Men vs. Women: Who Is More Active on Social Media?

Ever wondered who is more active on social media: men or women? Or what women use social for vs men? Are women or men more active?

The old saying “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” holds water when it comes to how men and women use social media.

Females use social media less than men for business reasons, whereas women use social media to share more personal information than me, revealing more about their personal lives. Women are more vocal, expressive and willing to share. In other words, women are biologically wired for social networking.

At least, that’s according to data compiled by FinancesOnline.com

Sounds cliché, doesn’t it?

Generally, females use social networking sites to make connections and stay in touch with family or friends.

Men, by contrast, use social media to gather the information they need to build influence. Social media helps them perform research, gather relevant contacts and ultimately increase their status.

While this explains how they use it differently, but do you know who is more active on social media: men or women?

This may seem like an important question, but if the majority of your consumers are predominantly men or women, it will impact which social channels you would need to focus on.

Men and women have varying degrees of online activity across different sites. 74% of internet users are using social media, with women (76%) having a slight edge over men (72%).

Behind every social media platform stand millions of women – and they certainly seem to love their mobile phones. A Nielsen study shows that women spend nearly 10 minutes social networking through the mobile web, or through apps every day, whereas men spend a little less than 7 minutes.

The diversity may not surprise you, but drilling down to a platform-by-platform level might.

According to this report from Spredfast, the major platforms have varying degrees in gender splits.

Social Media Platform by User Gender

	Female Users (%)	Male Users (%)
Snapchat	70	30
Pinterest	60	40
Instagram	58	42
Facebook	52	48
Twitter	47	53
LinkedIn	46	54
YouTube	45	55

But what about people’s actual behaviour on the platforms?

Pew, Nielsen, and Burst Media data depict some other impressive stats about male vs. female use of social media. In checking out their sources and data points, we discovered that women are more likely to interact with brands via social media than men.

More than half of women use social media to show support and access deals or promotions from brands, compared to just 36% of the men online.

Not only do women use social media to stay up to date with brands, they also comment on their favorite brands more than men do.

The fact that women are more active on social media than men has held true for at least the last five years. However, it is important to note that women interact in different way and are leading the shift from desktop to mobile where social media is concerned, which is a huge concern for social networking sites launching in the next few years.

Iris Vermeren

Marketing Manager

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