Remember the Roman Empire? It was the most influential force in the world. The place everyone wanted to be. The center of all news, art, commerce. Then it wasn’t (see “fall of the Roman Empire“). It was kind of like MySpace – burning bright, then burned out.

Do you think the same might happen to Twitter? To Facebook?

A new survey from Weber Shandwick says it could be so. They questioned 2,000 North American women and found this startling fact:

Nearly four in 10 North American women (38 percent) have decreased or stopped their usage of one or more social networks during the past six months.

Why did they step away?

• 59% “Just not interested/lost interest”
• 35% “no time/too busy”

Finding new leads is an integral part of running any business to business business. You can direct mail everyone on a purchased, targeted list, network at a trade show, cold call every business in town . . .

Or you can build a comprehensive website and active social media accounts, then wait for the leads to come to you. Might sound crazy, but according to DemandGen 90% of business buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you. 78% of those people will start their search on the web. 50% will turn to social media and peer review sites.

Which “leads” us to today’s topic — which social media site is better for generating quality leads? My guess would have been LinkedIn since it’s so squarely aimed at the business to business community. I would have been wrong. Quoting a study from Optify, eMarketer’s chart shows a different story.

A quick glance at Pinterest will tell you that the site’s primary users are women who are in to fashion, food, and all forms of creativity.

If you want to know who is using Facebook and Twitter, it’s going to take more than a quick look. It’s going to take a survey from the fine folks at the Pew Internet Life and American Life Project.

*Unless otherwise stated, the percentages represent a portion of all internet users in the US.

Facebook

You won’t be surprised to learn that Facebook has the highest percentage of users with 67%. Women have the edge over men (72% vs 62%) and again it’s popular with 18-29′s. Here’s a surprise, looking an internet users aged 50-64 – 57% are on Facebook and 35% of those over 65 are also using the social media site.