Social Media Survey: Women Less Likely to Share Personal Information

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By Christine Dunn | Published: March 7, 2012

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A recent survey by uSamp, a provider of online market research, found distinct variance across genders, and among age groups, when it comes to issues of Internet privacy – providing important insight for content marketers as they not only distribute information, but collect it, during their campaigns.


The nationwide survey of 600 adults within the ages of 18-50 found that most women who are using social media are just as willing as men to provide personal information on more general topics and issues – such as their relationship status, political affiliations, brand preferences and occupations. They are less willing to give out the more intimate contact information, such as phone numbers, location and email or physical address, because of concern for their personal security.

Among the age groups, individuals who were younger (18-24 in particular) were generally more comfortable sharing a variety of information online vs. their older counterparts, the survey found.
“From a marketing standpoint, this puts marketers in a hot seat. There’s great sensitivity when it comes to privacy. Not all groups are created equal in how they digest information, and in their comfort level for sharing it,” said Lisa Wilding-Brown, Vice President, Panel Operations at uSamp.

Among the survey’s results, the gender differences were the most striking. In general, men were more willing than women to share their information, including photos. Among the details (other than their names) that women were willing to divulge, the majority (75.8 percent) felt most comfortable sharing the brands they like, following by their relationship status (72.5 percent). Education level and religious affiliation followed, and fifth was occupation. Overwhelmingly, women were not willing to share their phone number, physical address or location.

“In pushing content out to the masses, marketers must think at the fragmentation level,” Wilding-Brown said. “How you market to each gender would need to change. With the stories that people hear about privacy being breached or a third party not handling information properly — people are hesitant to share information that can be driven back to them.”

Opt In, Not Just Out

Companies are already responding to privacy concerns. When leveraging tools like Facebook Connect that require login and password credentials for example, companies are requiring that consumers actively opt in, not just have the choice to opt out, and provide full disclosure in order to make sure users understand how their information is being collected, used, shared and ultimately destroyed. On websites, open disclosures and clearly stated privacy policies are more common as well, Wilding-Brown said. That’s a significant change over the past decade. And it will happen more and more.

“As companies get more advanced and acclimated to the online arena, there’s a lot more 360 touches online with brands,” Wilding-Brown said. “That could change in the transition we’re observing. Consumers don’t just have relationships with brands in the traditional sense. Since it’s coming from many different directions, marketers will have to think about how personal information is handled, as well as how their message is handled, through all those different venues.”

Social Media Is Really About Personal Media

Among other survey findings, uSamp said that most users of social media accessed the sites mainly for finding long-lost friends and relatives, or to find out information about people generally.
Given that reason for using the sites, not surprisingly Facebook ranked as the social media site used most, at 81.2 percent, followed by YouTube at 46.2 percent. Rounding out the top five was Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Interestingly, 13.2 percent of survey respondents said they do not use social media sites at all. When asked why, the majority answered that they had “No interest in participating.”
Among all respondents, the majority (65.8 percent) agreed that ultimately it is up to an individual to take responsibility for their own online privacy protection.