Social Media and Social Behaviors

Today’s society is experiencing the growth of social media. In the U.S., the social media landscape is comprised mostly of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A recent article I discovered in Digiday examined the differences in social behaviors among working moms and stay at home moms. The article and research found that working moms dominate across most social networks based on the number of followers, variety of topics they post on and the types of content they share. However, despite having fewer online profiles to manage, stay at home moms are engaging just as often in social media.

It may not be surprising that working moms have a larger network gathered from past and current jobs. Working moms maintain a wider variety of social platforms than stay at home moms. According to the article, they have more than twice the Twitter followers, four times the Instagram followers and nearly 15 times the Google Plus contacts. Pinterest, however, is equally popular among both groups of moms.

What stood out to me is that stay at home moms have the potential to drill down deeper into their network.

“For me, Facebook is about trying to connect with another person, whether it’s someone I went to elementary school with or someone who is five blocks away [and] looking for a plumber,” says Nancy Gonzalez, a stay at home mom in Oak Park, Ill. “Last week, I posted from the dentist’s office that my son might have an abscess, and all these people — my soccer-mom friends and my sister — sent notes back, saying ‘I hope he’s better.’ [Social media is] definitely a very personal thing for me.”

Of course both working moms and stay at home moms will have an influence on social media and the society. While working moms cover a broader range of platforms and topics, I agree with the article in that stay at home moms are able to have a stronger influence in what it is that they are engaging with on social media.