But they do, and I hear from them daily.

After many discussions, I have noticed several common mistakes marketers continue to make when attempting to reach the female audience which keeps them from realizing success with social media.

12 Mistakes Male Marketers Continue to Make When Marketing to Women With Social Media

• They are still trying to tell women what they want
• They are not listening to what women are saying
• If they do listen, they are still interpreting from the male perspective
• They are trying to sell before connecting
• They expect immediate results
• They have not defined valid expectations
• They try to find ways around the time required to build relationships
• They assume social media means “Facebook”
• They don’t know how to engage the female
• They open channels with little or no strategy
• They are working from a linear mindset as opposed to a multi-layered process
• Finally, and my favorite – they are looking forward to the recession ending so things can return to normal.

Bottom line, you are not going to stop the control that social media has provided people and you are not going to quieten the female voice. Quite the contrary. They are simply getting louder.

Not “getting it” is no longer an option. If social media is not working for you, try breaking through some of the barriers to reach your market on the other side.

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising,Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

I just watched the recently released documentary titled, Design the New Business. A big thanks, by the way, to BI watercooler for this great find!

Seven months in the making, Design the New Business,  is a collection of interviews with business and design strategists from around the world. In it, they deliberate the role that DESIGN will, or should play, as companies address today’s ever-changing and complex issues.

Want To Market To Women? This Video Is A Must See. 

Interestingly, what you won’t find in it, is the specific mention of women. But, what you will find are creative discussions and propositions that are dead on for effectively marketing to women through “creative design thinking.”

I often tout Apple™ as an example of a brand that has always done an excellent job marketing to women. Steve Jobs did not change the way we “do” things, he changed the way we “feel” about things. Through great design Apple™ appeals to our emotions.  And, I don’t believe it’s by accident that Apple™ is one of the top brands in the world, now worth more than Google and Microsoft combined, with products purchased by both women and men.

Jobs bought into the theory that uncompromised design yields value to business – long ago. For that matter, he may well have conceived it. At the very least, he has most prominently carried it out through every aspect of Apple’s business model from product development to advertising to the retail stores.

The New iPad

Throughout the entire recession, Apple™ has never succumbed to discounts, but instead continued to introduce beautifully designed products at premium prices.

So, while I don’t view design being considered in all areas of business as a “new” concept, I am more than encouraged to see international corporations discussing the implementation of “creative design thinking” into their business models.

This level of research, interpretation and emotion will get them that much closer to listening to and responding to the female audience, ultimately leading to increased revenues.

So, How Did We Get Here?

That is, why do we have to completely rethink linear business models that have been effectual in the past? I would suggest three primary causes for the multifaceted challenges that businesses face today.

1. Web 2.0 – advancements in the Internet that have allowed for two-way conversation, giving individuals an incredibly loud voice through social networking sites that continue to explode.
2. Female consumer – controlling or influencing 85% of all consumer brands, companies simply don’t know what to do with her and her new found voice.
3. Economy – a recession of historical proportions that has lasted longer than anyone could have estimated leaving many industries unstable at best.

And, How Can Design Help? 

I purposely listed the economy last as a contributing factor because although the recession has certainly been devastating for business, it is expected that the market will eventually rebound.

But the new technologies within the digital world, such as social media, that have transformed and even eliminated types of businesses, are here to stay. And the female who has attained power  as a purchaser and wealth manager simply continues to strengthen.

So, even as the economy recovers, companies are still faced with the power that social media has bestowed upon people and more specifically, women. These are complex challenges, requiring non-traditional solutions.

These are the kinds of problems you cannot mange your way out of, you can only design your way out of them ~ Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation, Liquid Agnecy

The design process is congruent with thinking like women. Such as, exploring all possibilities until discovering the perfect answer. Great design ignites an emotional state necessary to move shoppers to consumers. And if executed correctly, as we have seen with Apple,™ the men will bite too.

The Top 6 Reasons That Businesses Must Embrace The Design Process To Effectively Market To Women.

I encourage you to take 40 minutes to view the film in its entirety, but have extracted a few of the conversations as noted below.

1) PUSH MARKETING IS OVER

Brands can no longer just tell women what they want. Businesses must think creatively to gain the female’s trust through relationships and engagement.

I see a changing attitude towards companies in general. I have to say I look at where progressive movements are happening and there is, I’d almost say, there’s a bit of distrust when it comes to companies as organizations. It’s about credibility. It’s about being authentic. So, companies have a challenge to stay relevant in that mindset. You have to be very much aware of that type of mindset and come up with suggestions and solutions to provide value in that context. In traditional marketing speak, I think the day of push marketing is definitely over.

