The iPad: Apple's Latest Game Changer

Apple's announcement of the iPad, a half inch think, 9.7-inch touch screen tablet, has sparked a wave of controversy. It was featured in multiple Mashable and Tech Crunch posts, grazed the cover of the Economist, and Stephen Colbert presented with it at the Grammy's. It has been touted as an iPod steriods, a netbook killer, and an e-reader competitor. One thing is certain: The iPad is a game changer.

According to Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of NVIDIA, the iPad is "the first truly convergent electronic device." The iPad combines touch screen functionality and clear graphics with email, calendar, GPS, music, video, and e-book reader functionalities.The basic version utilitizes wifi, while the $829 version offers a 3G wireless connection and more memory. Apple is also revamping its iWork business tools (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software) for the device.

How will this device appeal to the mass market, and particularly to women? Ethan Nicholas, an iPhone game developer, recently wrote a guest post on Tech Crunch entitled "Why My Mom's Next Computer Will be an iPad." I agree with him, but not because, as he (condescendily) claims, "It doesn’t do as many things as a 'real' computer does, but the things it does do it does in a way even non-tech-savvy people can figure out, and there are far fewer ways to screw it up." Things that even his mother, whom he describes as "a lovely lady in her sixties who is… well, 'not computer savvy' " can do.

The advice will appeal to my mother (who, by the way, owns a Blackberry) because it does many things that a 'real' computer does in a more aesthetically-appealing and portable format. The iPad's size and the quality of its graphics make the iPad ideal for video watching and e-book reading. Publishers such as the New York Times have already come on board with iPad apps, and the Economist predicts that the larger size of the device will enable publishers to seek greater advertising revenues. With its touch screen, the iPad has the potential to be an engaging game-playing device for users of all ages. And the business applications should not be underestimated. It is much easier for groups working on a presentation to hover around a flat tablet than a clunky computer screen.

My personal favorites are the Notes and Calendar features. Both the Notes and the Calendar are more robust than on the iPhone, and the larger size of the iPad enabled Apple to closely mimic the look and feel of note pads and organizers. These features will not only appeal to those of us who have been using online calendars and notes, but also attract those who have not yet made the leap.

The iPad highlights Apple at its best- changing the rules, levering its strengths in unusual ways, and creating an innovative mix of hardware and software. Will that appeal to my mother? Sure. It appeals to me, too.

More UK Women Have Social Networking Profiles than Men

A recent eMarketer report revealed that women in the United Kingdom are more likely to have a social networking site profile than men. A study by the UK Office of Communications found that 42% of women had social networking profiles in 2009, compared to only 34% of men. The change is particularly drastic compared to 2007, when women and men were almost equal, at 22% and 21%, respectively. This is exciting news for the UK, where few women are online (79%) than men (84%). According to Karin von Adams, author of the eMarketer report, "Social networks are a primary channel for women online...According to data from Universal McCann, women's top activities on social networks in 2009 included managing their own profile." 

Indeed, content creation is the only online activity where women surpass men. The same UK Office of Communications study that, in a list of nine disparate activities, content creation was the only one where women (36%) were more likely to participate than men (28%).

Forrester Revises Social Technographics Ladder: Women Make Up 52% Across All Categories

Forrester recently released the latest version of their social technographics report, a ladder-shaped classification of online social behavior. The original report, released over two years ago, included six categories (ignoring inactives, those who did not participate in social media). At the bottom of the ladder, spectators observed social media (blogs, reviews, etc.) without participating, and at the top, critics wrote reviews and creators blogged and uploaded video. But a crucial category was missing: active participants of social networks. That category was newly dubbed "conversationalists" in the latest version of the Forrester report.

Conversationalists are 56% women- the highest female concentration amongst the social technographics groups.They have an average household income of over $80,000, and over 40% are college educated. Although conversationalists have the highest concentration of women of all the categories, women make up 55% of joiners, and most of the other categories hover around 50%.

