Examining the impact of social technologies on empowerment and economic development

•Empowerment opportunities for women are greater than ever before with social technologies expanding an organization’s and individual’s reach worldwide in both developing and developed countries.•Social technologies have changed the way individuals network and build relationships, opening communication channels that were never before available.•The use of social technologies can provide empowerment and economic development by giving women a platform for communications/collaboration, customer service, gaining exposure and creating awareness, gaining new customers, and increasing revenue/profits.•Knowledge of the benefits realized from using social technologies for business purposes will provide empowerment for women around the globe leading to economic development.

Globally, many women continue to face economic and technological challenges. To complicate matters, more than half of the population has no access to the internet. These issues have drawn international attention leading to global efforts by U.S. tech giants to provide world-wide access to the internet. Do social technologies play into the equation of economic development and empowerment for women? This paper reports results from studies conducted in Taiwan and Turkey regarding the use of five different social technologies platforms. Facebook—the largest social network worldwide—also is the most widely used platform in Taiwan and Turkey according to this research. Differences appeared between the two countries among the usage of other social platforms studied including Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+. Implications of this data—and data from other countries under study by the authors—will provide answers to women’s empowerment and economic development in both developing and developed countries.