Move over, LL Cool J, because right now Ladies Love Social Media. Numerous articles have come out citing a survey and analysis of social network demographics conducted by Brian Solis of FutureWorks. It appears that for the vast majority of sites, women are the dominant demographic:

Image courtesy of BrianSolis.com and InformationisBeautiful.net. For a larger image, click here.

What attracts females to social networks? Salon.com weighs in:

“The knee-jerk explanation for Solis’ findings looks something like this: Ladies like to chat, share intimate details of their lives and keep in touch with friends they haven’t seen in person since grade school. Menfolk don’t have time for such social frivolity. (Or hey, maybe they’re just too busy trolling the Web for porn.)”

It makes sense. After all, females often seem to be the more social of the two genders, so I find it unsurprising to hear that they’re taking to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. like moths to a flame. Social networks might end up being a bit of an Internet equalizer. For so long it seemed as if the Internet was a boys’ club treehouse with a “No Girls Allowed” sign hand-scrawled on the front door. Now, however, social networks and social media are being adopted more and more by females and are playing to their strengths.  Suddenly the intertubes seems less like a sausagefest…

As more females become familiar with social networking and incorporate it into their daily lifestyles, what does this mean for marketers? Well, if you’re a business who caters to females or depend on women as your primary customers, the answer seems simple, really: you need to get social, and you need to do it now. The Wall Street Journal cites a study conducted by Rapleaf that states “married women between the ages 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment of social-networking users.” That’s a pretty powerful purchasing demographic. You need to flock to where your customers are, and right now your customers are gettin’ social, baby.

Is it enough to register a bunch of social profiles and watch the sales roll in? Obviously not; clearly, the most appealing part of social networking for females is the “social” part. It’s not enough to create a profile, add a bunch of friends and say nothing. You need to be an active participant and engage with your audience. Nobody wants to hear your monologue, they want to converse with you.

Let’s say your business is Cupcake Couture, and you specialize in fresh cupcakes as well as bakeware and cute cupcake and sweets-themed accessories (e.g., aprons, oven mitts, dish towels, pieces of jewelry and clothing).

Mmm, cupcakes…

If you created a profile on Twitter, you’d probably want to track mentions of both your brand as well as instances where people tweet about cupcakes, baking and other related keywords.

Following these folks is just the first step. What about posting pics of delectable cupcakes, tweeting about contest giveaways, and sharing deals, sales and recipes? Well, that’s all well and good too, but the most important thing you can do with your account is interact with your audience. If someone following Cupcake Couture mentions that she’s trying out a new cupcake recipe, respond with “Sounds yummy! Let me know how they turn out!” Is a follower prepping for a bake sale? Follow up and ask how it went. If a cupcake fan laments about how she burned her oven mitt, send her a link to one of yours and offer 10% off.

Engagement is absolutely essential. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have and how many stupid press mentions you tweet about in a self-absorbed manner; if you’re not stressing the “social” part of social networking, your conversions will be nil and your females will spend their dollars on a business that makes them feel like they’re being heard. So what are you waiting for? You better join the party before all your competitors jump in the pool too.