Every year, we run a survey with mums to understand their relationship with social media. Early in January, we ask the exact same 10 questions to a random selection of 100 mums. This commitment to the process enables us to study nuance and identify trends in their relationship with the platforms that have become so integral to their lives.

We started the process in January 2018. 18 months after the Brexit vote, 12 months after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45^th President of the United States and six months after a general election in the UK. On each occasion we had witnessed social media playing a significant role in the process. Strong negative human emotions such as division, discomfort, mistrust and anger were rippling through society as an effect of behaviours on social media channels and the world was quickly identifying new terms of reference such as ‘trolls’ and ‘keyboard warriors’, to make sense of it.

One of the driving forces for Vista focussing on the family market was because mums were early adopters of this new media landscape, with a power £850bn purse. These platforms were irrevocably changing the communications industry and how brands could interact and engage with mums. We were particularly interested to see if the close relationship that mums had built with their social media profiles had been rocked by the turbulent political landscape.

Then, in January 2021, social media had once again evolved and had become a lifeline to many.

After what has been a period of stabilisation, the results in 2024 paint a positive progress for brands, presenting exciting marketing opportunities across social media channels.

In 2024 the results feel fresh and they feel exciting for the communications industry. We can see green shoots of mums’ relationship with their channels maturing and becoming less about personal expression and more about exploration. Mums are sharing personal information within the boundaries of what is acceptable to them, they are less likely to be upset by others and far more likely to interact with brands, and people they don’t know. They are open to being influenced by social media in a commercial way.

What do mums use social media for in 2024? 77% use social media to follow people they don’t know personally for inspiration and entertainment (a 32% increase on 2023) and 72% claim to use social media to follow brands and businesses (a huge 40% increase on 2023). 50% use it to follow celebrities and 47% for news, sports and current affairs.   

Why do mums follow people they don’t know? In the most part, 67% can relate to the influencers and 62% of mums follow influencers who share their hobbies and interests. 60% follow for inspiration and 50% for entertainment. Only 2% of the mum respondents said they do not follow people who they don’t know personally.

When asked if mums are more likely to have bought something because they saw an influencer recommend it, 65% of mums said yes. A significant increase of 24% since January 2023. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Instagram is now the platform of choice for mums to interact with brands, twitter has fallen off a cliff, Tik Tok has entered the room with 7% of mums using it to interact with brands and Pinterest is showing healthy growth for brand interaction at 10%. Overall use of Pinterest is in a steady increase, growing 20% this year to 32% of the mums who responded using the platform.

In 2024, asking mums how they discover new brands, Friends and Family recommendations is still the leading response (70%), but, until this year, Google has always been the second. However, in 2024,’Watching people who inspire me on my social media accounts’ was the second response with 67% of mums admitting they have discovered new brands this way. Google received 60% of the votes and social ads, 42%. 

With regards to shopping sustainably, 62% of mums are more aware of environmental issues now and any increased cost to buy more sustainably is showing as less of an issue with a 10% drop to less than a third of mums (32%) saying price is prohibitive to buying more sustainably.

This survey took place over three weeks in January 2024. We use Survey Monkey and social media to invite responses from mums within and outside of our network and each response is completely anonymous.  The sample size means that the results can only be used anecdotally, but when correlated to previous years, using the exact same questions and exact same recruitment methods, it enables us to draw interesting comparisons and conclusions to mums’ relationship with her social media channels. What's clear is that in 2024, social media is becoming a more lucrative opportunity for brands to engage with mums and influence purchase. 

Contact us for more insights and innovative ways to engage mums with your products and services.