Who is more social online, men or women?

Men and women use social media differently

It would seem that women are more social than men. Or perhaps women are just utilizing social media more frequently than men. According to research gathered by Internet Social Providers, men and women utilize social networking sites very differently, specifically how they interact with Google+, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Facebook.

How the sexes differ

Women frequent Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook far more than men, in fact, each month 40 million more women visit Twitter than men, and women participate in 62 percent of the sharing on Facebook, and make up 58 percent of the user base. Pinterest boasts a 70 percent female user base, and interestingly enough, Pinterest drives more business referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined, leading one to believe that women are having a more significant influence over the social marketplace.

For men, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube are the main sources of social networking time. Google+ is comprised of 64 percent men, whereas LinkedIn is 54 percent male user based. About 75 percent of the men that use LinkedIn use it to research other companies and only one in ten men opt for the paid version of LinkedIn’s services. With over 280 million active YouTube accounts, it is not surprising that over 54 percent of all users are male. Roughly 25 percent of men watch something on YouTube daily, compared to only 17 percent of women. It could be inferred that men have more free time, or perhaps they simply enjoy videos, whereas, women seem to prefer the more conversational aspects of Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

What could this mean?

In a world where women and men are more equal than ever, perhaps it would be a good idea for women to spend some more time with the apparently male-dominated Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and men could spend more time connecting with friends and co-workers on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Since Facebook offers the ability to chat, play games, and keep in touch, men should not have any problem finding something they can enjoy. And YouTube offers a great deal of instructional videos from auto repair to building your own bookshelf, so women should take advantage of it more often. In all honestly, some of the pins on Pinterest come from YouTube, so I would be interested in seeing if this research makes any cross-references for that data.

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Another explanation for the differences could be as simple as personal preference. I know I enjoy Twitter because of the short messaging allowance. It is easier to catch up with everyone at once because the messages are short, and media shows up as links, rather than filling up half the screen, as is common occurrence on Facebook. Perhaps men simply enjoy watching a tutorial rather than reading about it (YouTube versus Pinterest).

I am sure an argument could be made for the differences in the ways in which women’s and men’s brains work, but, I prefer to think that we all engage with content differently and in our socially enriched world, we should all be free to choose whatever we enjoy without worrying about statistics. We get enough of those at work; social media allows us to reconnect, share, and relax, why muddle it with a gender debate?