If you want to stay relevant, you have to be in the places where good conversations, where interactions between people is actually happening, where changes in interaction can be observed. It requires far more openness because the whole design trajectory is not as linear as it used to be. You can’t predict upfront what the end result is going to be. That is the new challenge.
Willem Boijens, Head of Research and Development, Océ

2) COMPANIES MUST LISTEN AND ADAPT

The female consumer is telling you what she wants. Businesses must think creatively to listen and interpret correctly to give it to her.

We have very close relationships with our clients and as a result we have grown to be quite adaptive. For example, we used to sell printers. Well, that’s not what they were asking for, so we started to sell prints, but that is not what they were asking for as well. So we started to give them the people who take care of their prints.

You can now go to the University of Amsterdam and see that we have a complete site of OcA, which takes care of the making and distribution of the readers that students are using. We got there by being adaptive.
Guido Stompff, Senior Product Designer, Océ

3) CONSUMERS HAVE SPECIFIC NEEDS AND LIFSTYLES

All women are not the same. Businesses must think creatively to no longer focus on her age, but instead her lifestage.

The car [Volkswagen] kind of became the symbol of a generation. But nowadays you see that more people are about having much more specific needs or lifestyles. You basically have many more different kinds of streams than you had previously. You have more and more people that are not alike anymore.”
Benjamin Schulz, Service Innovation, Volkswagen Group

We define design as something that has impact on business. We don’t look at market segments, but really try to find more patterns among several quite diverse people.”
Lukas Golyszny, Service Innovation, Volkswagen Group

4) WHAT GOT YOU THERE, WON’T GET YOU THERE

Traditional forms of reaching and connecting with women are not coming back. Business must think creatively to find and connect with her.

Big companies grow up usually with a business model that made them big. Now what is happening in a lot of industries is that those business models are expiring. The big mistake we’re making in large companies is we’re trying to use the same mindset that we applied to create our business, to create new business.”
Alexander Osterwalder, Co-Author, Business Model Generation

5) PEOPLE ARE IN CONTROL

Translation: Women are in control. Businesses must think creatively to develop relations and brand loyalty with her.

There’s been a big shift between the power to the brands to the power to the people. People today develop their own stories and publish them. The people are in control at the moment and that’s a big difference after the past few decades.

We are not in looking at a Return on Investment in a traditional way of value of money, but a Return of Investment in brand loyalty and in real connections with the audience.
Arno Wolterman, Managing Partner, Design Director, IN10

6) “SERVICE” DESIGN IS RAPIDLY BECOMING THE NEW “PRODUCT” DESIGN

Women have high expectations. Businesses must think creatively to better understand her needs and motivations to produce more user-friendly, competitive and relevant products.

The world is changing. Products and things have become all interconnected and people expect things to be interconnected. It’s not a standalone product anymore. Service design is an emerging competence that we all need to learn quicker and faster.

If you come to Philips Design five years from now, half of what we now call the product design effort is going to be reflected in at least half as much service design.
Ton Borshoom, Senior Director for New Business Development, Philips Design

The Design The New Business project was initiated and produced by Erik Roscam Abbing of the design thinking consultancy Zilver innovation and 6 students from all over the world, studying strategic design at the Delft University of Technology.

___________________________________________________________________________

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising,Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

And since women rule the Internet, marketers would be wise to take heed. Are you connecting with women online?

Infographic by the social media marketing team @ROI_Media

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising,Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

So who is the average social gamer? According to this recent Infographic created by Flowtown it is 43-year old females.

A few other facts:

• 54% of social gamers are women
• 43% are college graduates
• 43% make $50,000+ income

The study by Interpret, also revealed:

• 42% of game players say they are more motivated by social games that offer coupons, or gift cards, or other real-world rewards
• 24% of players claim they have clicked on an in-game ad to make a purchase.

With the top two reasons for playing social games being friendly competition and interaction, it should be no real surprise that women dominate. But it is the growing trend, the amount of time spent and willingness to click ads that make social games especially appealing to brands. SHE is not playing around.

Flowtown – Social Media Marketing Application

As social networks continue to grow on a daily basis, one thing remains constant:

Expectations for transparency and honesty are on the rise.

Marketers, please keep in mind:
Apologies and/or explanations are more forgiving than cover-ups.

