New research by Scottish whiskey company, Chivas, has highlighted the different ways in which men and women interact on social networking sites and showing that women outnumber men on nearly all platforms.
The most notable statistic is that women make up two thirds of all Twitter users and nearly 60 per cent of Facebook users. The only platform men dominate in is Linkedin, making up 63 per cent of the professional networking site.
However, while taking up the majority of Twitter and Facebook, when it comes to Pinterest, women are flooding the arena, making up 82 per cent of users. However with a gap in the market, sites like Gentlemint - which has been described as a male version of Pinterest - have evolved.
The statistics do not only highlight who is using social media, but how it is being used. It appears that men use it for function, whereas women tend to be more fluent - flicking from site to site in a much more browsing manner.
Women are also much more active online, posting an average of 21 Facebook statuses per month compared to only six status updates from men. While 28% of men have never 'liked' anything on Facebook, the figure for women falls to just 18 per cent.
Men tend to look for more informational content and have a tendency to geotag and 'check in' more. As Helen Nowicka, UK Head of Digital at Porter Novelli communications agency has said: "Men are from Foursquare, women are from Facebook.” Men also tend to consume blogs more, making up 54 per cent of blog audiences.
When it comes to friendships online, women tend to have much larger and looser networks, using sites to read statuses, comment and share photos. Men however, have a much smaller, but closer relationships online, averaging 120 Facebook friends - of which they only keep in regular contact with four.
When investigating why men have fewer friends on Facebook, the report found that having a lot of friends is viewed as a negative thing because it means that a man is trying to hard too be popular.
When interviewed, Joe, a writer from London said: “I know a couple of men who have like 1000+ friends on Facebook.” He added: "I don’t see them being any more popular in real life, and actually I think some of them are pretty lonely.”
It also appears that men tend to take a strategic to approach social networking. For example, Phil Barrett, Global Senior Director for Digital Marketing at Research In Motion, has explained that he uses a hierarchy system with his online networks. He uses Linkedin for his professional networks, Facebook for his friends and Twitter for people he aims to know more, saying: "Social media has changed the definition of friends."
The study was carried out by the thinktank, Bug, and commissioned by Chivas as part of a wider investigation of male friendships as part of their Live With Chivalry campaign.
So how do you use social media? Tell us by commenting below or tweeting us @FemaleFirst_UK
Female First
James Mellan @jamesmellan1