This week is Social Media Week, and as we’re curious creatures hungry for knowledge on all things digital, we thought it was a great opportunity to learn and share our experiences. Public Zone senior account manager Martha Paren took the time to write a blog about what she learned at her chosen talk from the jam-packed schedule. Over to Martha…

I started my Valentine’s Day with breakfast at the Porter Novelli Social Media Week event ‘Men Are From Foursquare, Women Are From Facebook’. It was a fairly formal presentation of research the agency have carried out looking at the trends of genders across their key markets in the UK and Europe. Many of the findings were fairly predictable – women are more socially active than men, women are more likely to sign up because of discount vouchers, etc. However, I did come away with some interesting insights that I’m keen to explore in terms of using social media for fundraising and campaigning, and one stat that blew my mind…

So, according to Helen Nowicka, Porter Novelli’s Head of Digital, the key distinction between the genders use of social media is that women share to interact, and men for status. So women are more likely to use Facebook and to connect with people they know, whereas men are more likely to turn to Twitter and blogs to broadcast an opinion; 45% of men check in using services like Foursquare, compared to just 33% of women. Nowicka quoted a piece of research by the Wall Street Journal, looking at check-in patterns during a particular week: men dominated check-in around travel and airports, showing their status by telling people where they were going, whereas women often checked into more everyday activities (going to the beauty parlour, dropping the kids off at school or going to shopping).

As a Public Zone employee, I’m interested in how this applies to activities like sharing messages about fundraising on social media. A campaign like Movember allows members to rank themselves against other fundraisers, which ties into the competitive and status angle for men – but is this something that would encourage men to share on social media? Would women, on the other hand, be more likely to share stories about training for a particular event, seeking reassurance and interaction rather than just promoting that they are taking part?

The concluding points of the presentation backed up, yet again, the importance of user research – have a purpose and a strategy for social media that is combined with human insight; don’t expect it to be a fix-all tool. And the bit that blew my mind? Just 15% of Wikipedia contributions are from women. Why? A straw poll among female account managers came up with reasons: men are more geeky, women are busier, men think they know it all….

Overall, it was an interesting way to start the day, although I would have liked more time for discussion around the particular points rather than just the formal presentation. The full slides can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/PNLondon/men-are-from-foursquare-women-are-from-facebook

 

Tags: Conferences, Digital, Events, Foursquare, Gender, Porter Novelli, Sharing, Slideshare, Social Media, Social Media Week, Valentine's Day