Jody DeVere: Women are a ‘Social Network’

Jody DeVere

According to a recent study by Pew Research, women participate more on many social networks, including Facebook and Instagram, than men do.  In addition, women use social media differently than men do.

While men tend to use social media to build influence, women look to make connections and learn new things – making the female audience on social media a fertile field for marketing efforts.

Historically, women have been the primary drivers of social communication among friends, families, neighbors, and communities, so this shouldn’t be surprising.

With that in mind, communicating more effectively with women in social media isn’t too different from communicating more effectively with women in a face-to-face environment, at its core: give a woman something worth talking about, and she will share it with everybody.

In a face-to-face environment, this is a careful combination of listening skills (this is a biggie), not talking down to her, and keeping transparent.

On social media, listening skills aren’t too important, but the other two are still vital.

Women Deal in Social Currency

In your social media environment, you need to treat everything that you share as a form of social currency – you’re sharing valuable knowledge, and its value is both in content, and in delivery.

It is very common for women to discuss the products and services that they buy and recommend. As we know, women are usually the household’s “chief purchasing officer,” and so they pride themselves on being good sources of information on products, services, and providers for their family, friends, and co-workers.

With this is mind, make sure that your content is full of insights and tips to build your credibility – framed in a format that is friendly, engaging and shareable.

This means that while writing an essay about how to change the spark plugs in your engine may be informative and helpful, it may be more engaging to the female eye to produce a three-image carousel of “3 Things You Didn’t Know about Spark Plugs” with eye-catching visuals, short and sweet messages, and a clear call to action to contact you for more details.

Social Shares are Emotional

When you create content, remember that even if you’re not trying to post something compelling or tear-jerking, you always need to be considering the emotional reactions of your readers.

Making someone laugh can be as valuable as making them cry, and making them look at an object or idea in a new way is a great way to inspire an emotional “a-ha” moment.

In the social space, just like in real life, emotions drive our engagement, and the best way to inspire a reader to hit the “share” button is to elicit an emotional response (a pleasant one, preferably).

When you create content, ask yourself what emotions your content is trying to inspire.

Brands are built on emotional reactions, and emotions inspire action – which means that the decision to pick up the phone and call you is an emotional one, too.

Make Traffic-Stopping Visuals

When creating content, always be asking yourself if you can somehow make this visual.

By using images, carousels, or video content, you can make your social content much more compelling.

A good visual, especially video, will stop a scrolling thumb in its tracks.

Additionally, when you’re creating video content, remember that most videos are watching on mobile devices with the volume off, so consider using graphics or captions as well.

Jody DeVere, CEO of AskPatty.com, is an authority on marketing to women, as well as an automotive journalist, car-care expert and safety spokesperson for the industry. You can reach her at jdevere@askpatty.com.