Blog Hotspot for Franchise News ...

We’ve all witnessed the rapid and remarkable rise of Twitter and Facebook over the last year or so. Social media has quickly become part of the fabric of our lives, but it’s also bringing franchisors and franchisees together.

And as analysts crunch the numbers, an interesting portrait of social media use is beginning to emerge, especially where women are concerned. A recent study by women’s blog network Blogher has said that of the 79 million women online, 42 million participate in some form of social media once a week (this totals about 53% of women). This is groundbreaking information for franchisors looking to develop a better strategy to target female entrepreneurs.

There is more relevant info. The study claims that more 64% of women prefer blogs to sites like Facobbok for information and 55% looks to blogs over social media for opinion sharing.

“Social media continues to be a growing phenomenon, and bloggers, in particular, represent a highly engaged and influential segment of social media users for brand marketers looking to connect to consumers online.” said Susan Wright, President of Compass Partners LLC. “Bloggers have a broad reach in the social media population and the survey demonstrates that women who blog are the most actively engaged social media participants — constantly seeking out new ideas and ways to share their opinions about those ideas.”

Blogher surveyed nearly 3,000 women for this study. Blogger Paul Segreto outlined the ramifications of this study for franchisors on his franchiseEssentials blog recently, and his post resonated with us:

As more and more women explore franchising as a career alternative, choosing to control their own destiny, franchisors must market directly to this rapidly-growing group of opportunity seekers. Joining the force of today’s more sophisticated, educated and technologically advanced transitioning corporate executives, women will use social media to explore and investigate franchise opportunities.

There are abundant signs that people looking to control their futures are turning to franchising. Franchisors trying to target those women need to take a serious look at mastering social media, be it via blogs or Facebook. Read the study from Blogher to learn more.