According to a recent social media survey by BlogHer, the women’s blog network, along with iVillage and Compass Partners. 42 million women in the United States (roughly 53% of the 79 million adult women in the United States who use the Internet) participate in social media at least weekly.

Not surprisingly, the findings of this survey highlighted heavy usage of social networking sites by women. Given the very long arm of social networks, it seems as though the Internet is helping to level the networking playing field for professional women. Women are definitely engaging online; for instance, 55% of FaceBook users are female <http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/09/18/latest-data-on-us-facebook-age-and-gender-demographics/> .

Women have always found themselves caught in the demands on their lives - be it personal or professional. They missed out on building their powerful networks or a village . A decade ago, no one would have thought that there could be solution for keeping all your connections and interacting with them online...if you want to.

The advent of social networks opened the possibility to keep in touch with old friends from school and college, teachers and lecturers, previous employers and colleagues. This has been truly advantageous for women. Especially, when you’re looking for a new job or a new house or a doctor or a new boyfriend, your network has grown to include people from your past. Some of them you would have never met again or would have lost touch forever, if not for social networking.

The Competitive advantages of social media for women:

1. Social networking is allowing us all to build broad, shallow networks of acquaintances women can reach out to as needed. This natural evolution of the internet seems to be giving women the tools to be as competitive as men when it comes to networking. Me have long had shallow networks which have created opportunities for them in the workplace - like having information about job openings that are not posted on the company's job boards.

2. Blogs are trusted sources for women looking for making a purchase decision, researching and acquiring knowledge. Women are now participating actively on blogs to share and empower their communities with resources and information that was not previously available to them.

3. Twitter is allowing women to have conversations online on subjects that matter to them most. They are no longer being told by advertisers what to do and what to buy. Instead, they can participate in real time conversations with people they trust before making a purchase. They also get access  to some updates from companies, their recruiters and employees. Some companies are using Twitter as a channel to increase employee engagement and retention. 

In my next post, I will share on how companies are using Twitter...stay tuned!!!

Deepika is Founder of Invincibelle (www.invincibelle.com ). You can follow her tweets on http://twitter.com/invincibelle. She is the author of the book DiversityTweet (http://happyabout.info/diversitytweet01.php)