You Already Knew Parents Post on Facebook More Than Others. Now Find Out How Much
Hey, baby photos get the likes
By now, it's an old joke that moms and dads love to post photos of their kids on Facebook. But thanks to the social network's research with Ipsos Media—they surveyed 8,000 people in eight countries—and Facebook's internal data analysis, we now know just how true that idea is.
Some of the more interesting findings came from its U.S.-based study. For instance, new American moms post 2.5 times more status updates, 3.5 times more photos and 4.2 times more videos than nonparents, per Facebook's internal stats. And hey, the updates work: New parents' posts (those from moms or dads) about their babies get 37 percent more interactions from family members and 47 percent more interactions from friends than their general posts.
And more than most people, new moms and dads worldwide seem to be uploading posts from their smartphones. The global end of the research—which included 1,000 people from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Germany and Australia, respectively—found that new parents use Facebook mobile 1.3 times more often than nonparents, Facebook found.
"Mobile has become a lifeline for parents, now overindexing on mobile usage across the eight countries we studied," said Ann Mack, head of content and activation, global consumer insights for Menlo Park, Calif.-based social media giant. "For brands, this presents a huge opportunity to connect with modern parents and provide utility in the moments they can't be reached elsewhere."
Here are some other interesting U.S.-based stats from the Facebook-Ipsos study:
- 56 percent of dads said they take care of their children as much as, if not more than, their partners, while only 27 percent of moms stated that dads carry equal or more weight in parenting.
- 53 percent of millennial moms said mobile devices help them shop better for their families, compared with 42 percent of Gen X moms and 29 percent of baby boomer mothers.
- 53 percent of parents with young kids stated that they use mobile devices to keep their children entertained.
"Parenting has become a digitally shared experience," Mack concluded. "Technology enables parents to share the joys, challenges and questions inherent in raising a child with their family and friends both near and far on a regular basis. Instead of mailing holiday cards or school pictures, they're sharing their child's milestones through photos and video online."
