Three years later and social media is once again thrust to the fore, where unimaginable 12 months ago, these platforms are currently the only accessible social interaction with friends and loved ones. Portals to the world where people are sharing intimate details of their illness, mental health, doubts and anger. 

10 questions. The same 10 questions since 2018. We scrutinise the responses specifically for the year, and against previous years. We are incredibly grateful to our friends and families who support us by answering and sharing the survey to their networks and feel fortunate that we embarked on this exercise prior to such dramatic shifts in our social boundaries.  

DISCLAIMER:

In 2021, 100 mums and 35 dads answered. It’s important to stress, these insights should be deemed 'anecdotal' as the quantity would not be deemed a viable representative size, but the people who answer are from across the UK from varying backgrounds. We feel it provides us with an interesting barometer to behaviour and our changing attitudes towards social media. 

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2021: we have seen a marked difference in Dad consumption and behaviour where Instagram is a leading channel for entertainment and following brands and people they do not know is a growing trend. With both mums and dads we saw significant changes in perception of purchasing more sustainable products.

Facebook is still the leading site for mums (97%) with Instagram its main challenger (74%), however the dads now match this figure, with more dads on Instagram (74%) than Facebook (68%). The dads are more active on YouTube (54%) than mums (42%) with comments indicating that dads use YouTube for instructions, to learn and to research new products. 

Many more of us are following people we don’t know personally, and our dads are leading the way with 66% following people they don’t know. That’s a huge 24% increase since 2020. 66% of these dads follow those who share their hobbies and interests and 60% who they find entertaining. Only 8% of our dad respondents this year said they don’t follow people they don’t know. This increase tallies with the uptake of Instagram and it’s propensity towards ‘Influencer’ content. The majority of dads use social media for entertainment and relaxation (68%) but are more cautious about showing their true opinions, from 12% in 2019 to 23% today. Over the last 3 years the dads have become less likely to enjoy sharing their life on social, dropping from 62% in 2019 to 46% in 2021 and a strong 40% say they follow brands and businesses on social. A significant growth in dads who find social media can be a lifeline, from 6.25% in 2020 to 20% today. 

58% of mums follow people they don’t know, are most likely to follow people who share their hobbies (53%) and because they find them inspiring (57%). A few mums told us they now use social media for shopping. 70% of mums use social media for entertainment and relaxation and 44%, a significant 18% more than last year, now follow brands and businesses. Fewer mums worry about sharing their real opinion on social media, down from 38% in 2018 to 24% in 2021. 

Google search is still strong with an average 65% using it to discover new products but humans have the edge. Friends and family are king, with an average 71% of the vote and discovering new products via people you don’t know personally has shown the most growth, up to 39% of mums (which is on a par with seeing an ad pop up in their social newsfeed) and 17% of the dads. Reading blogs also showed some growth to 25% of mums using blogs for discovery and a more significant 37% of the dads – the third most influential medium for discovery. 

Dads discovering via a brand’s social media accounts has also shown impressive 12% growth to 17%, nudging higher than magazines and newspapers which dropped from 23% to 14%.

Receiving a special offer in your newsfeed is the third most likely incentive to buy something at 37% for mums and 31% for dads, but friend recommendation is still very powerful with an average 85% response. And, on average 51% are swayed by a positive customer review on a third party shop eg Amazon. 

For mums, 31% have been more likely to buy because of an 'influencer' recommendation, which is on a par with reading about it in a magazine (30%) and a positive customer review on a brand’s social media page (23%) is as powerful as reading one on its online shop (21%).

Again, 'people they don't know personally', are growing in relevance with our dads, showing 12% increase to 28%. A positive review on a brand’s social feed or online shop is still more compelling at 20%, than seeing ads – either on TV (8%) or online (14%) which are least likely to drive them to purchase.

A total 72% of mums have either bought, researched or plan to buy as a result of a recommendation from someone they follow but don’t know personally, an impressive increase from 55% in 2018.

Dads also show more openness to these types of recommendations, growing from 31% in 2019 to 48% in 2021.

When it comes to interacting with brands on social media sites, 51% of mums use Instagram to connect, and 48% use Facebook. Very few mums follow businesses on Linked in (5%). We saw a significant drop in those who say they don’t follow businesses - from 40% in 2018 to 23% today. 

Far less dads are following business on social media, with 48% claiming they don’t – albeit down from 62% in 2019. Over a third of the dads we spoke to (34%) follow brands on Instagram and even less (28%) follow on Facebook. Brand engagement on Twitter has seen a steep decline from 21% in 2020 to 8% in 2021. At 8%, marginally more dads than mums interact with businesses over LinkedIn. 17% of dads engage with brands on YouTube, verses 7% of mums. 

53% of mums have been drawn to a brand because of its social presence and the most compelling factors are: if it has lots of positive engagement (49%), if it engages and interacts (48%) and if it has a human voice (47%). Least compelling are brands that run lots of competition (18%) and on that front, 28% have followed a brand to enter a competition and 13% have unfollowed subsequently. A fifth (21%) of mums are put off buying from a brand that doesn’t have a social media presence. 

36% of the dads have been drawn to a brand because of its social presence, because it engages and interacts with followers, receives lots of likes and engagement from others and has a fun and entertaining newsfeed. Brands that have a human voice received 33% of their vote. Least compelling again are brands that run lots of competitions (15%) and 30% have followed a brand to enter a competition, with 15% unfollowing afterwards. Only 12% are put off if a brand doesn’t have a compelling social media presence.  

69% of mums told us they are more aware of environmental issues now, which represents 23% more than the respondents in 2018. 19% are more conscious of the future now they are parents and a significant 20% increase (from 8%-28%) say they would like to do more but find it expensive. And from a consistently low percentage over the years – from 1% in 2018 to 7% in 2020 we saw a huge increase to 33% saying if they could turn back the clock they would make different choices sooner.

Similar to mums, the dad responses saw some interesting increases across the board. A 24% increase in those more concerned for the future since becoming a parent, a fifth of the dads find environmental choices too expensive (20%) and 31% would make different choices if they could turn back the clock.