Female Consumers Increase Social Networking
A majority of U.S. women use social networking sites, and half of them say social networking sites influence their shopping habits. These are some of the key findings from a new study [pdf] on online social networking among women performed by social media platform SheSpeaks.
According to the SheSpeaks Second Annual Media Study, 86% of U.S. women now have a profile on at least one social networking site, a 48% increase from 58% who had a profile in 2008. Since 2008, the percentage of women reporting they log into their social networking sites at least once a day grew 36%, from 53% to 73%.
Of particular interest to retailers, 50% of female social media users say they have purchased products because of information on social networking sites, and 40% report they have used coupon codes found on social networks.
Facebook is the most popular social networking site among women, with 95% of respondents who have a social networking profile using Facebook, a 46% increase from 65% last year. MySpace dropped 33% in popularity, with 42% of female social networking participants having a MySpace account, compared to 63% in 2008. Twitter, which was included in the study for the first time this year, has a 38% participation rate.
Social Networking Trends May Be Improving
The Second Annual Media Study paints a more optimistic picture of social networking’s growth in popularity among U.S. adults than other studies released earlier this year. According to the most recent Consumer Internet Barometer report from The Conference Board, released in June 2009, growth is occurring but not as rapidly as indicated by the Second Annual Media Study. The Consumer Internet Barometer indicates 43% of Internet users participate in social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This is a 16-percentage point jump from the 27% of users participating in social networking sites a year ago. Online social networking participation has especially grown among users ages 55 and up. Last year, only 6% of Internet users in this age group participated in online social networking, compared to 19% this year. This study does show participation as higher among female users than male users, with a 48% to 38% differential.
In addition, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey, slightly less than half of American adults participate in one of the three major social networking sites, and only 16% update their social networking pages daily.
Survey results also indicate that respondents are not convinced social networking sites will grow to become as ubiquitous as some experts predict. Only 9% of overall respondents indicated they believe social networking sites will become a serious threat to major search engines Yahoo and Google, while 62% of respondents 18-34 believe this will happen.
Female-oriented Retailer Conducts Facebook E-commerce
Specialty gift retailer 1-800-Flowers.com, which operates in a vertical typically associated with female shoppers, is plunging into performing actual e-commerce on a third-party social networking site. 1-800-Flowers.com now allows registered fans of its Facebook page [reg. req’d.] to order floral arrangements designed for numerous specific occasions.
The Second Annual Media Study is based on responses 1,500 adult women who are members of the SheSpeaks social networking community gave to an annual survey.