The Online Women’s Network and its Power
Harness the Efforts of a Gigantic Women’s Network
One thing we should realize if we reflect on this women’s network and all the other online women’s groups, networks, writers, and bloggers out there is that women are a force to be reckoned with, an important group to court, an essential power on the internet – everywhere else too. We need look no further than the flurry of advertising dollars spent to get a space on the popular dooce.com blog to recognize that neglecting the female presence on the internet is akin to suicide.
A few simple facts can really put this power in perspective. First, women are the most powerful consumer group on the internet. Yes, “women” may be a little amorphous for demographic target marketing purposes, but as far as identifying a trend the women’s networks help to perpetuate, this cannot be overlooked. Women tend to have a disproportionate sway on how family incomes are spent, and tend to spend more in general. This affects the way advertising dollars are spent, how effective websites are designed, and which skills and resources wise companies with a web presence will value.
Female bloggers and their followers make up a gigantic niche of active and loyal internet users, all of whom construct their participation in these activities at least partly in terms of being a woman. Targeting blogs on women specific issues will get the attention of a very large audience, whether the purpose is marketing, raising awareness of a problem, or rallying support for a cause. This activity has also resulted in a growing pool of women and moms with a keen sense of how information and attention spread on the web, making them skilled, shrewd media consumers, and has changed the paradigm for effective marketing to emphasize a more conversational approach. Tapping into these realities can generate significant clout for any campaign.
So while accessing a women’s network isn’t the only route you should take to find connections and answers on the web, there is a reason why women-specific networks are pragmatically relevant: they hold so much of the power.