Auburn University and Gus Malzahn, Auburn’s Offensive Coordinator are likely going to find this out – the hard way.  Kristi Malzahn, wife of Gus Malzahn, is the subject of a video that went viral a few days ago. Kristi Malzahn spoke at the Summit, a Christian conference, on Oct. 6. and was promoted to speak about “her passion for Christ, through authentic and intentional living in the wonderful world of coaching football.”

The interview, we can only assume, did NOT go as planned.

The Summit originally posted the video on their site, however, it was removed a few days ago with no explanation. This has led to speculation and even more intense ridicule. And since the Summit had no qualms about posting the video in the first place, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that there has been pressure from either the Malzahn family or the Auburn family to have it removed, as it represents both poorly.

So, what was so bad?
In her 30-minute interview, Kristi Malzahn covers the gamut from raising serious concerns with Auburn’s recruiting practices to saying that 18-22 year old kids are not the most intelligent people out there. She calls Auburn fans, “freaking nuts,” states that Gene Chizik, Auburn’s head football coach, did not want Cam Newton, refers to the National Championship as the State Championship and even begrudges Lou Holtz for his lisp.

CLEARLY, something is desperately wrong here. So, simply address it. Explain that she had a bad day, or she took the wrong medication or maybe she forgot to take her medication. Anything. The public is forgiving of mistakes – but not cover-ups or trying to sweep it under the rug. Which is exactly what someone is doing. There seems to have been an all-out effort to remove everything short of Kristi Malzahn’s vocal chords.

Within the past few days:

The Summit deleted the video from their site (above) and removed it from Vimeo:

Kristi’s Twitter account (which she touts in the video)  was deleted:

Kristi’s Facebook account was deleted:

The video on YouTube which generated more than 130,000 views in about 48 hours was deleted (which, for the record, simply looks as though they are trying to hide something):

But unfortunately, as we all know… once on the Internet, “ALWAYS” on the Internet.

That one video has now been replaced with (as of today) “seven” more which have generated an additional 80,000+ views:

Further, the top two results, when you do a Google search for “Gus Malzahn” (who has coached since 1992 and helped lead Auburn to a National Championship just last year) is about, you guessed it, Kristi Malzahn’s video. The top one being an article in Sports Illustrated on SI.com.

Marketers, please take heed.

The public relations world has changed forever. To simply “ignore” or “spin” a situation is not a viable option. 

And to attempt to keep things quiet, simply guarantees they will get louder and louder.

I believe this could possibly be the biggest faux pas or sell out in social media to date.  Below is @aplusk’s first “fake” tweet.

I say “fake” because we have no way of knowing if it is really him or not. He has officially handed the management of his Twitter account over to his media team at Katalyst Media to edit and monitor his tweets from now on.

So, why did this happen?

Ashton Kutcher simply made a mistake. He tweeted based on an assumption. He assumed that Joe Paterno, former Head Coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was fired “due to poor performance as an aging coach” and passionately tweeted:

“How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste”

I’m guessing most everyone in America is probably aware by now of the actual reason Paterno was removed. But for those who aren’t, it was the result of how he (Paterno) and the school handled sex abuse allegations against a former defensive assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

But one mistake does not call for an even bigger one. Which is what I think Kutcher is doing. Once he realized his mistake he admitted it and apologized, which I applaud. But for some reason he further decided to hand off the control of his tweets abandoning the very essence of social media. Below is an excerpt from his explanation as to why:

A collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted. I feel responsible to deliver informed opinions and not spread gossip or rumors through my twitter feed. While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more than a fun tool to communicate with people. While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk, I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content. My sincere apologies to anyone who I offended. It was a mistake that will not happen again.

Yet, this leaves me with even more questions:

“A collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted.”
What number of followers “is” acceptable to be taken for granted?

“I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more than a fun tool to communicate with people.”
If it is not a fun tool to communicate with people now, exactly what is it now?

“I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure.”
Seriously? You are going to be censored?

“It was a mistake that will not happen again.”
It was a mistake. How or why would you promise you will never make another mistake?

I began following @aplusk in 2008 when he had approximately 30,000 followers. I didn’t follow him just because he was a celebrity. He “got it.” He understood social media. He understood its’ implications. He had fun with it. He made friends and increased his fan base.

He was an early adopter who recognized that social media is based on honesty, transparency and authenticity. But he also understood its’ power – that it gives individuals a voice. A very loud voice as he beat CNN in a race to see who could reach 1,000,000 followers first.

He used his voice to feed his passion to help children of abuse…

He used his voice to express his opinions…

He even used his voice to reveal he likes cute little animals…

Today, he used his voice to sell out.

I hope that Ashton Kutcher changes his mind. I will miss the authenticity of his tweets. For instance, his most recent post would be gripping… if I knew for sure it was him.

