Content Marketing Today

How to Market to Gen Y Mom’s: It’s All about Helping Them to Connect Online

This younger generation behaves much differently than their Gen X counterparts.

Although both groups are active Internet users, the Gen Y set is looking for community while Gen X’ers are much more task oriented.  The behavioral differences are pretty startling.

According to the Media Research Center, in summarizing the findings of a NewMediaMetrics August 2008 study that was featured on Parenting.com:

The findings show that Gen Y moms make use of digital tools and activities that allow them to create and own content (i.e., online profiles, blogs), as well as connect and interact with other moms (i.e., text messages, photos and video, online community). These behaviors demonstrate Gen Y moms’ confidence in their use of these technologies as forms of communication and self-expression. It also reveals a trend among the younger Gen Y moms of relying on the common experience of members of their cohort to help them navigate their journey through parenthood.

In other words, these moms are using the Internet to replace or to supplement the kind of in person, neighborhood connecting that they would have done 1, 2 or 3 generations ago.

The obvious takeaway: If you are marketing to Gen Y moms, help them connect with one another with online communities that feature content that is relevant to their lives–and in which they can play an active role in creating. 

See the PDF version of the study here.