Why Women Rule Social Media starring Miss Aniela

Written by  – 11.11.09

miss-aniela

'Her frame game' - by Miss Aniela

10 years ago I was writing my dissertation on Women and the Internet. It was a revelation then how women were using this relatively new medium (new as in ‘popular and accessible’) to communicate, connect and network. Previously technological gadgets, including computers were largely bought by men, toys for boys.  The Internet changed all that. Last night I attended a talk by Miss Aniela, who’s rapid rise to fame was due to her immersion in Social Media, firstly by using Flickr and more recently Facebook and Twitter. Those interested in building up their online presence using Social Media may be interested in our training courses.

You can learn more about marketing your business or organisation via Facebook on our Social Media Training course. We also run regular Google Analytics Training and SEO Training courses, along with a suite of creative courses including Photoshop Training InDesign training in Brighton, Sussex. We have also indroduced jQuery training.

Now 10 years after the internet changed the way women interacted with computers another wave of change is upon us.  Social Media networks have seen phenomenal growth in terms of numbers of users both for individuals and business. The biggest growth can be seen in the number of women using social networks on a regular basis. Women now outnumber men on the following networks:

  • Facebook: 57 percent women users.
  • Twitter: 57 percent women users.
  • Flickr: 55 percent women users.

see information is beautiful

Why do you tink that is?

Look at the statistics from the 2009 Women and Social Media Studyby BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners

Women who blog were asked what motivated them to blog these were the results:

  • 76%  for fun
  • 73%  Express myself
  • 59%  Connect with others like me
  • 54%  Personal record or diary
  • 37%  To give advice/educate
  • 33 % Positive reactions and feedback from my audience
  • 29%  Establish or contribute to a community
  • 25%  To reach large audience
  • 22%  To persuade others/advocate
  • 21%  Promote my skills or my business
  • 17%  Earn money

I think, although I have no data to back this up, that if you asked most businesses why they would consider using social media to promote their business you could practically reverse the above stats. It’s not that it’s a bad thing to want to be successful in business, to want to promote yourself, or to make money or sell – It’s just that in order to do do these things using Social Media you need to do the other stuff first – listen, give, communicate – otherwise it wont work.

Now look at what makes social media magnets (the influencers) so popular, what is it that makes users want to connect with them?

  • They listen
  • They communicate
  • They contribute

What mistakes do businesses make when using social media that discourage people from connecting, or persuade them to disconnect?

  • They focus on  selling
  • They don’t listen to their audience/clients

Miss Aniela

There are many other reasons for women making the most of these platforms, the playing field is now open. It costs nothing but time to create a presence on these networks. Take Miss Aniela, the screen name for Natalie Dybisz. Her use of  Flickr to upload, communicate, share, discuss and learn has catapulted  her to international stardom, to date she has had two international shows, an appearance at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit and is the focus of a documentary that is already in production. She has also used self publishing on line very successfully for her book Self Gazing. She has only been taking photographs seriously for 3 years!

miss-aniela2

'Their evening banter' - by Miss Aniela

She started with basic equipment, very little budget yet used her imagination and her energy to get noticed on Flickr for her quirky and unique self portraits. She spoke last night at Brighton and Hove Camera Club (yes all that and modest as well!) and confessed to practically living on flickr. If you look at all the mentions of her on the web they are littered with responses from her. She listens, she communicates, she networks. Having risen to stardom on the site, as a marketing tool she finds it very limiting and is now using Facebook much more extensively as it allows her to promote her exhibitions and books more effectively to the audience she has given so generously to for the past three years.

Now Facebook can  become a marketing tool for her because of her previous interest in connectivity and community, promotion would not be successful without the huge following she has gained from flickr. See Miss Aniela on Facebook.

She is a perfect example of why Social Media Networks work for women.

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This entry was posted by Heather Buckley on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Brighton, Sales & Marketing, SEO, Social Media. 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.