80% of Women Fans of Brands on Social Networks

eMarketer recently reported on SheSpeak's Annual Social Media Survey about women's online behavior. Here are the highlights:

• 80% of female Internet users have become fans of a product or brands on a social networking site
• 72% of women have learned about or joined a group around new brands or products
• 50% bought a product because of a social network.
• 30% of female Internet users look at social network advertisements "sometimes", up from 13% last year
• 9% of women "always" look at ads and often click through, compared to only 2% in 2008

According to Aliza Freud, SheSpeak's founder and CEO, "Women have become more comfortable using social media, and for marketers, the overall growth and habitual use of social media represents opportunities to reach and engage women of all ages, and influence their purchasing decisions." 

Daily Worth Provides Financial Advice for Women

DailyWorth wants to change the way women view money. Their goal is to "deliver practical tips, empowering ideas and the occasional kick in the pants" via their daily email, community, and blog.



Founder Amanda Steinberg created DailyWorth because "No one is going to fix financial inequity for women. We have to recognize our own self-worth, ask for higher salaries, invest more aggressively, and build our own wealth." According to some facts on their site:

• In 2009 in the U.S., Women still make only $0.70 for every dollar earned by men. See the report.


• Nearly two-thirds of working women earn less than $30,000 per year.


• Women retire with on average 1/3 less in savings than men, yet live longer.

The site covers topics from Capital Gains Tax to responsible shopping. Additionally, DailyWorth provides positive affirmations, networking advice, and tips for negotiating wages.

Women Use Social Media to Network Professionally

The results of a research study (sponsored by the social network ShesConnected) were posted in a recent eMarketer bulletin. Participants were recruited through various social networks, who were encouraged to pass it along to their friends. The survey results provided much-needed data about the habits and preferences of female social networkers.

59% of respondents log onto social networks multiple times a day, and an additional 14% log on daily. Facebook was the most frequently used social network, with 83% of respondents reporting they use it. Surprisingly, LinkedIn (73%) was nearly twice as popular as MySpace (41%) and 55% use Twitter. Another notable result was that professional networking was the most compelling reason these women visited social networks, overtaking staying in touch with friends. (71% vs 62%, found it "very important", respectively.) Researching products and services (45% "very important" and 34% "somewhat important") and finding deals and discounts (25% "very important" and 39% "somewhat important") were also high on the list.

The report also gathered data on privacy issues and revenue generation preferences. 93% of respondents rated privacy settings as “very important,” and another 6% said they were “somewhat important.” When asked about using sites that sell data to advertisers, 41% were "not comfortable" and 36% claimed they would not use the site. Interestingly, however, charging a subscription fee proved to be a greater barrier to entry- a full 49% of respondents claimed they would not use the site.

More Women than Men Use Social Networks

A recent report from TNS and The Conference Board revealed that women are more social on and offline than their male counterparts. According to the survey, almost half (48%) of the female respondents visited social networking sites, compared with 37.6% of men. This is the second year in a row that approximately 10% more women than men reported visiting social networks. 43% of all respondents (US Internet users) visited social networking sites, up 16% from the year before.

Not only did the amount of users increase, but also the amount of time spent on social networks. The majority of respondents visited social networking sites at least once per day. Users were most likely to visit social networks in a family area at home, followed by in a private area at home, at work and by using mobile devices. The most popular social networking sites, as expected, were Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, respectively.

Women are Catching Up to Men in Online Video Viewing

According to a recently released Pew Internet report, the audience for video-sharing websites is growing, and women are an increasingly large part of the trend. The amount of online video viewers, who use sites like YouTube and Google Video, has nearly doubled since 2006. 62% of adult internet users have used these sites, up from 33% in December 2006.

The adoption of online video continues to grow across all demographic groups, and women, although behind, are rapidly catching up. The percentage of online women who visit video sharing sites has grown substantially over this past year, from 46% in 2008 to 59% in 2009. However, that compares with 57% of male internet users in 2008 and 65% in the latest survey. And online men are still more likely to have watched a video on a video sharing site on a typical day- 23% as opposed 15% of women.

Video sharing sites are becomming so common that they are far outpacing the adoption rates of many other internet activities. Watching video on sites like YouTube is more popular than using social networks, downloading podcasts, or status updating with Twitter or other microblogging websites.

