By doing this, we have been able to gather real insight into movement and changes in behaviour that are not only incredibly valuable to our little business, but also interesting when set against global trends and predictions.

We know that social media has effected and is shaping our lives. But we can see small changes that indicate people taking a more measured view and feeling more in control of their platforms. We saw an 8% drop in the number of people who think they spend too much time on social media, a 10% drop in those who enjoy sharing personal experiences on social media a 6% drop in those who are left feeling a bit rubbish by other people’s lives and a 13% drop in people afraid to voice their own opinion. 6% fewer mums now see social media as a lifeline.

Industry leaders predicted that Instagram will grow in favour. We have seen a 5% increase in adoption since 2018. So no headline news on that from us, other than to note in the same timeframe, Facebook has seen only a tiny 1% decline and all other platforms have seen a healthy increase in adoption, most notable Snapchat with 7% and Linked In with 13%.

Most interesting for a PR agency who manages social media accounts on behalf of our clients, there is a notable 17% increase in people following brands on social, since 2018. 47% of our mum network are now using Instagram to research and interact with brands (a 15% increase since 2018) and only 2% more research and interact using Facebook (49%). 30% of mums say they do not use social media to interact. However, this answer shows a measurable 10% drop since 2018.

We saw a 10% increase in mums who are drawn to a brand simply because of its social presence and an 11% increase in those saying they are more likely to buy from a brand if it has a fun, entertaining or informative newsfeed. 82% of respondents are more likely to buy from a brand if it has lots of ‘likes’ and positive comments, 76% if it engages and interacts with followers and 75% if it has a human voice. 28% of mums are put off buying from a brand if it does not have an active social presence. Where, 68% say they are not put off purchasing if a brand isn’t active on social media, this is a 5% drop since 2018, demonstrating a shifting tide in judgement and a clear advantage if brands are on social and active.

Speculation abounds over the murky world of the ‘influencer’ with industry attention moving towards the ‘nano’ influencer: someone with around 1,000 followers on Instagram. Our poll shows a clear move towards accepting recommendations from other people on social media, who are not your friend. When asked why people follow influencers, the lead reply for 2020, with just under half (49%) of all respondents agreeing, ‘I can relate to them’. Across the board, ‘celebrity’ garnered limited responses.

When asked how mums discover new products, ‘friends and family’, the #1 influence, has seen a 5% increase. Reading magazines and newspapers has seen a 5% decline and is now pretty much level with ‘watching parent influencers’ at 25% and 23% respectively. Browsing Google (54%) and seeing an ad in my social newsfeed (52%) remain powerful, and most exciting for us, ‘watching a brand’s social media account’ has risen 13%, from 12% in 2018, 13% in 2019 to 25% in 2020. Putting a brand’s owned social media sites as influential in finding out about new products, on a par with reading magazines and newspapers.    

 

When it comes to driving a sale, again friends are right up there with 91% of the vote, followed by positive customer reviews at 67%. Ads online and on TV have a low response, with only 11% influencing purchase, however ‘reading a blogger review’ lifted 4% to 24% and is now more influential than seeing a product in a magazine (21%). A quarter of respondents said they are influenced to buy after seeing an influencer post. We did not distinguish between a ‘blogger review’ and ‘influencer post’ in the question. Where we know most influencers will now provide a ‘review’ in their grid, we are committed to asking the questions in the same way year on year and the roles of ‘Instagram influencer’ and ‘website blogger’ were less blurred in 2018. Our caveat here would be that when reading the question, mums will have differentiated between the terminology ‘review’ and ‘post’.

We saw a 68% positive response to ‘influencer recommendation’ with a 13% increase since 2018 for those mums tempted by an influencer to do further research into a product.

Finally we asked about sustainability and attempted to gain a measure on changes in attitude once people become parents. The answers over the last three years have remained reasonably consistent. 54% of respondents claim to have become more aware of issues after becoming a mum, an 8% increase since 2018. 7% are less influenced by a higher price point and 6% more admitted they would do things differently if they could turn back the clock.

We’re excited by these latest findings. Made quite stark when plotted into a graph. The tide is changing rapidly. Social media is now a highly influential channel to market for brands, especially for those brands not representing themselves at the point of sale. It is a channel where a purchase can be directly affected. Brands that are not on social, and are not engaging, entertaining, using a stand-out human voice, are quite simply handing an advantage to their competitors.

Get in touch with Jane on 01295 369 182 if you want to see the detail and graphs.