Interestingly enough, women are surpassing men on the Internet these days, according to eMarketer. And teen girls are leading the pack. It is suggested that females will outnumber males on the Internet by more than 8 million in 2012.  This year, females will make up 51.8% of all online users.

In all honesty, I expected to read the opposite finding, knowing that a lot of Internet content appeals to a male audience (online gaming, videos inappropriate for workplace viewing, etc.).  And yes, according to the census bureau there are a little over 5 million more females than males. But it is the female user that is using the Internet for self-expression: 35% of teen girls write blogs as opposed to only 20% of teen boys. Additionally, 55% of teen content is created by girls. This is something that all marketers should notice. It reminds me of eons ago when car manufacturers figured out that more females were making car decision purchases than males. Suddenly, the way cars were marketed drastically changed. I also see guidelines in the future geared toward what is appropriate to show on kids’ sites, as Internet usage is now measured for users aged 3 and up.

Up until now, I hadn’t seen the Internet as more geared toward a female audience. Given the current trending, I’m curious to see how everything evolves in the upcoming years.

What does this mean for those who are needing to get their clients more visibility on the Internet?

• First and foremost, shy away from gender-specific messaging. Why rule out half your audience unless your product is geared toward one or the other?
• Second, be as succinct as possible in your messaging. You know your audience is comparing you with your competitors, so there’s no reason to give anyone else an edge.
• Third, be able to deliver what you promise. You don’t want an angry female teen blogging about how they’ll never purchase your product or service again.
• Lastly, don’t forget that your audience is becoming more and more Internet savvy — make sure that you speak to them in a way that is useful and informative, and gives them what they want as quickly as possible.

Tags: , census bureau, demographic, emarketer, gender, internet population, teen, women

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Account Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.