Women Be Dominatin' Social Media

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Another week, and another piece of gender-related news sends me back to the bottomless well of Sinbad headlines. It turns out women are indeed more social than men, or at least use social media more often, according to a roundup of recent research published by Digital Flash NYC.

Overall women make up 56% of the U.S. social media population, or roughly 81 million women. Women dominate both Facebook and Twitter, making up 58% and 64% of their memberships, respectively.  Women use social media more frequently, with 18% of women updating their Facebook status on a daily basis, compared to 11% of men. On a monthly basis, women make 99 million more visits to social media sites than men; they’re also more likely to comment on posts and photos several times a day.

No surprise, Pinterest skews even more female, with women making up 82% of its user base. Women also lead the way in time-wasting, er, casual gaming, making up 60% of the audience for Zynga games. But there are some male-dominated social networks out there too: for example, 63% of LinkedIn users are men, while Google+ and Reddit also skew male (71% and 84%, respectively).

Last week I wrote about a separate survey of 1,453 U.S. online adults conducted by Burst Media in May 2012, which found that women are more likely than men to follow brands on social media, especially if they have kids. Overall 58.1% of online moms follow brands online, compared to 49.1% of all respondents, and 31.7% of online moms said they were likely to follow a brand promoted in an online ad, compared to 25.4% of all respondents.

Echoing the Flash Digital NYC results, 49% of female respondents in the Burst survey said they visit social media sites a few times per day or more, including 58.6% of moms and 42.7% of women without children, compared with just 34% of men.

Asked their reasons for following brands on social media, 43.5% of moms said they do so to “keep up with the latest content,” compared to 44.4% of women without kids and 30.7% of men; 23% of moms said they do so to “see what others are saying about the content,” compared to 25.4% of women without kids and 21.7% of men; 29.3% of moms said they do so to interact with the sites’ authors and contributors, compared to 16.5% of women without kids and 19.2% of men; 41.9% of moms said they do so to “share content with family and friends,” compared to 40.9% of women without kids and 26.3% of men; and 33.3% of moms said they do so to “share my opinions and comment,” compared to 26.7% of women without kids and 29% of men.

Interestingly, women who are not moms are more likely to cite special offers, coupons, and savings as a reason to follow brands on social media, at 46.7%, compared to 40.1% of moms and 19.4% of men.

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1 comment on "Women Be Dominatin' Social Media".

1. Ted Rubin from Collective Bias / The Rubin Organization
   

   commented on: July 9, 2012 at 10 p.m.
   Like I have been saying for years, whenever I speak... there is no Social Media without women... it ceases to exist. Men do not communicate that way, and most men in social are primarily communicating with women.

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