• Home
• About
• Blog
• Archive
• Events
• Links
• Deals
• Contests
• Chat
• Contact

Shes Connected, Part 2- What I Learned

Computers and iPhones needed recharging after hours of tweeting and note taking, illustrated in this photo by Victoria Weiss, taken at intermission during the Shes Connected Conference

Put 100 of Canada’s most connected women face to face with major brands and marketing experts and what do you get? A lot of drained batteries!

This is one of those occasions where a picture does all the talking. The photo above was taken by my new friend, Victoria Weisss, of the Mom Who Runs blog at last week’s Shes Connected conference. I tweeted her last night to ask if I could use it, because it perfectly embodies all that Shes Connected is about (the black cord on the far right is mine!).

Shes Connected had our devices abuzz the entire 10 hours. The presentations and roundtable discussions were invaluable as we explored in-depth a long awaited phenomenon- the idea of gender-specific marketing, not just TO women but FOR women. Big brands are finally awakening to the many detailed and admittedly complicated needs of women consumers, and are eager to learn more about what we want. Not just in advertising, but in their stores and online as well.

Why the shift in thinking?

Here are some interesting factoids I learned during the conference:

• “Connected Moms” are the most active social networkers
• We are accustomed to having “stat-versations”, that is, connecting with each other via online status updates.
• Brands need to “outsource the questions”- and hire their demographic, “Milennial Moms”- interns and bloggers who should be paid to promote products, in order to really connect with women.
• A business’ corporate responsibility practices, such as a commitment to going green, are important to both men and women, but these practices are greater drivers of loyalty for women.
• The percentage of “Mobile Moms” (moms who stay connected on the go) rose 348% from 2006 to 2009 and brands need to stay “mobile optimized” to target them- making it easy for busy moms to connect with just one click on their smartphone.
• 36% (and counting) of Milennial Moms have smartphones.
• Uber busy connected moms want value-added branded apps for their phones, want lists, budget calculators and time trackers.
• 50% of Gen Y parents are gamers and play with their kids.
• 40% “iPhone Moms” download games for their children.
• The largest group of simultaneous multimedia users (using more than one electronic device at a time) are women 25-35 years old.
• A blogger (in this case, @Shasherslife ), can be locked out of her twitter feed if she goes over her hourly tweet limit (WTG, Shannon!)

(stats and facts were collected from the following sources: Cyberpop! Blog by Sydneyeve Matrix and The Gender Intelligent Retailer, by Joanne Thomas Yaccato and Sean McSweeney )

There may have only been 100 women invited to the ShesConnected Conference, but the message affects all of us.

Thank you, Shes Connected, for bringing these dynamic groups together. So much was learned and shared because of your efforts and the event was very well organized. To the sponsors- thank you for making it possible for us to attend for free! Thanks also to the participating brands for being genuinely intersted in our feedback and for the amazing gifts as well. As one of the attendees I can assure you all of these efforts were much apprecitaed.

-Sara

To learn more about my experience with Shes Connected, read Part 1 of this blog by clicking here

Comments? Click here to share you thoughts! We may post your comment below this article.