“Social Moms” Prefer Sleep, Smartphones over Sex

October 5, 2011

A few weeks back, SocialMoms.com and The Lipstick Economy conducted a survey of its members, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers. The goal was to learn more about what’s important to women who are active in social media: the tools they use, where they spend their time, how they view their social media activities, and what’s most important to them.

In a finding that should shock nobody on SocialMoms.com, more than half of the moms surveyed — 51% — said a full night’s sleep was the most important thing in their life— next to their children and significant other. Interestingly, smartphones and coffee ranked higher than sex among this group. Survey respondents were much more connected than the average American, making the study unique in understanding some of the most active, influential women in social media. The study can help people understand what’s most important to this influential segment of moms, who use social media as their lifeline, both at home and on the go.

Just over 43% of the social moms surveyed reported having more than 1,000 followers on Twitter. Roughly the same percentage of social moms have their own Facebook Fan Page and are very active on it (43%). Still, most respondents have somewhere between 101-500 friends on Facebook (61%). When it comes to blogs, the majority of social moms read blogs (91%) and comment on them (86%). A large percentage of social moms write and keep their own blog (74%) and identify themselves as personal bloggers (65%). While close to half of social moms surveyed actually generate income from a blog (44%), only one-fourth consider themselves professional bloggers (25%).

Survey participants were primarily stay-at-home moms (62%) with 44% employed either part-time or full-time. Some 60% of participants were “Gen X” moms.

Other highlights of the study:

Twitter (56%), blogs (55%) Facebook Fan pages (40%) and Facebook (39%) are the most common social media used, and the ones growing in importance. YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ are very important to one out of three social moms.
Some 43% of social moms have more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and 61% of social moms have between 100-500 friends on Facebook.
Mobility is key: social moms prize laptops, smartphones and WiFi. Two-thirds of social moms own a smartphone and one-fourth own an iPad or other type of tablet computer.
The majority of Social Moms own a smartphone (63%). The primary uses of smartphones (1-2 hours per day) are to stay in touch with family/friends (43%), for Facebook (34%) and to make calls (32%).
Social moms also use smartphones (a few minutes a day) for managing schedules (39%), checking the weather (39%), photographs (38%), Twitter (31%) or for maps/directions (30%).
Most social moms use only about five mobile apps on a daily basis, despite many moms having 20+ installed on their smartphone or iPad.
Email is still an important social connector for this group. Compared to a year ago, moms said they use Twitter (75%), blogs (71%), Facebook (69%), email (63%), online search (58%) and texting (50%) more now.
Facebook ads are tolerated by social moms but seem less effective when it comes to driving actual purchases. This is not to say that Facebook ads cannot serve as a great tool to increase product awareness or “likes.”

Do you fit in with the majority of these findings? How do you use social media differently?

Resesarch Methodology
SocialMoms and The Lipstick Economy collected 733 responses, giving the study a margin of error of 4% at the 95% confidence level. The survey was fielded from July 18, 2011 to August 30, 2011 using an online survey tool. Participant were given the opportunity to enter a random drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card as an incentive at the end of the survey.

The Demographics of a Social Mom
Most survey participants (62%) were stay-at-home moms and 38% were working moms. More than one-third were unemployed outside the home (37%), while one-fourth earned a part-time income (26%) and close to one-fifth were secondary breadwinners (18%).

Age distribution by generation, included:

Millennial moms: 20%
Gen X moms: 60%
Baby Boomer moms: 20%

Close to half of the Social Moms we surveyed had kids younger than 5 years old (52%) and/or kids 5-12 years old (49%). One-fourth had kids 13-18 years old (26%).

The Lipstick Economy is a website dedicated to marketing to the power moms who spend $2 trillion dollars annually and are the heart of consumer spending. Jamie Dunham, a mom and the voice of The Lipstick Economy, is a brand strategist focused on creating cultural relevancy for brands and helping them understand the social dynamics of the marketplace.