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By on November 30, 2009

Social Networks – More ‘She Said’ Than ‘He Said’

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He Said She SaidWe are all aware that social networks, social marketing, social media and just plan old being social are the new wave regarding the Internet and its magical powers to make the world a better place for all. As we move further along in the life cycle of this still relatively new phenomenon (OK, all of you folks who have ‘been doing this for years’ can huff and puff at this point) there will be more opportunity to slice and dice the nature of the social network and the networkers that inhabit them. The folks over at Pingdom have taken a stab at looking at the gender breakdown of this group and found that women rule. Kinda.

  • 84% (16 out of 19) of the sites have more female than male users.
  • The social news sites Digg, Reddit and Slashdot have significantly more male users than female. The standout here is Slashdot which takes male geekdom to new heights with 82% male users.
  • If we hadn’t included the three social news sites, all of the sites would have had more females than males.
  • Twitter and Facebook have almost the same male-female ratio; Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.

Now we need to apply the classic question that all marketers must eventually apply to statistics and sales presentations: So what?

But before we go there we can’t waste the very nice chart that the Pingdom folks put together for you to look at.

Pingdome Chart

I suspect that these ratios may always hold true to some degree but as there are more an more business applications of social media they may balance out a bit depending on the situation. Easy for me to say, sure. Honestly, social media is just like a very other tool that is used to reach people for a specific reason. Knowing how many is neat but the more important question is why someone is there. Certain networks may attract more of one gender over another for reasons that will then truly tell a marketer what the value of that network may be to them. And of course, just because it is that way now is no assurance that it will remain that way.

So Pilgrims, as you awake from your tryptophan induced haze what is your take on the various guys and girls clubs in the social networking space?


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9 comments on “Social Networks – More ‘She Said’ Than ‘He Said’”

  1. Andy Beal Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am

    LMAO at the post title!

  2. Ryan Waggoner Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 11:38 am

    It would be interesting to know more about how Google Ad Planner came up with this data. It uses the US demographic data, which ignores huge swaths of traffic from other parts of the world, where these patterns may not hold true. But I’m also curious as to how they divine gender…does anyone out there with a site who knows what their gender breakdown is have any feedback as to the accuracy of Google Ad Planner in this area?

    I’d really like to know more about the usage patterns by gender.

  3. Social Media Site Demographics Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    [...] morning I came across a chart that lists the % of male to female on all the major social media sites. It can prove pretty helpful [...]

  4. Social Networks – More ‘She Said’ Than ‘He Said’ « The other side of the firewall Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    [...] November 30, 2009 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Social Networking [From Social Networks – More ‘She Said’ Than ‘He Said’] [...]

  5. Mark Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

    Marketing persons need to survey the habits of men and women in the social networking. The survey result will influence the marketing strategies. People can always change their lives according to themselves or situations around them. Therefore, the marketing surveys have to be done regularly.

  6. Frauenanteil in sozialen Netzwerken | WebmarketingBlog.at Says:

    December 1st, 2009 at 5:23 am

    [...] kompletten Bericht gibt es hier. AKPC_IDS += "1207,";Email this to a friend?Tweet This!Share this on FacebookShare this on [...]

  7. David Walker Says:

    December 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am

    Thanks Frank; but so what Pingdom? With all those variables involved, I don’t think marketers can work on the data provided. Like Ryan here, I’m wondering how they came up with such data without factoring in the rest of the world, like, say, Wales? Until then ….ZZZZZZZ

  8. Rym Says:

    December 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 am

    This is an interesting take on social networks. That goes to show that females have a major group among social media.

  9. Jaydip Parikh Says:

    December 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 am

    Very well done said. It seems many time l feel about it. The data is very usefull for us people who are in Internet Marketing. Thx for sharing.
    .-= Jaydip Parikh´s last blog ..WordPress the Versatile =-.