Marketers, keep in mind. Without transparency, social media creates suspicion and doubt – not at all what you want to do when marketing to women.

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising, Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

I will be presenting on the power of the female consumer in a session titled: Why and How to Effectively Market to Women in Today’s Economic Climate. Are there any topics or questions you feel should be addressed? Also, I would love to know who’s planning to be there!

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising, Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

Apple on the other hand offered equal functionality yet with simplicity and clean sleek design. I admit I am biased as I have always been an Apple person, but as I have played around with Google Plus, I am feeling the same differentiating factors. Google+ is simple  and smoother in design. Good friend, Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa, recently shared a comment referring to the Aspen Ideas Festival:

Design is changing the way we talk to each other.

So true! And I believe Facebook is about to find that out. Facebook is functional and meets a need. But by incorporating thoughtful and logical design, Google+ takes the social experience to a different level.

So who wins? The consumer. I doubt Facebook is going away, but much like Microsoft, they are no longer the only ones playing and will have to step it up. Good competition means choices and ultimately better products for consumers. Google has been trying to get into the social space for quite awhile with little success. But with Google+, I think they have finally created not only something to compete with Facebook (and yes, Twitter,) but something that might even cause a switch.

For example, take a look at Chris Brogan’s (social media extraordinaire) new profile picture on Facebook. I was a bit amused, but I’m guessing Mark Zuckerberg did not feel the same.

What does all of this have to do with marketing to women? Everything. Women want to share, connect and build relationships. And Facebook has met that need. But they also want simple, clean and sleek. And it appears that Google+ has been listening.

As marketers, you need to know social is not a fad or a trend. It is now a way of life and will simply continue to be improved upon – attracting even more women!

Are you prepared to connect with the female market?

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising, Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email

There are two main stages that both must go through to be successful. Acceptance and understanding.

STEP I: ACCEPTANCE
Google had to first accept that “social” was going to ultimately dictate “search.” The best assessment I have read about this can be found in one of Jay Baer’s recent posts titled: Why Google Has the Hammer to Make Businesses Use Google Plus. It is a must read.

Google has always been about page rankings and algorithms. Hence, they devised their PageRank formula using the number, type, and reputation of other Pages that link to your own as a major ranking factor. This has worked quite well for years and boosted Google to be recognized as the dominant leader of all search engines. But as social moved in, Google resisted change and by the time they recognized social as a necessary component of search (some might say “the” component of search,) they were already way behind.

Meanwhile, both Twitter and Facebook have dramatically encroached Google’s “search” domain with a deeply rooted understanding of “social.”

Male marketers and CEOs continuing to resist the staggering power of the female consumer may too find themselves way behind as fresh, up and coming competitors recognize the vast opportunities that exist in targeting the female market. And with a majority of new businesses being started by women, it’s not difficult to see who might have the edge in this arena.

The reason? Stage two – understanding. Facebook and Twitter understand social and women understand women. Google and men are sometimes much too focused on numbers.

STEP II: UNDERSTANDING
Once male marketers and CEOs accept that women are the market, the real work begins. But some men are not willing to actually get to “know her” and sincerely “understand her” to build relationships and connect effectively. Likewise, although Google saw the writing on the wall with the undeniable impact of “social,” they continued to attempt to control people’s social paths to fit into their algorithms. They could not veer from the numbers long enough to allow users to be authentically social and their several failed social attempts reveal just that.

As Jay Baer put it in the article mentioned earlier, “Google has tried to invent a source of social signals to give it the scoring information it needs to stay on top of the relevancy heap in an ever-expanding Web. Orkut. Google Buzz. To some extent Google Wave. Picasa. None of them got even Twitter-level traction, much less Facebook.

But Google Plus just might be different. After being out only a week, a study conducted by The Next Web reveals that 66% of those who have tried Google+ are ready to abandon Facebook. Why? Because Google decided to listen to what people wanted out of social. Actually, they pretty much copied the good of both Twitter and Facebook, but the point is they now get it. It’s not just about the numbers.

Google finally accepted that “social” is the future of search. But just as important, they finally chose to abandon forced paths for the numbers and are offering a genuine “social” experience. Which ironically, has led to higher numbers – certainly in terms of consumer buy-in. You know they must be doing something right when Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook is the most popular person on Google+.

Questions for male marketers: Have you accepted the power and influence of the female consumer? And more importantly, are you willing to listen to and understand her? My advice would be to not wait. Few can afford the expensive cost of a comeback like Google.

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising, Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email