“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.”

Now replace “television set” with “internet” and “The Outer Limits” with “women” and you’ve just described the social media landscape. Women are taking over the web. At least the social media side of things and, if what I learned today bares any truth, it was theirs for the taking in the first place. Gentlemen reading this fear not, it all balances out (sort-of.)

I tuned into a webinar this morning hosted by the fine people at Care2 called “The She Spot.” The guest speakers were Lisa Witter, co-author of The She Spot, Morra Aarons-Mele, founder of Women Online, and Michelle Coyle, Director of Nonprofit Services at Care2. The conversation opened up with the less-than-surprising statistic that 83% of all consumer decisions (in North America) are made by women. And, as Witter pointed out, it’s the reason why Jiffy Lube decided to build waiting rooms and Pepsi has launched a new campaign. Women buy. But before they buy, they have to first buy-in.

The 4 C’s

What stood out  during the webinar was the statement “life is a community.” For women, everything on the web leads back to these words. It’s why Witter pointed out the four C’s that all web marketers should take to heart: care, control, cultivate, and connect. Care is why it’s so important to put a face to an organization. It speaks to our (men and women’s) sense of community. It’s personal. Control speaks to the control women try to exercise over their lives and the many tasks they have to perform at once: family, career, personal growth, love, relationships. Culture is why it’s harder to engage women online (I’ll get to this in a minute.) It goes beyond a one-time donation or purchase – women are more likely to ask themselves “Can I do more?” And finally, there’s connect, which speaks to the unconscious urge women have to share with each other – think gossip. Connecting power rests in collective creativity.

Men Decide Faster and Women Invest More

A term I hadn’t heard before today was “the longer list principal.” According to the principal, every person has an internal check-list of requirements when it comes to making a decision. Compared to men, a women’s checklist is twice as long. This would help explain statistics that show men are quicker to make a decision. A shorter list also means a more fleeting connection. If a woman can check off enough requirements, she’s likely to remain a more loyal contributor in the long run because, technically, she’s investing more into the decision-making process.

Content = Godliness = Men

Men are still the creators. What I mean by this is they’re still creating most of the content women are tweeting, posting, and sharing with each other. Youtube videos, websites, and online news are coming down from men and circulating among women. Case and point – the Daily Gumboot is the brainchild of two men (er – men who, from time to time, think they’re ninjas and pirates, no?) Morra Aarons-Mele thinks this may balance out as Generation Y continues to take the reigns. Time will tell. Software development and anything highly technical still belongs to the male realm and I don’t think that’s likely to change. For women to balance out video content, the software would have to become simpler. Ladies, don’t take that statement the wrong way. It comes down to priorities – do women want to spend more time assembling the content or sharing it?

This is just the tip of the ice berg. It’s a conversation that will continue to evolve as new ways of information sharing and community building emerge – a conversation I plan to continue as a contributor to the Gumboot.

Happy Connecting! And thank you Care2!