The UK ‘Social Mums’ 2013 report has found that 40 per cent of mothers who use parenting forums said that they bought a product based on a comment or review they saw online, while 31 per cent said that they had decided against making a purchase after reading a review.
Carried out by Diffusion, the research found that parenting forums like Mumsnet were the top social media destinations for mums, with 15 per cent visiting them once a week or more, followed by Facebook Fan Pages of children's/parenting brands (12 per cent), ‘mummy blogs’ (six per cent) and finally Twitter pages of children's/parenting brands (five per cent).
However, it was found that nine per cent were afraid to leave comments because they were worried about how others would react to their opinions.
Tom Malcolm, head of consumer at Diffusion, commented: “Parenting sites and forums are now as much a part of parenting as late night feeds and the school run, but many mothers are becoming anxious about appearing not to conform to ideals or accepted parenting norms expressed on some of these sites. The growing influence of online parenting sites as shown in Diffusion’s research highlights that for many parenting brands ensuring they get the thumbs up from mothers on Facebook and Mumsnet is becoming ever more critical.”
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