{"id":2575,"date":"2011-02-19T21:16:49","date_gmt":"2011-02-19T21:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2011-02-19T21:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-02-19T21:16:49","slug":"don%e2%80%99t-forget-to-ask-women-for-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/don%e2%80%99t-forget-to-ask-women-for-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Forget to Ask Women for Direction(s)!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this new social media marketing world — where it’s less about demographics and more about relationships — one demographic still clearly matters:\u00a0 WOMEN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Women control 85% of household spending, and (according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch<\/em>)<\/p>\n

in 2011, women\u2019s earning power will recover from the recession far quicker than men\u2019s earning power will.<\/p>\n

These numbers are good news for marketers, but they need to come with a strong CAUTION statement:\u00a0 just because women are a strong purchasing demographic does not<\/em><\/strong> mean we can pay any<\/em><\/strong> less attention to the relationship work required to make and keep our brands highly relevant to women.<\/p>\n

In fact, we need to pay even more<\/em><\/strong> attention to the relationships. \u00a0If we marketers dare think of women as merely a demographic clump, they will<\/em> hear those undertones in our messaging and their response to our brand will be lukewarm at best.<\/p>\n

So how can marketers engage with women online in a way that honors their individuality, AND accesses the power of the full demographic?\u00a0 Through social media, we can now:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Provide a trusted <\/strong>online community<\/strong><\/a> space:<\/strong> relationships flourish when women can comfortably interact with you and each other.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ask for their opinions:<\/strong> this is not just a \u201cfeel-good\u201d exercise \u2013 we need<\/em> this information for brand survival.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Listen to and hear their answers:<\/strong> If you don\u2019t plan to listen, don\u2019t bother asking.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Confirm what you think you heard them say:<\/strong> We need to get it right.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make changes that reflect their preferences:<\/strong> Actions speak louder than words.<\/p>\n

When we pay close attention to the individual through these tactics, we build the trusted relationships that lead to positive word of mouth and the resulting positive strong brand awareness.<\/p>\n

Demographics give us great high-level brand roadmap, but it\u2019s the individuals who point out the street signs. Don\u2019t forget to stop and ask them for directions. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/a> Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 with Seth Godin, as CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, & recently as Chief Social Marketing Officer, Open Sky. Originally posted at SheSpeaks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this new social media marketing world — where it’s less about demographics and more about relationships — one demographic still clearly matters:\u00a0 WOMEN. Women control 85% of household spending, and (according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch) in 2011, women\u2019s earning power will recover from the recession far quicker than men\u2019s earning power will. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[32,1073,1027,241,958,30,1029,3,103],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-marketing","tag-marketing-to-women","tag-online-communities","tag-relationship-marketing","tag-shespeaks","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-marketing","tag-ted-rubin","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2715,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}