PureBlogging

It’s no secret within the blogging community that there are more high-profile male bloggers than there are female counterparts in the blogging world. This seems to be changing as blogging takes hold of the general population, a fact evidenced by the impressive web writing resumes of a number of the women on a recent Top 15 Female Bloggers list. But even as more women break into the blogging business and turn their web writing skills into breadwinning paychecks, the divergence between men’s blogging and women’s blogging grows.

The differences in blogging between men and women aren’t so much in levels of success or types of blogs. Instead, the differences lie primarily in the way that the blogs are written and promoted. It’s no surprise that men and women blog differently. After all, men and women have a general tendency to communicate differently. These underlying differences in how we interpret and convey thoughts through words play out in the blogosphere as actively as they play out in the bars. And just like in the rest of “real life”, neither form of communication is necessarily better than the other. They’re just different.

Let’s take a look at a few differences in communication styles that can generally be seen between men and women. (Bear in mind that these are just stereotypes and obviously won’t apply to every blogger.)

o Defining yourself as an “expert”. Men have a better grasp on defining themselves as experts whether it’s in the office or on the web. In moving up the ladder of success, the self-defined expert with follow-through moves more quickly than the person who is qualified but doesn’t make sure others know it. Male bloggers are quicker to add the “expert” or “professional” label to themselves online and therefore boost their credibility. Even without the label, male bloggers are more likely to use language that establishes themselves as knowledgeable in a subject whereas female bloggers often write in language that seems to only be expressing an opinion.

o The heart of writing. Women are more expressive in their emotions. When we read something, we often want to be connected to the heart and humanity behind the matter. Male bloggers may be more factual and analytical in their writing whereas female bloggers may be more likely to look at the human behind the numbers.

o Non-verbal communication. Women tend to rely more than men on non-verbal communication. They read between the lines and use body language and tone of voice to assist them in their communication. Men tend to be more straightforward in their verbal communication. In blogging, a written medium, this means that men are more likely to accurately and succinctly convey what they mean. Women bloggers may find that they have to explain themselves more than usual to get their readers to understand their meaning.

o Community building. Women are stereotypically the ones that are tasked with nurturing relationships and building a community of people around them. In the world of blogging, this can be the key to “making it”. However, men tend to have an edge up on building professional networks through their manipulation of existing systems. For that reason, many female bloggers build their relationships within their blogs through regular communication with their readers whereas many male bloggers build their relationships through online social networks.

o Multi-tasking. Women are better multi-taskers than men which gives female bloggers something of an edge up on the day-to-day productivity of blogging. Active blogging requires writing regular posts, researching different topics, commenting on the blogs of others, social networking on various sites, attending to the advertising revenue of your site and many other daily tasks. Women have a tendency to juggle these better than men and so often find themselves behind the scenes at major blog networks.

As blogging grows, more and more people are adding their voices to the chorus of communication happening on the Internet. Readers may find that they have a preference for one gender over the other when it comes to who writes their news and information. For that reason, bloggers of either gender who are seeking to be more successful will look to the other gender for tips on how to improve their blog and attract the readers that are currently going elsewhere.

Seeking your opinion: What other major communication differences are there that you’ve seen played out in the blogging world?

Related post: Wanted: Girls for Blogs

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