• by Rob Jewell , November 15, 2012

With Mobile Internet usage ramping up substantially faster than desktop Internet usage did over the past 3 years, we will see mobile data traffic increase by almost 4,000% by 2014, for a cumulative annual growth rate of more than 100%. And we are now beginning to see hard evidence of this trend with Facebook. Average time spent accessing Facebook via smartphone in the United States was 441 minutes in March, compared with 391 minutes via desktop, according to comScore. And, this trend in time spent on mobile will surely continue as new iPhone 5’s, iPad Mini’s, Galaxy Tablets, Microsoft’s Surface and myriad other mobile devices flood the market. 

This can only mean good news for Facebook. In fact, 60% of Facebook users already access the platform via Mobile, up 60% from a year ago, according to Facebook’s Marketing Bible. 

But what does all this mean for the men in our (marketing) lives?

Well, thanks to Macquarie Research’s further analysis of the activity patterns of Facebook subscribers, they found that most of them tend to be more passive as they would rather browse other people’s updates and photos instead of posting their own status updates. When broken down by gender, men responded more to other’s updates than women (33% to 28%), while women were more likely to share content than men (20% to 17%). 

Additional academic research has examined how men and women use Facebook and found that they differ in their Facebook use in interesting ways. Specifically, men reach out to form new relationships, but women tend to maintain their existing relationships. Specifically, men report that they use Facebook to find dates, job leads, and make new friends. Women, on the other hand, use Facebook to maintain existing relationships – to keep in touch with friends and family by posting status updates, uploading photos, sending private messages and friend requests.

So what does all this data point to?  Well, by better understanding the sociological, psychological, emotional and environmental differences between how men and women access and spend time on Facebook, mobile, etc. we as marketers can go far beyond simply “targeting” men. The real ROI for brands will be in delivering more relevant and engaging brand content that’s far more effective at driving men from just “likes” to influence.