So how do women, specifically, interact with brands online?
Product review and discovery platform Influenster recently conducted a study to get the female perspective on the latest digital trends. Incorporating the views of more than 11,000 female internet users aged 18 and up, the Influenster survey uncovered some interesting findings, particularly in relation to how women shop and interact with brands online.
Among the findings, Influenster discovered that:
- 94% of women engage actively with brands online
- 31% of women interact with brands digitally on a daily basis
- 90% of women do so via their mobile phones vs. 53% on their laptops
In social-specific findings, Influenster's research indicated that Instagram was the favoured platform for women to engage with brand content, with 81% of respondents marking it as their preference. Facebook (79%), Pinterest (56%), YouTube (51%) and Twitter (43%) rounded out the top five.
The research also showed that women primarily follow brands on social to learn about discounts and promotions, while photos were the most popular post type, with 9% of respondents saying they prefer photos over video (58%) and text updates.
And in a particularly relevant note - in response to the question "What makes you share a brands social post?" 91% of respondents chose "I like the brands post and want to share it with my followers", with the second most popular option being "I like the brand/product/service and want to be associated with it 59%"
Both answers are aligned, which provides some further insight into the motivations behind content sharing behaviour - as has been indicated by various other studies, a large proportion of people share content in order to project a sense of who they are and what they care about. This is an important consideration in the content creation process.
Also, in regards to sponsored posts, Influenster's research showed that while the majority of women (67%) don't mind promoted posts, as they help teach them new things about the brand, 91% of respondents noted that they dislike promoted posts if they feel 'spammy'. If you're not targeting your content and ensuring your promoted material is aligned with your target audience's interests, you could be doing your business more harm than good.
The results of Influenster's study were incorporated into an infographic for AdWeek - you can see the full infographic on AdWeek or an abbreviated version below.