Highlights from the new social media study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners:

• More than one-half (53%) of the US female Internet population of 79 million actively participated in some type of social media at least weekly.
• 55% of women participate in some form of blogging activity75% participate in social networks such as Facebook or MySpace
• 20% use Twitter
• 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a  blog
• Of the female social media participants, 75% took part in social networking and 55% used blogs.
• But many women went beyond merely reading: 12 million posted to blogs and 8 million published them.
• In fact, women who used blogs were more than twice as likely to do so when they were seeking information, advice and recommendations than were women who participated in social networking.
• When providing advice or contributing to a community, more women also turned to blogs than social networks.
• Women online are now more than ever before spending less time engaging in traditional media activities like:Reading the newspaper (39%)Reading magazines (36%)

  Listening to the radio (31%)

  Watching TV (30%)

  Talking on the phone (28%)

  Meeting in person  (19%)