• by Kevin Burke , March 24, 2010

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.