By Andrew Woods

Without a doubt, we live in an era of unparalleled communicative potential. Moreover, as our technologies continue to evolve, all prior preconceptions of ‘boys and their toys’ have been firmly put out the window. This holds particularly true online where women have more openly explored their digital options and embraced the realms of social media.

Women Lead the Social World
As pointed out by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, “The social world is led by women.” Traditionally depicted as the more social of the sexes, perhaps it is unsurprising women have taken the pole position in social media.

Case in point, female Facebookers have eight per cent more friends. More applicable to the medium’s collaborative potential, females also represent 62 per cent of the network’s sharing. Another statistic from Porter Novelli shows that 65 per cent of women access social media once a week compared to 51 per cent of men.

Moreover, eight of the 10 Twitter users with over 10 million followers are women according to recent Park Associates Reserarch. So, while Malcolm Gladwell might very well be correct in stating that 500 Facebook friends does not mean you have five close friends, these kinds of numbers are telling. In terms of interest, reach and potential impact, the proverbial ‘woman’s touch’ is changing the online world in which we live.

He Said vs. She Said
A recent U.K. article in The Guardian explored the possibility that the reason social media is such a natural domain for women boils down to four basic differences in communication styles between the sexes.

• Report-talk vs. Rapport-talk: Communication for men is an accounting of fact, while women use communication to build rapport.
• Voice-male vs. Voice-female: While men prefer to begin with the bottom line, women prefer more context before settling on the brass tack talk of the bottom line.
• Hint vs Literal: Women make more use of subtle communication skills, while men tend to be more direct.
• Global vs Compartmental: Women think globally, connecting one conversation forward into the next while men tend to compartmentalize conversations, discussing specific topics without connections.

How do these differences translate into social media? Put simply, women enjoy the community participation, sharing of information and online conversation that much more than their male counterparts.

However, as prior PeopleTalk articles and a wealth of ongoing observation have pointed out, social media—still in its relative infancy—is not without flaws.

Fewer ‘Real Life’ Friends?
We may “friend” more people on Facebook, but we may have fewer real friends. That’s the conclusion made by Matthew Brashears, a Cornell University sociologist who surveyed more than 2,000 adults from a national database and found that from 1985 to 2010 the number of truly close friends people cited has dropped—even though we’re socializing as much as ever.

The rise of social media promised to connect us together, to unite us in sharing our personal and business lives through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, and more. However, social media’s effects are not always that social. It poses a larger question. Are we losing the ability to communicate face-to-face and form deeper business and personal friendships?

Nurturing Networks to Advantage
Not necessarily so, according to Vancouver-based social media consultant Monica Hamburg. When asked if social media was reducing the human touch in our personal and business lives, she looks to the bigger picture.

“It’s always challenging to find the time to meet businesses contacts and friends, but that is an issue of limited time, not the medium of social media,” Hamburg says. “On the whole, we haven’t sacrificed all that much—and we have gained tremendous potential efficiencies and an unprecedented ability to make connections and stay in contact.”

Social media strategist Helen Nowika penned a much-discussed piece on the topic, Men are from Foursquare, Women are from Facebook, that goes to the heart of both the matter and the divide around the purpose of social media. In short, “women are using social channels to reinforce existing social connections and interact with friends and family, while men are primarily interested in social media as new ‘tool’ and means of displaying status.

For me it boils down to something more universal—appreciation. Social media makes showing gratitude easier than ever. If you appreciate someone’s company and time you can make an effort to demonstrate that to them, in short or long form. Social media (and technology, in general) makes that easier to do than ever.

Moreover, it represents the extent of communicative freedoms, which we often forget are not quite so universal. So rather than feeling technology is making us lose our personal touch, perhaps it shows us who is willing to go that extra distance to stay in touch, say thanks or simply pass congratulations.

For the many negatives attributed to the technologies we wield, it is important to keep in mind that what we do with them is what matters most. Social media will only continue to transform in coming years and how that impacts the workplace is a question to be resolved by all of us—most likely with women leading the way.

Andrew Woods, MBA is a professional speaker, trainer and author of BOOM! Engaging and inspiring employees across cultures.

(PeopleTalk Fall 2014)