Hence, a recent study explains that women, which are in most of the market one of the strong decision maker in one household, don't consider social media to be an important part of their decision making process.
Although marketers have paved major inroads to reach online audiences, their efforts seem to have gained little traction with female consumers, according to new research. A study by ad:tech Chicago and Q Interactive that analyzes how women engage online with brands finds that 75 percent of women reported that social networking sites have little bearing on their purchasing decisions.
Sites have "somewhat" of an influence over 21.9 percent and greatly influence only 3.3 percent of users. The data, which represents online survey answers collected from over 1,000 women from Aug 11 to 14, 2009, was presented yesterday at ad:tech Chicago by Matt Wise, president of Q Interactive, and Jonathan Ashton, managing partner for Agency.com, Chicago.
When asked what the most important factor in making a purchasing decision as a mother, price (47 percent) and quality (45.7 percent) topped the list.
Brand ranked fourth highest at 2 percent behind "other" responses (3.5 percent).
The underlying problem seems to be a lack of positive engagement. Although 52 percent of female users have "friended" a brand, feelings of neutrality (64 percent) and negativity (19 percent) were the most common reactions when women encountered brands online. Only 17 percent said the experience was positive.
Only 10 percent of women said that participating in brand-related activities, such as finding information (8.7 percent) and writing reviews (1 percent), was their most common social media activity. Sending private messages to peers (34.6 percent), sharing photos (13.4 percent), and chatting (12.8 percent) ranked as women¹s top-three social media activities.
Of course, those results might appear deceiving but they are just the result that social media marketing is still raising. The hype has gone, and we enter an era where the mass market is mastering the tools, and appropriating them in the every day life.
Also marketers should understand that socia media are not going to replace the consumption of other kind of media, and hence, people are not going to facebook as much as they are currently watching TV. There will be a normalization process which will occur soon, as TV consumption will steadily decrease.
These figures must be taking in account though, to match women's needs in their decision making process.
What do you think about it?
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