by Karen D. Swim
Welcome to another edition of Fierce Friday! Here at Words For Hire, Fierce Friday is a day that we spotlight and gain inspiration from fierce women (and sometimes men) and discuss issues that impact women in business. Today, hot off the blogosphere is a new study that determined that when it comes to social networks, women like to socialize but men are all business.
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Perhaps it is the Election season that has everyone thinking along gender lines, but lately there seems to be no shortage of mars versus venus debates. Are women more social or do men simply socialize differently? Deborah Micek wrote a thought provoking article in which she asserts that women have an advantage over men in the Web 2.0 and new media markteplace.
Women are good at bonding. Forming connections with other women seems to come quite easily for most. You can sit next to a perfect stranger and in a 15 minute conversation learn all about their family, job and where they got their hair done! We are good at socializing darn it and we should not make apologies for this gift!
How do we use this natural gift in business? The new media marketplace is all about engaging others and creating genuine connections. The old web was all about information, but we suffered information overload. The new web demands authenticity and genuine connection...if you want to win. Women like Rosa Say understand how to merge genuine connections with business promotions. Ross refers to the process as "tooting sweetly." Tooting sweetly stands in stark contrast to blowing your own horn. We toot sweetly by engaging and sharing value rather than using tools such as Twitter to blast our URLs.
Deb and Rosa show us that we are not only capable of shining in this new marketplace but we can excel in it. So go out this Friday and leverage your gift to toot your own horn, but do toot it sweetly!
What do you think about the gender differences in social media? What has been your experience? Are you socializing or doing business when using social network tools?
