Comments on: Does the momosphere reflect moms?

By: Susan Getgood

Susan Getgood — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:59:48 +0000

Thanks everyone for your comments. I am going to dig into this over the weekend. I doubt whether I will find “the answer” but hopefully it will be enough to tell us the other questions we should be asking.

By: MommyNamedApril

MommyNamedApril — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:28:04 +0000

Wish I had some data and could help you out - and I'll be very interested to see if you're able to glean anything concrete. That being said, in my personal experience as a mommy-blogger (and avid mommyblog reader) and, also, as a mom who participates in the real world, I do not find the momosphere to be representative of the 'real world'. I have found mommy bloggers to be more into breast-feeding, babywearing, cooking, green living, and social activism generally. I have also found mommybloggers to be disproportionately members of the Democratic party. This is only my personal experience and, possibly, I have not fleshed out the interweb of mommyblogging thoroughly. MommyNamedApril´s last blog post.."Baby Wearing Fools" by Mama Seuss.

By: Doug Haslam

Doug Haslam — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:46:00 +0000

What I’m most interested in is what research Motrin conducted in testing the ad. What was the makeup of focus groups, if any? How did it track demographically vs. “mommy bloggers?” Or did they just go in blind thinking they had a clever ad?

Spoken as a dad with back pain from carrying camp chairs to and from my 10-year-old’s soccer fields all Autumn.

Doug Haslam´s last blog post..Uttercast: Mindset

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:01:59 +0000

I don’t have data, but I do have personal experience. I’m a stepmom which is almost a “niche market” mom.

I saw the ads and wasn’t offended, but then again, I didn’t carry a baby on my chest or back.

Would love to help if you need a stepmom’s point of view.

By: Susan Getgood

Susan Getgood — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:32:08 +0000

Kimberly — I’m just curious to see if/where it might be representative. The argument has been made that online moms are more activist than offline, therefore *not* representative. But, just because they are activist does not preclude them being representative as well.

Are there populations with a high density of moms online, so we could say that the online women *are* representative of the total. Certainly not for every demographic group, but maybe some…

By: Kimberly/Mom in the City

Kimberly/Mom in the City — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:11:11 +0000

Personally, I don't think that the online momosphere is representative of the offline mom community, especially racially and regionally. As a Black woman, I definitely don't see moms of color as well represented. Also, most of the NYC moms that I know (who aren't bloggers/ paid to do social media) aren't on Twitter and such - they're too busy juggling all of their offline roles! It will be interesting to see what the stats say though... Kimberly/Mom in the City´s last blog post..Baby Einstein Sneak Peek & Baby Mozart DVD Giveaway

By: dawn

dawn — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:19:39 +0000

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. My sense (and this is from being a part of the online parenting community since before my son was conceived -- I was on a TTC list called ONNA back in 1995 or 96 and then also from managing a huge online parenting community for four years as part of my magazine editor duties) is that the online world is ahead of the curve. I think that the AP movement would not have grown so quickly without the internet and that it was much more of a force for online moms than for off-line but that ultimately it jumped to mainstream. I see this again in the adoption community -- it's much more progressive online than it is off. So I think -- and have always thought and encouraged our magazine advertisers to think -- that marketers should be studying the online parenting community so they could see what was coming next. What concerns were going to be growing, what discussions were happening, what trends were starting. I've always thought that online parenting communities and blogs were basically a fabulous marketing study opportunity if only folks were smart enough to look. dawn´s last blog post..Sick of not writing