How Women and Men Use the Internet Study

Some people love to curl up with a favorite book.  Others get excited about sitting down to watch the hottest new movie.   I get giddy at the thought of escaping the world with….Internet research studies.   “Geek” is a term I’m not unfamiliar with. 

So you can imagine my excitement after downloading and printing off the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project “How Women and Men Use the Internet.”    I’d read several articles about the report, but wanted to really dig into all the finer nuances.   I wanted to see if there were important points that were glossed over in the summaries of the research.  Indeed there were.   Here are some interesting findings:

• Young women are more likely to be online than young men, and black women have surged online in the last three years.  So - Want to reach younger women and minority women?   The Internet’s an increasingly good place to find them. 
• More parents are online.  People with children (parents) are online in larger numbers than people without children.  81% of men with children and 80% of women with children go online. So -Want to reach parents?  You better have a website. 
• 65% of men and 66% of women use the Internet at work.   So - Keep this in mind when you build your websites with flash and streaming video that launch automatically.  Imagine her horror when she lands on your website and before she can click out of your site or hit the volume button “Welcome to XYZ cosmetics where all your fantasies come true” or some other such sales message comes blaring from her computer, alerting every last one of her co-workers she is shopping online when she should be working.   

• Women are using search engines, but not as confident with the results they find.  90% of men and women who go online use search engines. Men and women generally use the same kinds of search strategies.  But men are a lot more confident in themselves as searchers.  Women seem more overwhelmed by the volume of information around them. So – whether you’re targeting keywords, doing a PPC campaign or designing landing pages – make sure they are relevant and consistent.  If your PPC ad is targeting “cloth vs. disposable baby diapers”, make sure it takes her to a landing page with a clear header and content that discusses cloth vs. disposable baby diapers.  (as opposed to just promoting your disposable baby diapers with no mention of her desire to compare them to cloth diapers)
• The proportion of internet users who have participated in online chats and discussion groups dropped from 28% in 2000 to as low as 17% in 2005, entirely because of women’s fall off in participation.  Women harbor more fears about online risks and dangers than men do – from privacy to criminal activity. So – do everything you can to assure her that her information will be kept private and secure right at the point of action where you ask her to give you that information.  Monitor your chat rooms and let her know what steps you take to keep her safe.
• More men have high speed internet access than women.   So – there are still quite a few women out there using dial up.  How quickly do your pages load for a 56K modem?  Have you carefully sized your images for quicker loading time?  Do your pages include a lot of flash and fancy graphics that take a long time to load?    Reduce your page sizes and always test your load times.
• More men search the web for fun, while women have a specific purpose.  While men may be browsing around – women are usually more task oriented. So – make it easy for her to find exactly what she’s looking for with clear navigation, intuitive categories and clear calls to action.  If she doesn’t find exactly what she’s looking for – she will more likely leave and search somewhere else rather than settle for “close enough”. 
• 82% of men and 75% of women research products and services.  Women are catching up to men quickly with an increase in this category of 3% for men vs. 12% for women. So - Are you answering all her questions about your product and service?  Are you going beyond spec sheets and clearly spelling out all the benefits to her?
• Women are online in increasing numbers seeking advice from family and friends.  So – tap the power of Word of Mouth advertising.  Find new ways to help her talk about and recommend you and your products and services. 
• Men and women value email in the workplace – 32% of men think it is most effective for asking questions while 39% of women value email as a way to ask questions.  So – once again – women are looking for a safe environment to ask questions.   Does your online presence answer her questions?  Do you even know what questions she is asking?
• Shopping online – men more than women value cost savings - 35% of men want to save money, while only 28% of women say saving money is why they shop online. So – while cost may not be at the top of her list, value is – find ways to show her the value of what you offer.   The lowest price isn’t always the best way to get her business.
• Women more than men appreciate shopping online to find unusual gifts.  No surprise since women are gift givers.   So – do you make it easy for her to send a gift?  Do you include clear gift options?   Do you offer gift wrapping and gift messaging?   

The overall conclusion of the report is “women are catching up to men in most measures of online life.  Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes.” 

Even if you don't get as excited as I do about reading Internet usage reports - this one's a good read. 

Comments

[Jeffrey Eisenberg]

I know I still have to read the report but thank to you I can now hold off until after my vacation. Great job!

[Yvonne DiVita]

Holly, this was a terrific consolidation. I hope readers pay especial attention (is especial a word?) to the power of Word of Mouth. That's so HUGE with women. This blog proves it - where do we go for all the best marketing to women data, why...right here!

[free movies]

WAW! that is just fascinating! I mean- who would ever think there are such differences. I am very happy to see though that there aren't that many differences in the technological abilities, but more in preferences and "safety" issues. The minority groups part is also very interesting! Thanks you very much, I think I will use some of this in my work!

[SEO Agencies]

It's really interesting to see the differences in internet usage between men and women and between different generations. I think that although the internet is so popular these days, it's usage will decrease over the next couple of decades. People will realize that there's more to life than a computer screen. But you never know, this is only my opinion. Thanks for posting these stats though!