Gender Stereotyped Twitter Behavior
New research from Harvard Business School shows, among other things, that men follow more men than women on Twitter, and that men are more likely to do reciprocal following (two participants choose to follow each other). This study also cited behavior that Deborah Tannen, sociolinguist and author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, might have noticed as well:
This “follower split” suggests that women are driven less by followers than men, or have more stringent thresholds for reciprocating relationships. This is intriguing, especially given that females hold a slight majority on Twitter: we found that men comprise 45% of Twitter users, while women represent 55%.
Men are more likely to enter into a communication via status/positioning, according to Tannen’s research (so this is not a judgment, guys). In the case of Twitter, that would mean that men tend to be interested in “the numbers,” and the higher the better. Whether or not any of the people they are following, or who follow them, are people they might like to get to know better is not the point. Having an astounding “followers” count is.
Women, on the other hand, are perhaps more likely to be looking for connection based on common ground (as per Tannen, again). For women on Twitter, that may mean actually taking the time to look at the profiles of each person who is newly following them to see if there’s enough reason to follow said person back. Women have ways of connecting lots of information into one cohesive “it all matters” picture, and so more readily give themselves a reality check of how much time they might have for Twitter and how they’d best use it for their own purposes (and no one else’s). It’s not the numbers, it’s the relationships that may potentially result for them.
Now, I’m not saying that this holds true for everyone, but Tannen is pretty smart and her insight gives us, as Twitter users (I’m @AndreaLearned) and marketers a lot to think about. If we admit it, the Twitter phenomenon pointed out by these HBR folks does demonstrate an intriguing gender difference in human behavior, and in the whys and wherefores of interpersonal communication.
The insights therein may help you or your brand decide: 1)if a woman or man should do the Tweeting, 2) what to include in your account profile to inspire more people to want to connect with you, and 3) what sorts of things you should be pollng your followers about in order to do a better job connecting with everyone!
If there is a gendered pattern to human behavior in social media, don’t fight it and don’t judge it. Men like to follow and be followed, and women need more than that to establish a real relationship. Twitter is just a microcosm of humanity, after all.
