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From: e-Marketer

Psychographic breakdown indicates best targets for marketers

Content-sharing is a common currency for women online, and most use the internet to some extent for word-of-mouth. Some key influencer groups rely on online communication more than others, and some subgroups are power users of social networking sites who use them as a major communication tool to get the word out about brands—and anything else—they love.

AOL and Bovitz Research Group broke the online female population down into several identity segments based on their values, habits and characteristics.

The research found that the smallest groups overall were the most active online and contributed the most to online word-of-mouth. Social expressionistas, which make up just 8% of the online female population, were overwhelmingly the most likely to say that they use the internet as a way to express their views and that they interact online with people like themselves.

According to AOL, the social expressionista “defines herself as using the web to connect with others and to express her views, her art, and her projects.”

Other groups, like shopsessives (7%), businesswireds (15%) and alpha trendsetters (13%) liked spreading the word about brands more, but the research suggested they were somewhat less likely to do so on the web.

Social expressionistas’ love of spreading the word online translates to a love of social networking sites. Nearly nine in 10 social expressionistas said social networks were their favorite type of site, 13 percentage points above the next group, alpha trendsetters. Social networks are vital to them as the location where they interact with like-minded people and express their views.

 According to the report, the best way for marketers to encourage buzz among social expressionistas is to make them part of a dialogue and give them the opportunity to play with brand assets and use them to create their own content.

Alpha trendsetters participate online at less discussion-oriented sites, but still like to spread the word about products and ideas—and be the first one to know about them. Early access to new items and information is a powerful currency among this group.

For complete data charts and story, go to www.emarketer.com

November 11, 2009

Generation Y females have refined the idea of “peer group” to encompass online friends, bloggers and anonymous reviewers, according to the “Why Y Women?” report from PopSugar and Radar Research.

Looking to this expansive group of peers, rather than experts or celebrities, Gen Y women are particularly influenced by social media.

Women Move to Social Media

Younger women are nearly twice as likely as their Gen X counterparts to say they had discovered a new brand or product when a friend mentioned it in an online status update. They are also significantly more influenced by blogs, by both professionals and especially by “someone like me.”

Telling friends in person or on the phone is still by far the most common way for Gen Y women to spread the word about products or brands they love. But they post about products and brands on social networking sites or online forums nearly twice as much as older women. Gen X women, on the other hand, are more likely than younger females to share information via e-mail.

Further, with even two-thirds of Gen X women considering their younger counterparts trendsetters, according to the survey, the potential pop culture influence of social marketing is multiplied.

Mr Youth, which has studied “millennial moms”—mothers around the same age as PopSugar’s Gen Y women—has also found the peer group an important influencer.

“With moms it is even a stronger source, as moms have always found it important to ask other moms before making important decisions that affect their families and kids,” Brandon Evans, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Mr Youth, told Media Life magazine. “With social media, it became much easier for them to seek out advice on a variety of topics from a wider net of people, so it quickly gained in influence.”

Printed from emarketer newsletter with permission of emarketer.com.