Men have a certain image, or behavior expectations, regarding shopping and online commerce is no exception. They, according to their stereotype, spend little time on price comparison and even less time on social networks researching these purchases.

Not so, says a new study by Performics - not to mention growing anecdotal evidence of the seriousness many men place on such activities online.  Men are more likely than women to conduct five of six social shopping activities, according to Performics’ 2011 Social Shopping Study.

They more frequently research product information, read reviews, compare products, find product availability and get store information via social networks, shopping and deal sites. In addition, aside from Facebook, men frequent social networks (at least once a month) substantially more than women:

• YouTube (54 vs. 34 percent)

• Twitter (37 vs. 24 percent)

• Google+ (36 vs. 24 percent)

• Myspace (31 vs. 20 percent)

• LinkedIn (20 vs. 16 percent)

• Facebook (96 vs. 97 percent)

Performics layered social network behavior with shopping patterns to get these results as well as try to predict how social shopping figures into upcoming holiday campaigns. Marketers that don’t target the appropriate male demographics on these sites may be doing themselves a disservice, the study concluded.

Ragu Dads

Besides the proliferation of daddy bloggers, there are other signs of men moving into what is typically considered women’s turn online. Consider the backlash recently experience by Ragu against a Facebook campaign called Mom's the Word on Dinner. It implied hat dads are less competent than moms in the kitchen via a video featuring mommy bloggers describing what it's like when their husbands cook dinner. After the expected line of dishes - grilling or breakfast fare - the message becomes with 'Ragu's easy recipes they can increase their repetoire.'

"On the surface, it's certainly annoying that Ragu doesn't recognize dads are more involved than ever with their kids, but I think the bigger issue was how they used Twitter to get the word out," Relevant Marketer writes.

"Apparently they messaged a bunch of people who they knew were dads and had blogs and active social media profiles." Not all of the recipients found it so funny and some responded with negative comments.