One of the great reasons for women focussed marketing in 2010—a target market who weilds 80% of both the decision making as well as buying power—is that women are online and using social networks. The nature of engagement is a good fit to how women connect naturally offline and have been engaging for centuries. Check out these stats on the female economy (stats from 2009 book, Why She Buys, by Bridget Brennan).

• Apparel – 65% of purchases are made by women
• Automotive - 52% of all new vehicle purchases, including trucks, made by women (80% of purchases influenced by women)
• Consumer Electronics -45% percent of purchases made by women (61% of purchases influenced by women)
• Health Care- 80% if family health care decisons are made by women
• Travel - 70% of the decisions are made by women
• Insurance, Investments,and Retirement Accounts - 90% of women participate in the decisions that affect their houshold’s retirement & investment accounts
• Homes – 20% of purchases are made by single women; 91% of all purchases are influenced by women
• Wine – 55% of all purchases are made by women
• Gaming – 40% of players are women

Some convincing reasons to start reaching out to women today, if you haven’t already. Being aware and dedicated to finding ways to target and engage women via social media is sure to be a winning return on your investment for years to come!

Best Nicole

Go New Orleans Saints!

Watch this video for what three visionary CEOs have to say about Social Networking:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco: “Social Networking is transforming companies. Is is the future of Business Productivity, Health Care, Education and Entertainment.”
• Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsico: “Global company with global brands and reputation can use it as a force for good.”
• Jeffrey Joerres, President and CEO, Manpower: “When it comes to Social Networking, it is a major trend towards what will be a very standard everyday stuff.”

This very clearly highlights the fact that Social Media and Social Networking are not a fad, but for real, are here to stay and will become mainstream in near future. Social Business is not just another way of doing business, it is THE way business will be conducted.

I strongly recommend that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, and lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools.

Social Networking has far reaching implications for the marketing department and I recommend that CMOs setup a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social Networking tools and applications. Sooner marketing department(s) adopt and start using Social Networking for engaging their customers better for their brand(s), else performance of their business will suffer.

On the blog Mediashift, Author Nick Mendosa did an interview with Doug Neil of Universal Pictures. One of the questions he asked was ”What do you think is Universal’s most successful digital marketing campaign to date — whether defined by online buzz, consumer participation, box office or other metrics?” “Fast & Furious” and “Bruno” were two of the most successful campaigns this year. “Fast & Furious” had over one million Facebook fans by the time the film opened. In addition, the content that was released — trailers, photos, clips, an iPhone game — had significant traffic. Similarly, “Bruno” built a tremendous community online — 700,000-plus fans on Facebook, 350,000-plus friends on MySpace, 60,000 followers on Twitter — which demonstrated the interest in the film and the character.”

In June 2009, E-marketer had a report titled “Digital Media Meets Entertainment”, which explores the three pillars of entertainment: music, movies and video game. Which “are all facing disruptive changes prompting them to explore opportunities in digital distribution, digital marketing and social media.” The report analyzes the the usage and economic trends that are fundamentally altering the ways consumers spend their leisure time—and money.

“With these dynamics in play, all three industries are adopting new business models centered on digital content and distribution—and social media is a key link in the chain.”

Cisco’s Media Solutions Group attended conferences around the US that focused on “Discussions About the Social Entertainment Experience.” In this article, which included the E-marketer stat that I provided above, “is an excellent chart that demonstrates how artist driven communities like allseanpaul.com develop over time—how the artist/fan relationship develops given the social media tools that allow a two-way dialogue between artist and fans. Again, it’s about content and how the technologies that facilitate artist to fan relationships enable further commerce, and fan engagement. The blog Hit Singularity offered a nice chart below that illustrates that point.”

Our experience (along with the knowledge I gained while writing this post), points to how necessary it is (particularly for those in the business of promoting) to manage all of these platforms and to track fan engagement. Which will also help to decipher how social media leads to ROI for whatever your goals may be. This could include listening to your community, promoting a movie, album or event, creating an audience for an advertiser and so much more. Add to that an understanding of your target market’s social computing behavior so that the channels you are using are the ones that will be utilized. A lot of food for thought….ultimately the social entertainment experience has clearly become a joint partner in capturing a consumers attention. Wonder what my 14 yr old early adopter will be messaging me next!

Best Nicole