Moms of the world are uniting. Online. While we’ve all heard about the staggering number of moms who play social games, that was 2009′s mommy stat: now, moms are dispersing to social media in general. A new study released today tells a tale of extremely active moms looking to leverage their social networks for product discovery, purchase and recommendations.

Child’s Play Communications, commissioned by The NPG Group released the “Social Media Moms: How Networking Impacts Purchasing Behaviors” study which asked over 2,000 moms about their social media habits.

The US-based study found that 79% of all moms with children under the age of 18 were active on social media. The study broadly defines active as someone who currently belongs to a social network, or who reads, writes or comments on blogs.

Marketers will want to perk up for these next results: 23% of these social media moms have purchased a children’s product as a result of a review or recommendation they read on social media. And the most active moms are even more influenced by their online social networks, with 43% of those who log on at least once a day report purchasing based on a review they read online.

Of those who report purchasing a children’s product because of something they read on their social networks, 55% said that this recommendation came directly from a personal review blog – not a corporate-sponsored Twitter account or online advertisement on the side of Google search.

And Facebook is, of course, a huge influencer as well. 40% of the moms who report purchasing something because of what they read online said that the recommendation that drove them to make the purchase came from Facebook.

Anita Frazier, Industry Analyst for The NPD Group, sees opportunity in the “mom market” online:

“Social media has become an enormous influence on purchasing, and savvy marketers have certainly begun to embrace this vehicle when messaging to moms. But many marketers have yet to fully realize the potential of social media and the power of peer group recommendations, which means more opportunities are on the horizon.”

If these numbers track to the general population of moms online, we’re looking at a huge market with plenty of untapped potential. There are mom-only networks oriented towards connecting moms with reviews for the products they’re most interested in out there, but there are plenty of opportunities for marketers to reach out to this web-savvy, highly-active community.

(This post firt appeared on socialtimes.com)

ECircle: brands need to effectively integrate email and social media networks

The digital marketing company’s report, conducted with Mediacom Science, analysed responses from more than 1,000 UK consumers to reveal how they interact with brands via social media and email.

It revealed that 73% of respondents could be reached through social networks and 95% check their emails once a day, yet very few brands were effectively integrating email with social networks.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents used email to receive notifications for social networks, and the majority still used email for private communication and online purchases.

The research also found that 32% of those active on social networks were fans or followers of a brand. The majority of them were motivated by functional reasons, such as gaining a discount, while 25% were motivated by the desire to demonstrate and share their attachment to the brand with contacts.

It found that very few people were using sharing features, suggesting that brands were also failing to effectively optimise email marketing tools.

Volker Wiewer, chief executive of eCircle, said: “When effectively integrated, social media and email can create a potent combination. However, our research suggests that brands are yet to truly utilise the power of these channels working together.”

(This post was firts published at BrandRepublic)

Let’s face it – at least half of us spend hours of our precious time on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter! The reason? – Is it just fun or is there something else behind it?
The latest Retrevo Gadgetology study asked social media users questions such as when, where, and how much time they spend on social media sites. It came out that people were obsessed with checking in with their social media circles throughout the day and even the night.

Social Media replacing the night sleep?

Social media fanatics checking Facebook and Twitter throughout the day are almost half of the respondents – they check in on the social media scene in bed, during the night or as soon as they wake up in the morning. Teenagers and younger social media users said they tweet by night more than 25+ years old.

Tweeting first time in the morning?

According to the study, it appears that social media may have begun to replace more conventional sources for news with many social media users saying tweets trump TVs for that morning cup of news. Among social media users, almost half are so involved with Facebook and Twitter that they check in the first thing in the morning. With 16% of social media users saying this is how they get their morning “news,” the research is questioning wheatear we are  witnessing the first signs of social media services beginning to replace the morning shows as the source for what’s going on in the world.