I am sure this is no big surprise, but two recent studies have found that women are more active in social media than men. I can already hear the comments about how women love to chat and share. But the disparity between the sexes is closing - after fairly slow growth over the past few years 2013 has seen a sudden surge in men using social networks, according to Pew Research.
How they use social media is different too - there are definite preferences for certain social platforms. Women dominate on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Men are in the majority on Twitter (just) and Reddit.
Why does it matter?
While we use the term social media to describe all the social networks, it's definitely not a one-size fits all medium. Every network has its own community make-up and culture. Instead of spraying all your social accounts with the same content you need to know how your audience uses social media, where they are most active and what content they'll respond to on the various networks.