• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, December 19, 2011

Moms say their retail purchasing decisions are influenced by social media, according to a national survey of 700 mothers conducted by Fleishman-Hillard and ModernMom.com in September. Social media affects their in-store shopping experience with information about sales and coupons, as well as through blogger reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends.

One caveat should be noted, as the moms surveyed here are obviously online denizens; within this group, however, the influence of social media was pretty clear. Overall 84% of mothers surveyed said they use Facebook to engage with brands, followed by blogs at 69% and other online communities at 63%. Likewise 63% of mothers surveyed said blogger reviews influenced their purchase decisions, and 48% said they are following a brand on Twitter.

In terms of categories, mothers surveyed by FH and ModernMom.com said they were most likely to use social media to engage with brands in categories like food and recipes, at 88%; health and beauty, at 86%; children’s products, at 84%; and clothing and fashion, at 73%. Asked what helped drive engagement, survey respondents said they should be able to give feedback to the brand, read articles with tips and advice or get a sneak peek behind the brand.

As noted, the survey group appears to be skewed towards online moms, who are logically more likely to use social media than non-online counterparts. But this turns out to be a large percentage of them, as mothers with children under the age of 18 are 19% more likely than the average American to use online social networks, according to data released by Nielsen in May of this year; what’s more, they are 31% more likely to like or follow a brand, 37% more likely to post photos, 25% more likely to link to articles, and 33% more likely to post status updates. In terms of online purchase behavior, Nielsen found moms are 20% more likely to buy magazines online, 15% more likely to buy digital music, and 7% more likely to buy video games.