In August, women made up 56.1 percent of the Web traffic to music sites. Overall, music sites pulled in 42.5 million unique female visitors in August.

While it might seem like young girls would be scouring sites for the latest news on the Jonas Brothers, it is actually women 35-60 who make up about a third of visitors to music sites.

Females age 35-49 make up the largest group. More than 14.5 million women within that demographic visited online music sites in August. This made up 19.2 percent of all visitors to music sites during the month.

Less than a fifth (15.6 percent) of U.S. females 18 or older said they purchased music online within the past six months. Sixteen percent said they bought a music offline during the same span, per Nielsen@Plan Fall 2009 Survey. Slightly more than 8 percent of women watched or listened to music online.

The top two sites visited by women for the month of August were: AOL Music (11.8 million unique visitors) and Yahoo Music (9.9 million). MSN Music was a distant third with a unique audience of 3.9 million.

One might assume that the unemployment rate at a state level would show a strong negative correlation to the likelihood to purchase a vehicle in the next six months, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Michigan had the highest unemployment rate at 11.6% in January 2009; however, these residents are slightly over-indexing for the likeliness to purchase a vehicle in the next six months. It’s very interesting that Mississippi is the most likely state to purchase a vehicle and Idaho is the least likely, since both states fall in the middle of the heap for unemployment.

January 2009 Unemployment Rate Vs. Likelihood To Purchase A Vehicle

Solely looking at shopping intention by state is too high of a level to glean any actionable insight. However, coupling intention with current vehicle ownership allows for smarter inventory planning and target marketing within each state. Typically, we would be a bit more aggressive and aim to conquest more sales, but in the current economic condition we need to be more cognizant of advertising expenditures and ensure a high ROI.

In 2009 it will be imperative that automakers focus on the total customer experience of existing owners and consider developing loyalty programs. It is much easier and cheaper to retain an owner than it is to make a conquest from a competing brand. Nielsen @Plan data is indicating that Oklahoma residents are the second most likely to purchase a vehicle in the next six months and are also over-indexing on owning a Kia vehicle and Compact Sedans/Coupes. There appears to be an opportunity for Kia to gain additional market share within Oklahoma especially with the Optima and Spectra. Lincoln also has an opportunity in Mississippi with an ownership index of 286, while Chrysler may want to reduce their ad spend in this state and shift focus to areas that have a higher concentration of Chrysler owners such as Iowa, Kentucky and Michigan.

“Although this older segment has joined Member Communities en masse in 2008, most have only a toe in the Social Media water,” notes Chuck Schilling, Nielsen Online. “Younger adults are still more committed to the Web 2.0 dynamic and have moved beyond the entry-level Social Network experience.”

Adults with multiple social networking profiles are approximately 2.5 times more likely than average to be in the 18-20 age group and to be students. As social media fans, they are nearly three times more likely than average to publish or own a blog, and more than twice as likely to visit online dating sites and other blogs. Technology is an important part of their lives, as they are more than twice as likely to set up an RSS feed or listen to MP3’s or streaming music on their cell phones.