Social media – the key for women online

Social media was the star at the IAB's Women Online Forum yesterday as the second session in the IAB's demographic series looked at a range of research and case studies and explored the most effective ways to engage with women online.

Thursday, 30 July 2009


The event was chaired by Nielsen's communications director, Alex Burmaster who began proceedings by pointing out that the number of women active online increased by 10 per cent over the past year, marginally increasing their share of the online audience. As a result, there are now 18.1 million females online, almost half the number of Britons online.

Burmaster went on to outline some more figures from Nielsen's research which showed that each month, the average female surfer visits 82 domains, viewing 2,400 web pages. Compared to last year women engage in 18 per cent more online sessions, visit 17 per cent more websites and view 39 per cent more web pages.

A much more focused approach

Perhaps the most eye-catching figure though was that women aged between 35 and 49 are the fastest growing group to social networks/blogging sites followed by women aged between 50 and 64. The net result of this is that there are now twice as many women over 50 engaged in social networking than girls under 18.

As a result, Burmaster concluded that "targeting women online involves a much more focused approach to display advertising online, getting your website right and using the power of social media to amplify this messaging."

Mind-blowing

Next up, Molly Flatt, word of mouth evangelist at 1000 Heads, outlined some key statistics from SheSpeaks.com which showed that social networking is women's third most popular activity online. "This is actually quite mind blowing if you consider how long it's been around," argued Flatt.

The key to unlocking the potential of social networking according to Flatt was giving users a sense of ownership. "This encourages independent, emotionally engaged user-generated content," argued Flatt.

An indispensible tool

Closing the session, Andrew Marrs, head of insight at IPC Weeklies and Louise Osilaja, insight manager at Central outlined some findings from IPC's award-winning Origin Panel.

Focusing particularly on research involving the role of mums, Marrs argued that mums are the hub of the home and are often the household's primary researcher and purchase decision maker.

Mums are also a fast growing online audience with 78 per cent online and 71 per cent having broadband at home. As a result, 74 per cent of mums log on everyday and a further 21 per cent log on most days. "The internet has become an indispensible tool for mums," argued Marrs.

The Women Online Forum was the second session in the IAB's demographic series, following last month’s Young People Online Forum. Look out for upcoming demographic sessions getting to grips with men online, affluent consumers and silver surfers.

The IAB's Women handbook published in association with Nielsen will be available to download from the IAB website next week.

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