• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 23, 2010

According to the results of the 2010 Mom Social Influencer segmentation study by BabyCenter, five unique segments of social moms are broken down into two categories, the Influencers, Field Experts, Lifecasters and Pros, and the Influenced, labeled in the report as Butterflies and the Audience.  The Influencers make up only 18% of social moms, but they wield 78% of the influence.

Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President, BabyCenter says "Since 2006, the number of moms using social media has skyrocketed more than 500%... marketers (can) shift their mindset from social media to social marketing by gaining a better understanding of who the mom influencers are... "

Influence, in this study, was measured by how often social moms post or comment on social networks and the size of their networks on these platforms. All five segments of social moms have distinct characteristics and behaviors consistent across the major social media platforms.

The Influencers are described as follows:

A Field Expert is a stay-at-home mom with a topical focus on parenting. She is a young but experienced and uses social media to share parenting advice, usually focused on a specific topic with a large network of moms who look to her for her hard-earned advice and recommendations. She is most active in parenting-focused social media environments, where she shares in-depth mom-to-mom advice, wisdom and support. 

Field experts make up 8% of social moms and have a 33% share of influence overall. They are most influential on parenting communities where they have a 44% share of influence.

A Lifecaster is a Millennial mom who lives her life in public. She is a mom of young children who is always connected and communicating using social media.  She loves being the center of attention, has a strong need to stay connected and participates and thrives on being recognized as the go-to person on many topics, not just parenting. She is very active in social media, with a high number of friends who look to her as an invaluable source of new ideas and recommendations. 

She is most active on Facebook where she posts frequently to her huge network of readers and "likes" her favorite brands. She's also  active on Twitter and blogs where she shares everything from everyday occurrences and stories about her children to product recommendations, deals and coupons.  Although Lifecasters produce a high amount of seemingly lighter content, they are depended on by a large audience for relevant advice and product recommendations. 

Lifecasters make up 8% of social moms and 34% percent of the influence overall. They are most influential on Facebook where they command 47% ofthe influence.

Pros are mom bloggers who have turned their passion for social into a profession. A Pro is a self-employed Gen X mom with young children who loves giving well-thought-out advice and values recognition. She consistently pushes out entertaining and informational content to her enormous networks on Twitter and her blog, posting opinions andadvice on a wide variety of topics including parenting tips and product reviews and giveaways. She does extensive research before making recommendations on a broad range of topics.  In many cases, she has been compensated in some way for writing about brands on her blog.

Pros represent 2% of moms in social media and have an 11% share of influence overall.  While they are incredibly influential individually, they account for a lower proportion of the influence overall due to their small size. Pros are most influential onblogs where they have an 89% share of influence and on Twitter with 68%.

The Influenced are reported as:

Butterflies, who are young professionals who put the social in social networking. She is a mom-to-be expecting her first child who is very self-confident and loves social gatherings. Although she has a lot of friends online and in real life, her schedule is so tight that she tends to only post on important updates using  social media. She primarily uses social media platforms like Facebook to keep up with her many friends and be entertained.  

She seeks advice about her pregnancy on parenting-focused social media networks. She shares her real life on Twitter and on blogs when she has a spare moment but generally tends to be more on the receiving end of advice and recommendations.

Although Butterflies represent 16% of moms in social media they only wield 7% of the influence overall because of their low level of activity.

The Audience is the largest group of social moms who listen and take it all in. This very large group represents the mom market, including a mix of moms at different stages, from expectant moms to moms of older children. These women have fewer online friends and comment less frequently in social media, but are still present and highly influenced by the other segments. Moms in this group use parenting-focused social media environments to find useful information, ask questions, get product recommendations or receive support. They use mainstream social sites to keep in touch with friends and for consuming entertainment. They observe and obtain information, and do not comment.

At 66% percent of moms who use social media, the audience makes up the largest group but wields little influence relative to their size at 15% overall.

Key highlights:

Pregnancy and birth triggered 94% of moms to seek out information and share opinions with others online.

• 18% of social moms wield 78% of the overall influence.
• Field Experts and Lifecasters make up 16% of audience and wield 67% of the influence.
• 91% of social moms use Facebook for socializing and 89% use BabyCenter for gathering useful information.
• Pros have 89% of influence on blogs, Lifecasters have 47% on Facebook, and Field Experts have 44% on the BabyCenter community.

For additional information from BabyCenter, please visit here.