Women Buy Into Sports Via Social

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According to new social data from Visible Technologies and Applebee's, advertisers may want to target female sports fans more often.

Visible studied 125 million social media posts over a recent three-month period, finding that 17 percent of the messages conveyed purchase intent. From that subset, women authored 69 percent of the posts, Visible says, most often using Twitter to show off a recent purchase and employing blogs to express their desire to buy an item.

The Bellevue, WA-based researcher says 31 percent of sports chatter on social comes from women, calling the data point "surprisingly strong" compared to past findings in a prepared release today. Carly Wilcox, director of professional services at Visible, suggested that advertisers should take note that consumers generally - and women specifically - are incrementally shifting in terms of where they spend their time and show their interests.

"Whether it's beauty products or sports paraphernalia, women are powerhouse purchasers and the sluggish movement...to capitalize on such an active group is a huge oversight in the industry," Wilcox said in a statement.

Applebee's Female Fans Love March Madness

In a separate announcement today, Applebee's also heralds the impact of the female sports fan. The restaurant chain says that 71 percent of the "shout-outs" being recorded on its March Madness Facebook app have been by women.

The app is being employed by the Kansas City, MO-based brand to run a basketball-focused contest, giving away thousands of gift cards. Since the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments started almost two weeks ago, 50,000 shout-outs have been recorded.

"Our female Fan Fanatics are dishing it out online far more often than men," said Jill McFarland, senior manager of digital and social media for Applebee's, in a press release.