8 Responses to “Why Women Rule Social Media starring Miss Aniela”

Gail Helmer says:

Hi Heather,

Thank you for sharing the link to your post. I agree with what you say and it is a fresh perspective. I really liked the examples why women use social media and the inverse comparison with business…very interesting.

I`ve been on the internet for over 10 years and only just in the last 6 months have I decided not to hide my identity behind avatars and nicknames. With the communities I am involved with I have made the most amazing friendships, and business partnerships from people around the world.

I marvel at the incredible examples of women who are living out their dreams in whatever field they are in through successfully using social media. But, it isn`t overnight success. Like a friend of mine said, it is overnight success in 365 days. As instant as Facebook and Twitter is, relationships still take a long time to develop.

Once again, great post and thanks for sharing!

12. 11. 2009 at 9:32 pm

Confidence for Women says:

I think the reason why we women are successful in social media is that we are more social in nature. We don’t find it hard to express ourselves, and we also don’t have rules that prohibit us to express, either societal or otherwise. There are a few exceptions to this, especially in Middle Eastern countries. But it does not erase our innate capabilities to be intuitive, emphatic and more expressive. Online businesses have also developed to a point that is leaning to our advantage. Most online buyers are women as well, but aside from this fact, there are more clients who look for businesses they can easily trust and relate with, and this, I guess, is one of the charms we women have.

9. 12. 2009 at 12:42 pm

Ian Butterworth says:

Sure women are more social but I bet more men than women look at her photos on Flickr. It would be interesting to know the percentage of Flickr and other social media sites that are women. I think Flickr would have the lowest number.

20. 2. 2010 at 6:14 pm

Photography Competition – Win a Free Course « Silicon Beach Training Blog says:

[...] social media and the Internet to promote themself  – as we discussed in our blog post on why women rule social media. In her own words, she is “a shining example of an artist who has used the internet to make a [...]

16. 3. 2010 at 10:37 am

the truthster says:

the reason why women rule social media sites is because they are the first ones to take their clothes off for their artistic s.p’s ,,look at a site like redbubble and when a female artist joins ,,hey hey 2 weeks later she is uploading pictures of her breasts ?? social media in the arts is a myth ,,prime example this person you are talking about ? miss whatever ? doesnt even use her real name ?? WTF
no gallery or anyone working in the arts will ever take you seriously if you dont use your real name ,,sad sad sad ,,,but hhhhhhhhhhhhey i am famous on the INTERNET ,,,,

17. 3. 2010 at 12:58 pm

How Social Media is changing the job market « Silicon Beach Training Blog says:

[...] it is possible to create one’s celebrity using social media: as Heather noted in her post on why women rule social media, fine-art photographer Miss Aniela used social media to raise her profile and is now somewhat of a [...]

26. 3. 2010 at 12:18 pm

Blog Post Ideas – 10 Top Tips for Blog Inspiration « Silicon Beach Training Blog says:

[...] 10. Inspire others Tell a success story, everyone enjoys these. It can be one of your own successes. Did you write a post that went international overnight? Did you win an award? If you can’t think of anything you have done recently, write about someone else’s success story, maybe a local business, artist. You could tell the business or individual that you are writing about them and ask for a quote. See http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/why-women-rule-social-media/ [...]

6. 4. 2010 at 11:16 am

Alexi says:

yea true women rule in this every social network but in first world men always rule.
cause men work hard in first life and they develop all those virtual worlds from electronics chips to higher level software ,all women can do is sitting front of the computer table and play with other people
so that’s the fact women are getting lazy. now when u consider some men
they also have female accountants ,I used to 5 or probably more than that female accountants on various social networks though I am a male and my friends too everyone has that , though u can see female appearance actually behind most of them are men that they act more effectively.
I saw one thing mostly that,that most of females who in that social network 27<=x<=42 age
either they divorced or stay in home without doing a job or do some waitress or small night job or at least like that small jobs ,rarely you can see some educated women but I doubt how much they educated.
women are mostly in social networks to secondlife to have sex with other men or fulfill their fantasy
they spend what men earn and waste time and money for those shitty binary codes.

16. 10. 2010 at 6:55 am

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