Laura’s Blog

Image courtesy of Jade Gordon

Not only are women actively participating in social media, they’re using it to help them decide what products and services to buy, and from whom.

In 2010, expect women to play an ever-increasing role in social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).

Here are some interesting stats I gathered:

1.  Women are joining social networks in droves.

• Social networks have at least 50% female members.

• 86% of U.S. women have a profile on at least one social networking site (SheSpeaks Second Annual Social Media Study)

• 73% of women who have profiles log in to their social networking sites at least once a day (RetailerDaily)

2.  Women do the vast majority of the buying.

• Women make 75% of all buying decisions for the home (Mediamark Research & Intelligence survey).

• Women make 85% of all consumer purchases.

3.  Social media strongly influences women’s buying decisions.

• 63% of Web users use the Internet to research a product or service before buying.

• 53% of female social media users make purchases based on blog posts they read (SheSpeaks Second Annual Social Media Study).

• 50% of women with social networking profiles say they have purchased products because of information on social networking sites (SheSpeaks Second Annual Social Media Study).

• 40% of female social media users say they have used coupon codes found on social networks (SheSpeaks Second Annual Social Media Study).

4.  Women are Big Fans of Facebook

• Women ages 35-55 make up the fastest-growing population on Facebook.

• Facebook is the most popular social networking site among women, followed by MySpace and Twitter (Twitter was included in the SheSpeaks study for the first time this year).

• 80% of female Facebook users have become fans of products or brands on Facebook networks (SheSpeaks Second Annual Social Media Study).

SheSpeaks Social Media Survey

Sources:

“Female Consumers Increase Social Networking,” Marketing Vox, December 10, 2009

Freud, Aliza, SheSpeaks 2nd Annual Social Media Study (PDF), October 20, 2009

Gibbs, Nancy, “The State of the American Woman,” TIME, October 14, 2009

Goqui, Pallavi, “I am Woman, Hear Me Shop,” Business Week, February 14, 2005

Jonas, Tiffany, “5 Ways to Engage Women (And Moms) Online,” MediaPost, August 5, 2009

Lichtenberg, Ravit, “10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010,” ReadWriteWeb