Women's New Media

Tune in to Mom's Rising

Actually, tune in tonight to ABC's 20/20 and you will get a chance to see an interview with Joan Blades, co-founder of MomsRising.org. MomsRising is a terrific grassroots organization championing political, social and economic issues in support of families.

They've recently released a new film called The Motherhood Manifesto featuring facts, stories and humor about motherhood.

If you don't have time to watch the show tonight like many busy parents, you can watch a YouTube trailer for the film or buy a copy for yourself for only $6 from MomsRising.org.

momsrising motherhood parenting

 

Women Use The Web for Health, Fitness and Nutrition

Women are using the Internet in increasing numbers to visit top Health, Fitness and Nutrition sites.  The top 6 sites visited are WebMD, Weight Watchers, About Health and Fitness, drugstore.com, Walgreens and Yahoo!Health. Women make up a total of 57.3% of visitors to health and wellness sites. It's interesting to see the breakout of visitors by age bracket:

• 50% of them are 45+
• 37% are 35-49
• 25% are 55+
• 16% are 25-34

Not your typical internet user demograhic. 

See the MediaPost Report

Gift Giving by Women

VoiceQuilt, a company that creates audio albums to share with friends and family, released a survey on Trends in Gift Giving, noting that:

• Fifty percent of women say they purchased one to five gifts online in the last year
• Thirteen percent say they purchased six to 10 gifts online in the last year
• Three percent say they purchased 11 to 19 gifts online in the last year
• Four percent say they purchased 20 or more gifts online in the last year

They also found that while women say it’s easier to buy gifts for children, they often save the ‘best gift’ for their spouse or significant other. For more interesting details on gift giving, you can download the survey summary at VoiceQuilt.

Is Good Journalism in Danger of Extinction?

The MediaDaily News from MediaPost pointed out an article that Dan Gilmour wrote for the BBC News on May 4th that seemed to contradict his well known support for citizen journalism. I don’t believe he’s changing his stance. Instead, I think he is issuing a loud warning to US media organizations and their readers that there is a price to pay when good journalism is tied to an archaic business model. With online sites like Craigslist and eBay sponging up the money once spent on classified ads, traditional newspapers that once supported deep investigative journalism can no longer afford to waste valuable space and time on much more than entertainment, sports and news summaries. Journalists are being fired at a rapid rate as newspapers see ad revenue decline and circulation decrease. Yet turning to blogs is not the answer.

The Scoop on Video Training

When I started my first real job as a counter waitress at Howard Johnson's a few years (decades?) back, the only training I received was a 2 minute show and tell around the counter. I knew where the ice cream and soda fountain were and where the bowls and glasses were but that's about it. The first customer that asked me for an ice cream float got a big surprise. The ice cream was floating but I'm not sure what it was floating in to this day. I am sure however, that the customer never came back to HoJo's looking for a float. Today, companies concerned about ramping up new employees faster are turning to online games rather than relying on other employees to do informal training.

Coldstone Creamery, Cisco and Canon are using video games to get more employees engaged in training programs. Business Week reports that the 'serious games' market makes up about 15% of the online gaming market and will grow to roughly $100 million in revenue in the next five years. A manager at Coldstone claimed that over 8,000 employees downloaded their ice cream scooping game in the first week it was available.

Tips for Coping with Stress

There's been a lot of talk the last few days about the effect of stress on women. Need to figure out how to deal with stress? Well if you're a woman and even barely alive, I'll guarantee that you're dealing with stress in your life, career or relationships. Here's some help for those with a budget and a little time and for those with just 10 minutes to spare:

1. Sign up for the next Camp Bombshell, a 3-day camp run by six women from Miami where harried women can bond over archery and canoeing or "sit on the porch and smoke cigarettes".
2. Visit the Health section of BBC's website for tips on Coping with Stress - As the BBC put it 'We're not weak or neurotic because we're stressed - we're stressed because we're human.'
3. Watch a quick Video program from the National Geographic on the difference between physical stress and psychological stress - yes the latter form is reason why you gain weight when stressed.

Who's Feeling Rushed? Just Ask A Working Mom

Pew Research Center just released a report today titled "Who's Feeling Rushed? (Hint: Ask a Working Mom.)  The report focuses on how much people report feeling "rushed."   It's sad to say, nearly one quarter of all Americans feel rushed.  Not surprisingly, people who always feel rushed say they are not as satisfied with many aspects of thier lives - even when hiring outside help.  The aspect of being rushed impacts more women than men with working mothers taking the prize for being the most affected.  Twenty six percent of working fathers "always feel rushed" vs. forty one percent of working mothers.  No doubt there is a correlation between Americans feeling rushed and the growth in new media and internet usage - with time savings being cited as a major benefit.  Women's are a driving force in the growth of both cellphone and internet use - it's no coincendence that both are major timesavers for women.

MySpace - Teens Love It, Parents Hate It

MySpace has been enormously popular in a short amount of time.  The issue of MySpace conjures up the image of trying to balance fascination and fear.  MySpace was created in 2003 and boasts 43 million users.  But to make some gross generalizations, kids love it and parents either don't know about it or if they do, they hate it.  The fascination with MySpace is that teens use it as a way to connect, a method of personal expression through a combination of journaling, photographs, music selections, inside jokes, listing of friends, etc...All wonderful for creative expression and personal connection.  However, MySpace owner NewsCorp is taking some heat for safety issues which leave young and unsuspecting contributors open to the world at large.  A Massachusetts Police Chief claims that "one out of five kids gets sexually contacted over the internet."  Online predators can find a teen's profile on MySpace or Friendster and note their likes and dislikes, can see pictures of teens, and use that information in a virtual conversation to engage them. 

Welcome to Women's New Media

Welcome to the Women's New Media blog. Your authors are Mary Beth Schoening and Julie Woods, co-founders of Women's New Media, a marketing services firm dedicated to helping companies create better products and services for women and their families by helping them connect better with women through digital media and online communities.

This blog will cover many topics related to women, the issues they care about and how to use new media and communities to connect with them.

Specific topics are: Marketing to Women, Family, Fun, Work/Life Balance, Society, Culture, Books, Blogging and Podcasts. More topics will be added as we develop the blog and get your feedback.