share pictures of her kids with relatives, and read Girls in Tech. And what about the TV? Well, as witnessed with the recent cancellation of the longest running soap in TV history (“Guiding Light”), there is very little time for someone else’s drama.

Advertisers are noticing this spike in activity online and pursuing these new opportunities. Social networks are now a viable platform for them to explore relationship-based advertising models, a more efficient alternative to the outmoded CPC, CPM and CPA pricing models. A case study of this relationship-based advertising is demonstrated by Total Beauty, a one-stop destination for everything beauty and the beauty products giant, Sephora.

Sephora leveraged the social content of Total Beauty to increase its market share and “top of mind” presence. Since they share the same demographic subset, Sephora and Total Beauty launched a sweepstakes that encouraged fans to create and submit product reviews for Total Beauty. For each product review written, reviewers received an entry for the Sephora gift card as well as an opportunity to share the review with friends, family and colleagues. The social component of this campaign trumped anything traditional media could achieve within this market segment. The social techie helped Sephora receive more entries into their sweepstakes and gain brand awareness while benefiting Total Beauty with yet another product review. Since females are more likely to spread the word by posting a link on Twitter and announcing it on their Facebook status updates, dollars spent marketing towards a female is broadcast, therefore going further than if it were spent on a male.

More women are being guided towards the light of their laptops, iPhones and Blackberry’s and advertisers are following. In the past, men commanded a dominant presence on the web, but social media has leveled the playing field. With her schedule increasingly filled, she relies on advice and input from her social network for the latest news bits, fashion tips and technology tricks. Web 2.0 has created the social techie and when it comes to being social, women rule.

Photo courtesy of: www.adage.com