Commentary

Moms With Young Kids More Active on Social Media

Moms with children under the age of five are more active on social media than other moms and the population at large, according to new data from Experian Marketing Services, drawn from its Simmons National Consumer Study, an annual survey of 25,000 U.S. adults. Experian also found moms with younger kids are more likely to shop with mobile devices.

On the social front, Experian found moms with young kids are more than twice as likely as the general population to visit social network sites three or more times a day, and also twice as likely to post or comment once there. Conversely, Experian found that moms are less likely to use social media the older the children are.  

Moms with young kids are also more than twice as likely than the general population to use their smartphones to visit Web sites, as well as more likely to access the Internet on a tablet at home. They’re also very receptive to advertising, indexing highest among moms in agreeing with the statement “advertising helps me to choose products to buy for my children.”

Being both tech-savvy and value-conscious, moms with young kids are 62% more likely than the population at large to use mobile phones to look for coupons while shopping; no surprise, they’re also the segment of all moms most likely to engage in “show-rooming” (defined here as visiting retail stores to find products they later buy online).

So what does this all mean? Experian’s global research manager Bill Tancer advised: “Marketers looking to reach moms with young kids should consider a two-pronged email approach to share information and deals with these moms. They should employ a social media strategy that encourages sharing and commenting to individually engage and develop brand loyalty. Finally, marketers need to ensure their content is mobile-optimized and engaging and find advertising services that take advantage of this segment's propensity toward social networking and mobile online shopping.”

Back in April I wrote about a survey from BabyCenter.com and comScore which found that mothers of young children, including new and expecting moms, are more likely than the general public to use social media. Overall 91% of moms are using social media regularly, the BabyCenter-comScore survey found, up 20% from 2010. The same proportion have used Facebook in the past six months, compared to 80% for the general population. Social media is obviously a key way to stay connected for busy young moms: in fact, 22% said that friends or family members who don’t participate in social media aren’t as big a part of their lives as those who do. What’s more, 45% of moms surveyed said they are using email less and communicating more via social media. In terms of devices, 81% of the moms surveyed own smartphones, compared to 54% of the general population, and within this group, 89% said they use smartphones to check their favorite social media sites -- around four times the rate for the general population.

Moms are also more likely to make a purchase based on social media recommendations: 59% of moms surveyed said they bought a product because of a recommendation from a parenting Web site, and 44% said they made a purchase after a friend posted a recommendation or liked a product on a social network. 78% said they follow brands and products on social media to get coupons and discounts, compared to 55% of the general population.

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