Women use social media differently than men:

• Women often use online social networking tools to make connections, stay connected, solve real-life issues and share items from their personal lives.
• Men use online social networking tools as means to gather information, boost their influence, and increase their status (think “interactive Rolodex”) storing contact information for future use.

• Women are the majority of users on many of the biggest social networking sites, including Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and Flickr.
• Men are most active on sites like Digg, YouTube and LinkedIn, which are more content-oriented and promotional than discussion-based.

• Women are 77% more likely to look for products and 67% more likely to purchase them in a store after reading online reviews on a community forum or message board.
• 51% of women actively following brands and retailers online, these channels are relatively less — 19% — influential in prompting purchases. Other forms of marketing that prove influential include online coupons at 68%; online product reviews by consumers, 61%; emails from companies or brands, 45%; and articles read online, 41%.
• Coupons and opinions influence women most when it comes to the purchase of food and beverage, health and beauty and household products.
• “Women want advice from other shoppers, but they also want to share their experiences and look for validation before making a purchase.”

General facts:

• 42% of active Twitter users say they use Twitter to learn about products and services.
• 41% say they contribute opinions about products and services.
• People in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook.
• Facebook has more than 400 million active users worldwide. And the number of US consumers who say they are aware of Twitter has surged to 87% in 2010, up from 26% a year ago.

Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128350