More UK Women Have Social Networking Profiles than Men

A recent eMarketer report revealed that women in the United Kingdom are more likely to have a social networking site profile than men. A study by the UK Office of Communications found that 42% of women had social networking profiles in 2009, compared to only 34% of men. The change is particularly drastic compared to 2007, when women and men were almost equal, at 22% and 21%, respectively. This is exciting news for the UK, where few women are online (79%) than men (84%). According to Karin von Adams, author of the eMarketer report, "Social networks are a primary channel for women online...According to data from Universal McCann, women's top activities on social networks in 2009 included managing their own profile." 

Indeed, content creation is the only online activity where women surpass men. The same UK Office of Communications study that, in a list of nine disparate activities, content creation was the only one where women (36%) were more likely to participate than men (28%).

Forrester Revises Social Technographics Ladder: Women Make Up 52% Across All Categories

Forrester recently released the latest version of their social technographics report, a ladder-shaped classification of online social behavior. The original report, released over two years ago, included six categories (ignoring inactives, those who did not participate in social media). At the bottom of the ladder, spectators observed social media (blogs, reviews, etc.) without participating, and at the top, critics wrote reviews and creators blogged and uploaded video. But a crucial category was missing: active participants of social networks. That category was newly dubbed "conversationalists" in the latest version of the Forrester report.

Conversationalists are 56% women- the highest female concentration amongst the social technographics groups.They have an average household income of over $80,000, and over 40% are college educated. Although conversationalists have the highest concentration of women of all the categories, women make up 55% of joiners, and most of the other categories hover around 50%.

Latest Facebook Stats: 57% of Users are Women

Industry blog Inside Facebook recently released the August 2009 statistics for the #1 social networking site. According to Nielsen, Facebook's had than 87 million US visitors during the month of June, compared with less than 63 million US MySpace visitors that month. Women continue to take the lead on Facebook as 45.4 million women make up 57% of the site's visitors.

As Facebook continues to grow, however, its demographics keep shifting. Although more women use Facebook than men, men have made up the majority of audience growth. In August 2009 , the highest growth category was males ages 13 to 17, whose numbers increased by 14.5%, followed by men ages 45 to 54, rising 12.8%. Among women, the highest growth was in the 45 to 54 and 55 to 65 age ranges, which were up 11.8% and 11%, respectively.

45.4 Million US Women on Facebook

Remember the days when social networking was a male dominated activity, particularly for older demographics? According to Inside Facebook's latest figures, those days are long gone. The August 2009 breakdown of US Facebook users revealed women outnumbered men by at least 1.2 million in every age demographic.

While those results were obvious for the 13-17, 18-25, and 26-34 year old categories, they came as a pleasant surprise for the 35-44, 45-54, and 55-65 year olds. They are a combined presence of 45.4 million women, making up over 52% of the 87 million Americans on Facebook.

UK Women's Online Activities

EMarketer recently released a report in conjunction with IPC Media about the online activities of women in the UK. According to the report, 74% of UK female Internet users went online on a daily basis in 2008, up from 71% in 2007. Women logged on more during the week but spent more time online during the weekends, spending an average of 20 more minutes per session.

The most popular activity among the women surveyed was shopping. 97% of respondents researched products online, and 92% purchased items online. Social networking sites were also ranked as a highly popular activity. 66% of respondents have visited Facebook and 41% have visited MySpace. The table below highlights the 2008 worldwide growth of Facebook, and its negative impact on other social networks, including MySpace and Bebo, which previously boasted a strong UK presence.

Senior Women Help Narrow UK Online Gender Gap

Although a projected 18.6 million women online in 2008, according to eMarketer, 19.5 million males were online, resulting in a 51.1 % male bias in the Internet population. Fortunately, that bias is expected to decrease to 50.5% by 2013. The narrowing gap is attributed mainly to the anticipated increase in Internet usage by women 55 and older.