Commentary

Moms Trust Brand Web Sites Over Facebook Pages

by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, February 10, 2012

By most accounts mothers are responsible for the majority of household purchases, and they collect information about brands and products from a wide variety of sources -- but not all these sources are equal in their eyes, according to a new study, “The Shopping Mom’s Mindset,” released this week by The 360PR MomSquad. For one thing, fewer moms get information from social media than other kinds of online sources.

The study, based on a survey of 962 members of Cool Mom Picks’ proprietary subscriber database conducted by 360 Public Relations and Cool Mom Picks in December 2011, found that social media is popular, and does indeed play a role in moms’ purchase decisions. Thus 44% percent of moms surveyed said they spend one to two hours per day with social media, with 33% spending over two hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media.

Meanwhile 44% of moms also said they get information about brands and products from their social media circles -- but that’s behind blogs and third-party Web sites, at 54%, and a distant second to recommendations from friends and family, at 77%. Of course, there is some potential for overlap -- presumably social media circles include friends and family -- making it somewhat difficult to interpret this data.

However, it’s quite clear moms ranked social media sites behind other online sources in terms of trustworthiness. Thus while 32% ranked a brand's web site as a trustworthy source of information, just 10% said the same of its Facebook page, and just 4.4% said they considered Twitter streams to be trustworthy. By the same token, moms view Facebook as a suitable venue for expressing support for corporate philanthropy: 70% said they have liked a brand on Facebook to support a cause in the last year.

No surprise, one of the most popular destinations for moms in shopping mode was deal sites, with 75% of moms saying they’re using deal sites more over the past year.

A very large proportion -- 95% -- of the mothers surveyed own a smartphone, with moms of younger children more likely to own a smartphone than moms of old kids (57% for moms with children ages 0-7, versus 49% of moms with children 8+). 72% of moms with smartphones said they have been using mobile apps more over the last year, 67% said they visit Web sites more, 59% said they visit Facebook more, and 57% said they visit blogs more.

facebook, moms, social media, social networks

3 comments about "Moms Trust Brand Web Sites Over Facebook Pages".

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Darrell Ellens from Linkedin Group Mgr. "Daily Deal Industry" , February 10, 2012 at 2:07 p.m.
Hi Eric,
Very good article, I am not surprised that moms trust the brand's web site more than Facebook.
Facebook portrays anyone and everyone, but a brands web site seems to have more of an "OFFICIAL" feeling to it.
My theory behind it, is that I think you have a better chance of the owner, president, vp's reading it, seeing it and making it more authentic and noticeable.
I feel that a website is just more official and demands an action way more than Facebook does. Perhaps because the web site policies are stricter and more accountable than the policies for Facebook and Twitter. I also feel that LinkedIn has more trust than all of the other social media networks.
Should deal sites start promoting more interaction on their web sites and find a way to get the moms from Facebook over to their site?
Once again thanks for sharing these stats.
Reply

Christopher Stephenson from Insight InSite, February 10, 2012 at 3:07 p.m.

Great peace Erik - very informative. I'm wondering if this "brand" trust concept translates to online news brands as well (ie: NY Times, Boston Globe). My sense is that people trust the news they get from traditional news brands they've grown up with as opposed to news from news aggregators, or digital sites like Google/Yahoo!

Jane Doe from the ether, February 14, 2012 at 1:45 p.m.

Asking a group of moms who have registered on a shopping referral site for moms is hardly an indication of how moms do their shopping. That's like asking a group of shoppers at a 99 cent only store if they enjoy discounts.