Women Put Trust in Social Media

According to The 2009 Women in Social Media Study of the 79 Million women online, over half are taking part in social media on a weekly basis. This study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners also showed that 64% of women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information. 43% Use social media for advice and recommendations and 55% for opinion-sharing.

Social Media Activities include:

• Social networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
• Blogging
• Reading blogs
• Posting to blogs
• Message boards & forums
• Status Updating (e.g.Twitter)

Companies looking to tap into women for product advertising shouldn't question whether or not to enter social media. The real questions should involve "How to connect with my target audience?" and "What can I offer them via social media".

Twitter with Historic Year over Year Growth

According to Marketingcharts.com, Twitter, the online social media phenomenon, has had  1,382% year-over-year growth in February 2009. According to Nielsen online's research, the number of total unique visitors increasing from 475,000 in February 2008 to seven million last month.  Shockingly, adults ages 35-49 had the largest representation on Twitter, with nearly 3 million unique visitors from this age group. This comprises nearly 42% of the site’s audience in February.

Who's using Twitter?

Continually growing in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds, where it has morphed into a tool with which brands can reach customers and other stakeholder constituents.The ability to access Twitter through the PC-based web, the mobile web, and through text messages is also a factor in the site’s growth, Nielsen said.