Moms Have Social Media on Their Minds

Women with children at home are more than 20% likelier to use Facebook and MySpace, and 10% likelier to use Twitter, than average adults, finds a Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey conducted by BIGresearch.

Women with children at home are more than 20% likelier to use Facebook and MySpace, and 10% likelier to use Twitter, than average adults, finds a Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey conducted by BIGresearch.

Therefore, retailers and CPG that implement effective social media strategies could firm their relationships with these chief shoppers for larger, younger, growing households with bigger baskets—and very often more years to spend productively on their preferred brands in stores of their choice, notes SupermarketGuru.com. 

By connecting with them through social media, retailers and CPG could acquire more ‘top of mind’ time, engage shoppers in more ways (education, entertainment, discussion groups where moms share tips, for example), and gain insights into their shopping preferences.

Almost all moms seek advice before buying (94%) at least regularly or occasionally—even more (97%) give advice on products or services they’ve purchased. The implicit trust of such sharing—along with the harried, time-crunched lifestyles of moms with children at home—make it seem a beneficial approach for stores or brands to help foster such discussions online. Behave ethically, and the halo they gain could help endear more moms with children at home to what they’re selling.

When reaching out to these moms with promotions, the five that influence her most, the RAMA findings show, are: product samples in store, product samples at home, shelf coupons, store loyalty cards, and special displays.

Influencing these moms through conventional media will be tougher. While they read People more than any other magazine, and at twice the rate of all adults, less than 9% do read this publication.  By comparison, four out of ten of these moms say they read the local daily newspaper (40%), but that’s a lower percentage than the 47% of all adults who read the local newspaper.

These figures contrast sharply with the 83% of Facebook users who are moms with children at home, who say they log on to the social media site at least once a day; about 30% say they log on five or more times a day.