Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: Women and Word of Mouth Advocacy - Ed Keller

The gender gap is a perennial staple of political reporting with women generally supporting the democratic candidate and men generally supporting the republicanNow it39s becoming a trending topic in social media circles as well with recently reported statistics showing that women are far more active on social media sites quotracking up an astonishing 99 million more visits per month than their male counterpartsquot according to one widely disseminated infographicGiven that the overwhelming majority of word of mouth takes place offline it39s important to look beyond these social media statistics to understand what39s happening in terms of the larger realm of real world conversations According to my firm39s research which measures both offline as well as online conversations this gender gap runs deeper than time spent online Women value word of mouth more than men and as a result of they engage in more of it And furthermore women are more persuasive than men when it comes to their word of mouth recommendations This has huge implications for how marketing strategies need to be set in today39s social ageHere are some of the factsWomen engage in more WOM When it comes to brand conversations women have about 10 more conversations each week than men Out of 15 categories we track regularly there are only three where men talk more each week than women automotive technology and sportsWomen are also more strongly impacted by word of mouth For example they are more apt to perceive advice from other consumers to be more credible than men do and they are more likely to purchase based on word of mouth than men although the results are strong for both gendersWomen39s WOM is more influential What39s perhaps most noteworthy of all is that men and women alike agree that women give better advice than men do For example when men receive consumer advice from a woman 58 of the time they give that advice extremely high marks for credibility In contrast men give other men those high marks 50 of the timeThe influence of women in word of mouth is seen clearly the in the highly regarded quotThe Man Your Man Could Smell Likequot campaign from Old Spice That campaign is often remembered for being a viral sensation Indeed it was ranked as the most viral brand of the year in both 2010 and 2011 However the seeds of success were sown well before the campaign was shot and put online The team at Gillette realized that in order to improve sales of this men39s grooming product they had not reach not only men but also women Wives girlfriends and mothers they realized are important decision makers and influencers for male soap and body wash purchases and they often do the buying themselves making more than half the purchases in the category My firm39s research further shows that when it comes to word of mouth about grooming products men turn disproportionally to women not other men for advice and they are far more likely to believe and act upon the advice of womenThe implication of these findings is profound for your marketing and sales efforts Whether the target for your product is a men or a women you need to be mindful of the power that social influence wielded by women It39s no longer enough to target men for men39s products and women for women39s products Across all categories the genders discuss what39s worth buying and seek out advice And men and women agree the best advice most of the time comes from women So regardless of how you are marketing amp8211 whether by advertising instore displays via your website hosting events or using social media amp8211 remember that your messages need to resonate with womenAs the highly regarded social media strategist Ekaterina Walter has declared the watchword of today39s socially driven marketplace is quotmatriarchyquot both offline as well as onlineEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot His new book The FacetoFace Book Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace was recently published by Free PressSimon ampamp Schuster You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter Facebook and Google or contact him directly at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at WOM MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: Women and Word of Mouth Advocacy - Ed Keller

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Edward Keller

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: Women and Word of Mouth Advocacy - Ed Keller

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