Reaching Empowered Women through Social Media
New opportunities are emerging in social marketing, and as a result, interactive marketers have excellent opportunities to use social media to engage with their most influential consumers and gain an edge against their competitors by inspiring genuine interaction with their target audiences.
One of these key target audiences is empowered women -- females ages 25 to 54 who feel that the Internet helps them manage family life. In order to engage empowered women successfully and pull ahead of the crowd, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies must design campaigns that enhance empowered women's unique combination of heavy communication and savvy decision-making and influence.
Empowered women are highly influential as household decision-makers as well as among their peers. From entertainment to electronics, empowered women are much more likely to be asked by friends for product recommendations. These women also tend to be more active online than the average adult across the board, but certain behaviors really stand out.
More than half of empowered women use social networking sites, and communication activities take center stage. One-third of empowered women use social networking sites mainly for communication compared with 23 percent of all online adults. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of empowered women will actively go to friends' pages on social networking sites to keep in touch, compared with only 21 percent of all online adults. These women love to share their lives with friends. They love e-mail but are also more likely than their peers to use widgets, and their favorite kinds allow them to share.
Empowered women care about value and like knowing as much as they can before they buy. A whopping 81 percent of empowered women say that it's important for them to find the best deal they can on things they buy compared with 63 percent of U.S. online adults ages 18 and up. And, they don't think twice about using the Web to help them find deals. Forty-four percent have used a search engine to look for more information about a product after seeing an online advertisement.
To capitalize on these trends, it is important to create a strategy that enhances the social behaviors of a target audience while endearing them to a brand. For empowered women, successful social strategies combine communication and sharing with their savvy shopping attitude.
Capture what defines the target group and capitalize on it. For example, Kraft Foods has a widget that is a perfect fit for empowered women. Each afternoon, the widget offers an affordable dinner idea complete with a shopping list. Not only does it help them manage their family life more easily, but it appeals to their research behavior as well.
Associate your brand with a relevant topic that the target cares about. While many brands have tried to connect with something their target audience cares about, the key to success is to mean it and stick with it across channels. There is a risk if marketers do not back up their claims with good practices. For example, if marketers try to say that they are green in an ad campaign, but their product is not environmentally friendly, they will certainly earn the title of "greenwasher." Backing up marketing claims with good business practices is particularly important when targeting empowered women -- 27 percent have posted critical comments about brands or products online.
And finally, provide a platform for people to do what they love. Empowered women love sharing about their families. Cheerios created a Web site for people to do just that, with places to post photos, memories, and tips about family life and health. Such a sharing feature could also be integrated into social networking sites where this type of activity is already taking place.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Riley is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research serving Interactive Marketing professionals. She specializes in advertiser, consumer, and publisher trends and technologies, which includes social marketing, online brand and direct response marketing, targeting, measurement, and response.
One of these key target audiences is empowered women -- females ages 25 to 54 who feel that the Internet helps them manage family life. In order to engage empowered women successfully and pull ahead of the crowd, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies must design campaigns that enhance empowered women's unique combination of heavy communication and savvy decision-making and influence.
Empowered women are highly influential as household decision-makers as well as among their peers. From entertainment to electronics, empowered women are much more likely to be asked by friends for product recommendations. These women also tend to be more active online than the average adult across the board, but certain behaviors really stand out.
More than half of empowered women use social networking sites, and communication activities take center stage. One-third of empowered women use social networking sites mainly for communication compared with 23 percent of all online adults. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of empowered women will actively go to friends' pages on social networking sites to keep in touch, compared with only 21 percent of all online adults. These women love to share their lives with friends. They love e-mail but are also more likely than their peers to use widgets, and their favorite kinds allow them to share.
Empowered women care about value and like knowing as much as they can before they buy. A whopping 81 percent of empowered women say that it's important for them to find the best deal they can on things they buy compared with 63 percent of U.S. online adults ages 18 and up. And, they don't think twice about using the Web to help them find deals. Forty-four percent have used a search engine to look for more information about a product after seeing an online advertisement.
To capitalize on these trends, it is important to create a strategy that enhances the social behaviors of a target audience while endearing them to a brand. For empowered women, successful social strategies combine communication and sharing with their savvy shopping attitude.
Capture what defines the target group and capitalize on it. For example, Kraft Foods has a widget that is a perfect fit for empowered women. Each afternoon, the widget offers an affordable dinner idea complete with a shopping list. Not only does it help them manage their family life more easily, but it appeals to their research behavior as well.
Associate your brand with a relevant topic that the target cares about. While many brands have tried to connect with something their target audience cares about, the key to success is to mean it and stick with it across channels. There is a risk if marketers do not back up their claims with good practices. For example, if marketers try to say that they are green in an ad campaign, but their product is not environmentally friendly, they will certainly earn the title of "greenwasher." Backing up marketing claims with good business practices is particularly important when targeting empowered women -- 27 percent have posted critical comments about brands or products online.
And finally, provide a platform for people to do what they love. Empowered women love sharing about their families. Cheerios created a Web site for people to do just that, with places to post photos, memories, and tips about family life and health. Such a sharing feature could also be integrated into social networking sites where this type of activity is already taking place.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Riley is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research serving Interactive Marketing professionals. She specializes in advertiser, consumer, and publisher trends and technologies, which includes social marketing, online brand and direct response marketing, targeting, measurement, and response.