How To Use Social Media to Market to Women - Part `1

I have been to the mountain, and I have seen the future.  And it's pretty frigging amazing.

If you were at the Mom 2.0 Summit, you, too, saw the future of marketing to women, or I should say marketing with women.

Everyone is buzzing about the power of social media.  Advertisers are salivating at its potential.  But I've found few marketers who truly understand how to tap into the full power of social media to sell their products.

Until now.

How to use social media to market to women

In one corner, you have brands, products, services, companies who want women to buy their stuff.

In the other corner you have women having conversations on the Internet - Women writing blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, in discussion forums, doing research and shopping on the Internet.

What's missing is the emotional connection between the two. 

The biggest mistake brands make is thinking they can talk to women directly about their products.  Now, I know that sounds crazy, but I'm giving you some tough love here. 

Women don't care about your products.   

Women care about what's going on their lives.  Women care about things they have emotional connections with.

Let me give you a real life example.

At the conference, author Katherine Center was promoting her book Everyone is Beautiful.  On one hand, you had myself, a woman at the conference who Katherine wanted to buy her book.  On the other hand, you had her book.  But her book didn't have my attention. 

Being the brilliant marketer Katherine is, she had cupcakes that contained a sign with a quote from the book.   She displayed these on the tables at dinner.   Now, I took the cupcake and sign home to my room. 

Let me tell you, 11 o'clock that night...that cupcake - had my attention.   And I read the quote from the book, and laughed out loud.  So the next day, I went to the conference book store and picked up the book, leafed through it, and bought it. 

People - it's not about the product or the customer, it's about the emotional connection that connects to the two. 

It's about the cupcake.

So now you're craving a cupcake, and saying, Ok Holly, but what does this have to do with social media?

Every minute of every day, women are making emotional connections on the Internet.  They are learning, loving, sharing, connecting and living their lives - online.

If you want to sell your products to them, you need to focus on what women care about, what they're talking about, what they're doing.  Instead of trying to start a conversation, join in the online conversations they're already having. Join in activities they are already doing. 

Find ways to help them achieve their dreams.  Find the emotional connections.

Coming up in my next post - specific examples.

Comments

[Stephanie Holland]

Excellent post. I can't wait for Part 2.

[Holly Buchanan]

Here's a great example I just ran across - business cards for babies so they can set up play dates - perfect example. Moms don't necessarily care about printing but business cards for babies with important info? Making play dates easy to set up? personalizing something for their baby? Oh yeah.

http://tinyurl.com/cnjaee

[Katherine Center]

Hooray! Thank you so much for posting about my cupcakes (and my book, too)! I was so excited about my idea, and I'm so happy and honored that you liked it. Hope to see you again next year at Mom 2.0! (It was so fun--I am already impatient to go back...) So great to meet you!

[Robyn Popham]

Thank you for posting that. I missed the cupcake reference at mom 2.0. Everybody mentioned that you had to "find the cupcake." I kind of got what they were referring to but now I know. Thanks Holly. It was so great to meet you in person at the conference. Looking forward to the rest of your posts.

[Gerry]

Holly
Great post. Made me hungry for cupcakes, which I love. Pardon the pun, some great food for thought.

Looking forward to seeing other specific examples in your next post.
Gerry

[Callie]

Thanks for the advice. This is something I'll carry into my own start up. Very informative and absolutely correct.

[Kelley Connors]

Thanks Holly. Especially for healthcare choices and decisions, women want to know other women's narratives and even use stories as form of "second opinion". Recently, 23andme hired mommy bloggers to collect more DNA sampling to fuel women's interest in knowing more about their genes and what it might mean for their newborn. It's a glimpse into the future of healthcare.

[napoleonskid]

Many thanks for this really insightful post. I am an online marketer, struggling to pull a strategy for a product targeting women (mums in particular). The magic word is emotional connection! I m on fire now and this is going to be a great piece of work thanks to you. I will send it to you when it's done!
Thanks again!

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[Abdalla]

Assalaamualaikum,Lest one would say there is some contradiction in the both the Ahadith.I think that first Hadith rreefs to men and women in Jahannam only, while the second Hadith rreefs to men and women in Jannah only.So there can't be a contradiction.In both the cases since women are numerically or demograhically greater than men, I think no other reasoning is required.It would be better if you include with reference, His(s.a.a.w.s.) duty as Al-Nadheer towards men, as well when you say:This was his duty being Al-Nazeer (the Warner).Like Fattaqullaaha Finnisaa on Hiijatul Wadaa'.WE must also emphasize that Madinah was a female-dominated society, as evident from the event when Umar(r.a.a.) complained of the rebellious nature of His wife influenced by the women of Madinah.If it is proved that the Hadith is Madani then another strong point would be added to rebuttal.