American mothers are very active online, and they’re also very influential. They’re reading, writing, and sharing product reviews and opinions across social networks with family, friends, and strangers. Brands are often part of the online conversations happening between people around the world, but did you know how popular social media really is for American moms? A great infographic from Nielsen puts a lot of the data into perspective. Here are some highlights.
Social Networking for American Moms:
- 3 out of 4 American moms visited Facebook during March 2012.
- Moms are 38% more likely to follow a brand or become a fan of a brand online than the average online audience, and moms who blog are twice as likely to do so.
- Facebook is the top social network for moms (72.5% of U.S. moms who went online visited Facebook during March 2012) vs. 14.1% of U.S. moms who went online and visited Twitter.
- American moms are 61% more likely to visit Pinterest than the average American.
- During March 2012, 5 million American moms visited Pinterest, which equates to one-third of the site’s unique visitors from home computers that month.
Blogging for American Moms:
- 1 in 3 bloggers are moms.
- Moms visit blogs more frequently than the average online population.
- 52% of bloggers are parents with kids under 18 in the household.
E-commerce for American Moms:
- Moms are 59% more likely to buy toys, 35% more likely to buy clothes, and 23% more likely to buy ebooks online than the average online population.
Mobile for American Moms:
- Half of moms use social media via mobile devices vs. 37% of the online population.
- 54% of moms own smartphones (of U.S. mobile subscribers).
Here’s what brands need to understand about American moms, and moms around much of the world. They’re spending a great deal of time online and much of that time is spent discussing and analyzing brands and products. Why wouldn’t your brand be a part of those conversations? Why shouldn’t your brand be part of those conversations? It’s hard to come up with valid arguments against spending time where your target audience clearly spends a great deal of time. Don’t you think? Next time an executive tells you that your female target audience isn’t digitally-savvy and social media or online marketing in general shouldn’t be a priority, show him or her this data and ask those two questions. The responses are likely to be very weak.
Image: Hilde Vanstraelen
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
