Young Mums Love Online Social Networks

Posted Apr 10 in Opinion tagged mia freedman, young mothers

Recently in the press was an article explaining that Women rule the blogosphere. The blogs mentioned were not about women, as the article suggested but mothers, in particular ‘new mothers’. The article postulated that it was because there was lots for them to share, lots of new experiences, and they are natural communicators. Mia Freedman’s brilliantly titled, http://www.mamamia.com.au/ blog gets 300,000 hits a month (photo from her blog).

However, what the article neglected to mention was possibly the main reason ‘new mothers communicate on the blogosphere, and social networks so much is that they have the time to do it. They have more free time than most other demographic groups. However, before you respond with vitriol – it’s the nature of that free time that makes them so likely to jump online and chat to friends / blog / gaming sites:

Young mothers over index dramatically on nearly all forms of Internet based behaviours (including online gaming and bingo). Reach them via the net, and in particular social media.

Comments

1. Daniel Oyston

   Apr 11th, 2009

   We have a 5 month old boy and I have definitely seen an increase of my wife’s use of the internet and social networks. The point about “chunks” of 20 minutes or so of free time is bang on the money.

   Another thing to consider is that the social aspect of new mothers has always been there as they are encouraged to join groups of other mothers for support and socialising.

   While some of us argue that the best part of social networking is actually meeting people offline it might be that the opposite is happening with mothers in that they have been able to expand their network of support and information from the physical world (friends, family, groups) into the digital world (blogs etc).

   

2. Nathan Bush

   Apr 14th, 2009

   I’ve been doing a lot of research in this area lately. All the reasons you’ve listed are spot on. There’s also a sort of empathy or need to share that mothers have that many other groups don’t have. They are the most likely group to share experiences or answer questions for no other reason than to help other mums when going through something that they have already. We have an exciting project launching very soon which is encouraging social networking amongst mums and helping them with their childcare decisions.

   

3. Anonymous

   Jun 5th, 2009

   Maybe they need to join a social networking support group?

   I agree, though, Daniel. People like to learn from other people so by having women and new mothers join a group where they can give, get, and share information, they feel more comfortable with the struggles and challenges of raising a baby.

   Online groups may be a great alternative to women that require a lot of at-home time because they can join the social aspect of important and relevant groups of motherhood while being in the comfort of their own home and allowing them more time to tend to their most-important priorities (the little one(s))!

   

4. Daniel Oyston

   Jun 5th, 2009

   Now that the baby is a few months older, my wife commented the other day that the mother’s group, who physically meet once or twice a week, ahs started to dwindle. This is because a lot of them are starting to return to work so the social networking aspect may start to come into further play as they all seek to stay connected.

   

5. Anonymous

   Dec 2nd, 2009

   wow! really cool blog I love it , check out this site:
   http://www.You4Dating.com , I have register my self and is 100% free Dating site
   i think it worth Visiting this site.
   Check it out Guys and let me know what do u think about this site
   http://www.You4Dating.com .

   

6. Buy Viagra

   Dec 13th, 2011

   Interesting, i have saw amazing cases when new mothers do other things except take care of the baby, they prefer to be on facebook or even playing farmville… is pretty amazing, if they don't want kids why they had them.

   

Trackbacks and Pingbacks

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

About Me

Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.

Contact