Guest Writing for The Baltimore Business Journal

Posted on September 2, 2009

Recently, SSG was invited to contribute a guest column to The Baltimore Business Journal’s Enterprising Women issue. The topic? Women acting as online community builders and how this is enabling new enterprise opportunities. We thought we would share the article here in Conversations:

Women are amazing community builders. Engrained in our DNA seems to be the need, and not just the facility, to connect and share. Just as we’ve been doing for centuries without the aid of technology, we are now creating rich, dynamic and multifarious communities online. And it’s no less than remarkable what is occurring within them. Indeed entrepreneurship is thriving online.

According to the 2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, of the 79 million American women who are online, 42 million are participating weekly in some form of social media. This may include posting to a social network such as Facebook, reading or commenting to a blog or a forum, or participating on Twitter.

While millions of these women are using social media primarily to socialize, learn and share; thousands of others still are finding that the environment is ideal for launching business ventures that would have been much more challenging – impossible even – to float in a purely brick and mortar world. And it’s precisely because women are going online, in huge numbers, to socialize, learn and share.

Statistics tell us that more and more women as well as men are choosing to strike out on their own, leaving the cubicle culture behind in favor of a more flexible work life; many continuing in the same profession – PR consultant, financial planner, accountant, web designer. And social media, for many, is the invention that is enabling the shift. (The other factor fueling the transition being the increasingly sophisticated and often free tools that enable one to worth smoothly, remotely. Examples? Project management tools like Basecamp,online collaboration tools Mikogo and Yugma, Google’s still burgeoning portfolio of tools, and many, many more.)

But possibly more fascinating to note are the women outside of these fields who have found in social media a means to transform a hobby, a dream, into a generator of income. One needs look no further than the fabulously popular Etsy, a site that invites artists and craftspeople to create their own “shop” on the Etsy site, to find an illustration of the point. Jewelry makers, clothes designers, painters, knitters; these are just a sampling of who you will find there. Because Etsy attracts in excess of 2 million visitors each month, having a presence on the site gives one access to potential customers instantly. (The site is very creative in how it approaches search; while it is teaming with shops, the site’s search function means individual shops aren’t lost in the masses, but can attract targeted potential customers.)

And the more industrial and creative of the bunch employ other social media channels as well to promote their shops. And that’s when you see the magic of the intricate communities at play.

Look closely at Twitter, dig into some blogs, and what you will see is a blurring of the lines between socializing and marketing. You’ll see women embracing other women, and doing what they can to help each other succeed. What I am referring to are not the blogs that openly endorse products and services, though these too have been a golden opportunity for many companies. What I am referring to is how many women are promoting women entrepreneurs by talking about (via blogs, social networking sites, microblogs), referring to, and linking to their business/product or service. We’ve heard social media referred to as the great democratizer of news reporting; what we’re also witnessing is the democratization of marketing.

Anyone sitting now and thinking of turning their entrepreneurial dream into a real business can look online for any number of resources – and support – to get started. Those of the female persuasion might want to take a look at “Ladies Who Launch” – an online community for women entrepreneurs.

The resources, and possibly more importantly – communities – are out there. Find yours.

Guest Writing for The Baltimore Business Journal

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