Women On The Web
By Jennifer Stewart
Posted Sunday, August 29, 2004
For some reason, when we think 'Business and Internet', we think "man" - it just seems to be a 'guy-thing,' but recent findings highlight the misconceptions in this. Did you know that in the US, women-owned businesses now employ 18.5 million workers? That's more than the Fortune 500 companies combined.
This isn't a trend that's confined to just one country - four out of five Japanese small business owners are women and it's estimated that by the year 2005, 40 percent of all firms will be female-owned.
Since 1987, women have increased their ownership role in business by nearly 80 percent and now own 8 million (or approximately one third) of all US businesses. In fact, a new business is opened by a woman every sixty seconds!
The figures are similar when it comes to Internet usage: findings from The Face of the Web study (by the Angus Reid Group) show that 150 million people will use the Internet for the first time this year, joining well over 300 million current on-line users around the world. And of these current users, 59 percent are male and 41 percent female. However, the report indicates that 54 percent of the people who intend to go online this year will be female and 46 percent male. In the U.S., Canada, Australia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the percentage of women intending to start using the Internet this year jumps to 60 percent.
The Strategis Group's latest survey of Internet usage shows that in the US, 106 million adults, or 53 percent of the adult population, use the Internet (either at home or at work or both), and women now make up almost 50 percent of the online population, accounting for some 52 million users.
This continues a trend that was noticed back in 1997 when a study showed that women business owners increased their computer investments by 60 percent to $170.3 billion in the previous year, and told researchers that they were planning to invest an additional $67.2 billion in computer hardware and software in the current year.
Three years ago, about 23 percent of women business owners had a home page, compared with 16 percent of men business owners, and 47 percent of women business owners subscribed to an online service compared with just 41 percent of the men.
Research shows that women in business do $2.3 trillion in annual sales - so what's to be learnt from these statistics?
In order to market to these netrepreneurs on a business-to- business and business-to-customer basis, you must understand the difference between the way women like to do business and the way men do it! This can best be illustrated by the following story by Faith Popcorn (www.brainreserve.com).
"Imagine that you're out to dinner and the waiter comes up and introduces himself. 'I'm not really a waiter,' he says, 'I'm really an opera singer.' What will the man at the table do? Act impatient and get right down to the business of ordering. What will the woman do? Ask him about opera and get into a discussion of what kind of opera he sings, what performances he's been in, and what his plans for the future are. Relationships! She wants to know everything about him so that she can make a decision. That's what women do."
The Strategis Group report agrees with this, "Of all communications media we have access to, the web is uniquely positioned to foster relationships. After all, the basis of the web is relationships - the linkages between sites and data that allow users to jump from one related topic to another with the click of a mouse. No other medium allows this... least of all, the one-way broadcast media that we're used to. The web not only allows linkages between content but also between people... a key part of building relationships."
How can you build relationships with this rapidly expanding group of Internet users?
Keep the language on your site informal - that doesn't mean using slang, but it does mean choosing words that reflect a friendly, easy style. Chat to your visitors, don't preach at them or talk down to them. Browse these articles to help you write user-friendly content.
Make your site easy to understand - let visitors know exactly what you're offering and how to find it.
Be visible - put up your real name and plenty of contact options.
Always respond to people when they take the trouble to contact you - even if it's just a quick "thanks for your kind words."
Put up a page with all the nice things people have said about your site and your services - this helps build your credibility and makes it easier for people to form relationships with you.
Send out a newsletter and let your personality show through - don't try to be too serious or self-important. Give quality advice and tips but also tell short stories about your family or your pets; crack some of your corny jokes - be a real person.
Invite your readers to contribute to your newsletter and publish their contributions and feedback.
Provide opportunities for visitors and subscribers to join you in setting up networks of small businesses.
There are also numerous free programs which allow you to set up chat rooms, bulletin boards, guestbooks and so on. A search for "chat room+free" etc on any of the major search engines will take you to these.
Good business has always been about building relationships with others - the Internet gives us more scope to do this!
About the Author
Jennifer Stewart has had her own web-based writing business (http://www.write101.com/) since 1998. She offers Home Study tutorials and professional writing services and has written extensively for clients around the world. Her articles have appeared in ezines throughout the web and in off-line business magazines. Subscribe to free, weekly writing tips: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@onelist.com
