Influence is Bliss: The Gender Divide of

Influence on Twitter

Influence is a controversial topic and its measurement and definition is increasingly scrutinized as
social media democratizes one's ability to earn stature and prominence in new online societies.
There's a clear delineation between influence and popularity and it's important to understand that
in social networks, influence is not derived by the quantity of followers, friends, clicks, or "likes."
Nor is it discernible by the frequency of which one participates in their respective communities.
While these serve as indicators of influence, they are not necessarily constant factors in its
quantification.

Merriam-Webster defines influence as the act or power of producing an effect without apparent
exertion of force or direct exercise of command.

Exploring alternative sources, influence is described as the capacity to have an effect on the
character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

Influence vs. Influencer

In social networks, influence is naturally tied to individuals, where the extent, level, and effect of
leverage or authority coalesces and contributes to a stature of varying degrees. Eventually,
individuals who possess a propensity to cause a discernible effect earn a designation of
influencer. When the funnel focuses on subject matter and themes, influencers are then further
divided and ranked accordingly. Whether we agree or disagree on the idea of establishing a
digital hierarchy, many social services are already verticalizing the horizontal nature of peer-to-
peer networks. Klout, TweetLevel, and PeerIndex, for instance, introduce a level of prominence
into online connections measured by complex human algorithms.

Over the years, I've explored the roles of influencers in social networks and as a result, I've
refined the definition as simply the ability to cause measurable actions and outcomes. Intentional
influence then assumes that certain actions are therefore definable and as a result, desired
activity and results are now designed into strategies. The execution of these plans are then
dependent on the reach and conviction of the influential voices to which they're aligned.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

The Gender Divide in Social Networks
Late last year, I analyzed the demographic composition of many social networks and among
other findings, it was clear that women represented the greatest majority of users. Dave
McCandless visualized discovery in this wonderful infographic...

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

In April of this year, Nielsen released data that reinforced the role women play in social
networking. As in social networking on the Web, women also ruled social networking in the
mobile landscape.

Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the

Internet
10 years ago comScore reported that the number of women on the Web in the U.S. had
surpassed the number of men. In 2010 comScore still finds that women are the digital
mainstream and social networking is central to their online experience. In celebration of the 2010
Blogher Conference, comScore released a new report, "Social Networking Sites Reach a Higher
Percentage of Women than Men Worldwide."

If e-commerce is a form of influence, women dominate. In fact, the report shows that women shop
more online and in aggregate, they drive a disproportiate amount of online spending, representing
58% of all online spending. Accordingly, women also spend more time in social networks than
men at an average of 5.5 hours per month compared to 3.9.

According to the comScore report, women spent an average of 16.3% of their online time on
social networks. In comparison, men dedicated roughly 11.7%.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

The trend of women powering "the conversation" in social networks is indeed global across the
board.

The Gender Divide: Influence on Twitter

The theme of women dominating popular social networks was recently validated by comScore's
research. In addition to other leading social networks, the study found that women represent the
majority of Twitter's population. And since Twitter is, for the time being, one of the only social
networks where the data to measure social stature and influence is readily accessible, I partnered
with Klout and PeopleBrowsr to analyze the balance of influence by gender.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

As social networking continues to transform how both men and women communicate and
connect, individuals gain varying levels of prominence with every interaction. Working with Klout
and PeopleBrowsr, we analyzed the top 50,000 most influential people on Twitter to capture a
snapshot of influence. The results practically matched the global Internet population as measured
by comScore.

Twitter Influence Composition:

Males = 52%
Females = 48%

Global Internet Population, 18 + (Comscore)

Male = 54.3%
Females = 45.7%

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

Of these top tier influencers, females earned a spot above the median with an average score of
54 out of 100.

The average Klout score for males fell only two points higher at 56.

We then sampled 100,000 random Twitter users to measure the average level of influence for the
general Twitter population. Upon sorting by gender, we discovered that the majority of the group
was comprised by women, 54% vs. 46%. Of the random sample, the average Klout Scores
weighed in favor of women, 34 compared to 31 for men.

While women represent a greater portion of the overall Twitter population, men edged slightly
ahead in terms of Twitter's top influencers. Yet that power balance shifts when looking at
influence across the entire Twitterverse as women hold a higher level of influence within the
general Twitter population.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme

As Twitter is young, the balance of influence is evolutionary. With the introduction of its new
"human algorithm," Twitter is encouraging its denizens to expand their social networks based on
context over contacts. Over time, these new connections will affect how we as individuals
contribute to our level of influence and ultimately the stature we merit within our relative social
graphs and communities of interest (aka nicheworks.) Influence is something that's both earned
and cultivated and is yours to shape.

About Klout Scores

The overall Klout score ranges from 0 to 100. Klout’s algorithm involves three sophisticated
stages of semantic calculation. The first, described as “True Reach,” measures influence between
each and every relationship, evaluating the engaged audience versus total audience. The service
also employs a secondary metric known as “Amplification Probability,” which documents the
likelihood of a specific tweet spreading beyond the primary network through retweets as well as
generating a response from the immediate audience. Finally, Klout factors the “Network Value,”
which measures the influence of those individuals who follow the original user and their
propensity for sharing their content, which contributes to overall authority.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - @briansolis - Engage! http://bit.ly/engageme