Moms' Life Streaming

by Kevin Burke, Mar 24, 2010, 9:48 AM

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There was a time when many marketers relied on focus groups as their way of understanding consumers. That approach often produced skewed and myopic perspectives.

A broader and more meaningful understanding of moms can be had today by creating a "Moms' Life Stream." The idea is to monitor and participate in conversations and take note of the opinions of mothers on a continuous basis.

Over time, you begin to pick up on trends, subtle changes, and new ideas that are within your business' category, but outside of it as well -- or appear to be unrelated. Comments, opinions and ideas that are seemingly unrelated can suddenly produce an epiphany and business opportunity.

Here are several ideas for creating your own Moms' Life Stream:

• Read blogs written by mothers, or better yet subscribe to many with an RSS reader
  Google Reader is amazing for this

• Follow and interact with moms on Twitter
  Listorious can give you a headstart

• Survey subscribing mothers by email regularly
  SurveyMonkey is a wonderful tool

• Create news alerts for stories on "mom marketing"
  Google Alerts does this best

• Poll moms' opinions on your web site
  PollDaddy is easy and priced right

• Create an online community for regular conversations
  Ning offers a powerful way to get started

• Bookmark online articles about mothers
  Delicious does this well and makes it social

• Create a wiki for sharing your observations with colleagues
  Wikia is one of many options

Integrate all of the above into an internal reporting web dashboard, and you've created a valuable asset for your organization!

The world is moving faster than ever, but by implementing a Moms' Life Stream, you have a way to keep pace, listen and have conversations with mothers, unlike anytime before.

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0 comments on "Moms' Life Streaming ".

1. Carrie Vawter-yousfi from Crowd Science
   

   commented on: March 24, 2010 at 12:08 p.m.

   I would suggest Crowd Science for a survey tool.

2. Nicole Bohorad from Sprout Baby Food
   

   commented on: March 24, 2010 at 5:10 p.m.

   Great article, do you have a recommendation for an internal reporting web dashboard?

3. Stacey Mathis from TargetMommy.com
   

   commented on: March 24, 2010 at 9:34 p.m.

   You hit the nail right on the head. The best way to understand moms is to go into their world, be it a blog or forum, etc. You should sometimes be a fly on the wall and just listen. Other times, you should participate and engage them.

4. Kevin Burke from WholesomeOne
   

   commented on: March 26, 2010 at 12:50 p.m.

   Thanks Nicole. Without doing custom development work, Google Reader is a fast and easy way to follow the RSS updates from each of the sources listed, and a great way to consolidate, tag & share.

5. Scataboosh Fandango from None
   

   commented on: April 7, 2010 at 1 a.m.

   I enjoyed the rundown on how to keep up here. This article is really useful and has already inspired ideas for me - a big thank you!

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