Why Women Use Twitter (And With Whom They Interact)

Consumer Internet Barometer from TNS and The Conference Board recently surveyed adults in the US to answer the question: "Why tweet?"

According to their results, women use Twitter primarily for social purposes. 48.4% use the service to keep in touch with friends and 29.4% to update their status. Although men also listed keeping in touch with friends as their primary goal, they were more interested in using Twitter to find news 30.7% than updating their status.

Women are more likely to use Twitter to communicate with people they know. 73.6% of female respondents interact with friends and 36.4% with family (as opposed to 59.6% and 23.3% of men, respectively.) Men and women were reported as connecting with TV shows, co-workers, brands, and journalists almost equally. However, women were more likely to interact with celebrities while men were more likely to connect with bloggers.

Encouraging New Social Media Strategies

I read two interesting articles this week, one from Jason Falls' blog and the other from Harvard Business' Conversation Starter, both focusing on the need for more critical thinking and out of the box designing for social media strategies. Now that social media has moved out of the woodwork, companies (and marketers) are becoming increasingly more formulaic in the creation and implementation of social media campaigns. And although Facebook, Twitter, and blogs should be part of any good social media, they shouldn't be the whole strategy.

As David Armano points out in Conversation Starter: "The current state of "social media" for many businesses looks more like an episode of MacGyver than Apple's design process. Duct tape and bubble gum hold together fragile tactics such as Twitter accounts run by the summer college intern (nothing against college interns) or agency-generated Facebook fan pages that have few actual fans. This is not how any design process begins. It's not a purposeful or intentional act of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. It's a reactive fragmented approach that may achieve short-term results for marketing but usually ends up living in isolation (a social media department)."

Jason Falls created a list of suggestions to round out a social media campaign. The highlights, paraphrased, are:

* Make a point of developing ideas that don't involve Facebook, Twitter or blogs.
* Devleop five tactics to reach consumers on forums and message boards.
*Take 10 pictures (without captions) that visualize what you’re trying to communicate, and upload them to Flickr. Look at them every day.
* Write a news report about the success of your campaign, starting with the headline that you achieved your goal and write the success story in reverse chronological order, imagining the blueprint for your success.
*Ask yourself, “What would make the boring, old clerk at the corner store tell me about this?” Find a way to weave that in to your strategy.

These suggestions apply to any type of social media campaign, but they are particular useful when creating campaigns targeting women. Women are indundated with unoriginal, formulaic, and disingenuous social media tactics from marketers and advertisers. If we are to reach women through social media, we must think outside the box to create clever campaigns that both appeal to them and engage them. If not, we run the risk of being just another advertiser pushing a product to deaf ears.

It's a Woman's Web

Thank you for checking out Webutantes, a blog chronicling Web 2.0/3.0 updates and new media targeting women. I’m starting this blog because, although there are many successful blogs covering social media and start-ups, I have not seen any major blogs covering the women’s consumer Internet angle, which is both my passion and area of expertise.

Why women? According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 74% of adult women in the United States use the Internet, and 71 million European women are online (Forrester Research). EMarketer reports that more women than men are currently online, and projects that the trend will continue through 2011. In addition to their overall online presence, women are more likely than men to use email, receive photos online, play games alone, and enter sweepstakes (Forrester Research).

Teen girls outperform boys in the social media realm: There are nearly twice as many teen girl bloggers as boy bloggers and they are far more likely than boys to post photos online. 70% of teen girls ages 15-17 are members of online social networks, outperforming boys of the same age (Pew Internet). In the realm of purchasing power, women account for 85% of consumer purchases and represent the majority of the online shopping market (She-conomy).

One of the things that make blogs such a unique and innovative medium is the community aspect. As such, I look forward to hearing your comments and welcome your suggestions for how to improve the blog, topics you’d like to see me cover, and anything else you’d like to let me know. Please feel free to contact me at gafninoa at gmail dot com.

Come back soon to check out news, interviews, and tips for targeting the female demographic… because it’s a woman’s web after all.