Social Networking Failing to Influence Women’s Purchases

ADWEEK.com has an interesting article on social networking and it’s influence with women.  The article says, “75 percent of women reported that social networking sites have little bearing on their purchasing decisions.” That’s a fairly significant percentage for brands targeting women with social media.

I found this to be the most compelling piece in the article:

“Although women are socializing a lot more with each other, they are not interacting with brands more. The brands are falling behind in this game and they are not opening dialog with women in this arena,” said Wise. “We’re seeing a divide right now of where the women are leaping ahead of the brand and the brands are struggling to find how best to interact with them.”

Despite poor sentiments and engagement, the survey found that women are frequent users of social media. Over 75 percent reported more activity on social networking sites this year. Over half (54.1 percent) visited such venues at least once daily and 30.8 percent visited weekly. Less than one in 10 visited monthly (7.4 percent) or once every few months (7.7 percent).

Facebook dominated women’s social media use at 66.4 percent. MySpace followed at a far second at 16.3 percent. Twitter (3.1 percent) and LinkedIn (1.4 percent) were also mentioned.

It’s clear women are using social media sites but brands are failing to influence their purchases with them. It presents companies with not only a challenge but also the opportunity to be creative and engage women online with their brand. I can’t point to any company that’s done a good job of utilizing social media for women. Can you?