by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

You may be sick of hearing about Facebook, but you need to get over it. It’s not going away. In fact it’s growing. Rapidly. The site has 175 million active users. According to Inside Facebook, an independent blog based in Palo Alto, California, that tracks Facebook statistics, Facebook is growing in every demographic, but the fastest growing segment is women over the age of 55. As of February 1, women comprise 56.2 percent of Facebook’s audience, up from 54.3 percent late last year. This is good news because Facebook, and other social networking tools, provide women a way to help raise their social capital.

Susan Mernit, a former vice president at Netscape and AOL and long-time social media strategist says social capital is something you can both earn and spend. That capital, according to Mernit and Deanna Zandt, a media technologist and consultant, comes from your connections, your reputation and your influence. The two experts recently spoke at the Women Action Media conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts about the ways men and women build and use social capital differently.

They say that women are more likely to use social networking tools to keep in touch with friends and family whereas men are more likely to use the tools to entertain and gain audiences. Women are also more likely to be concerned with the affects of social networking on their personal security whereas men tend to be more open with their digital profiles.

In addition to Facebook, there are other popular social media tools such as Flickr and Twitter. As of December 2008, 11 percent of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The fact is the game has changed. When played correctly, social networking can help women build their reputations and increase their networks and therefore their influence.

The first step in building a social media strategy according to Mernit and Zandt is to establish goals. Are you hoping to increase your network or establish a professional expertise? Begin with the end in mind. This will help drive your online strategy.

The second step is to remember that social networking is all about authenticity. It is important you put yourself out there, but wisely. Women in financial services are especially hesitant to join social networks as they think it can be reckless and damaging to a career. And it can, if you post too personal data or blur the lines between your personal life and career. But there is no reason you can’t project an authentic, professional and controlled image of yourself on the Web. And as Mernit says, “Honey, if you don’t have a picture, it doesn’t count.” If you are going to use social media, you must commit to it and embrace it. “We are in a culture of public opinion,” says Mernit. “The web has become the means to measure that opinion.”

The third step is to understand that after authenticity, the most important value on social networking sites is reciprocity. Taking a “me, me, me” approach will backfire,” says Zandt, “Understand you are part of a gift ecosystem.” What she means is, just like with networking in the physical world, you can’t show up just to take, take, take. You need to earn social capital before you can spend it.

After the privacy concerns, perhaps the next biggest barrier for professional women is finding the time to participate in social networks. Zandt says “grooming” your social media sites, once they are set up, can be done in just one hour a day. You may be thinking you can’t possibly find another hour in the day. But haven’t you also been thinking you should really find more time to network in these troubled times? Building social capital can pay dividends in the physical world too.