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SocialMama App
Research Focus
Mothers are an essential component of our society because they form the first connection with their children and society. They intend to make our lives better from an early age. Mothers are the centerpiece of the family, considering that they possess a powerful force for both integration and social cohesion. The mother-child relationship is essential for the healthy development of the child. There is an increasing trend currently of mothers not only being caregivers but also breadwinners for their families. Therefore, the motherhood journey is crucial for many mothers, and getting support during this whole period is vital. An audience market analysis is essential in understanding consumer preferences, interests, demographics, locations, and other aspects that support a particular group (Tatham, 2015). This audience market analysis examines the role of the SocialMama media platforms in their role in helping mothers handle various issues during the motherhood period, including building friendships with other mothers to curb loneliness and the perception that mothers hold towards this social app.
SocialMama is a social network, and an app developed to ensure that women do not feel isolated and lonely, especially during the current Coronavirus pandemic. As identified in its website, the platform’s mission states, “SocialMama reduces loneliness by connecting women together in an inclusive ecosystem that supports them on their journey of motherhood, with a zero-tolerance policy for mom-shaming and misinformation” (SocialMama, 2021). The organization and app are focused on ensuring that women are not shamed for their activity as mothers through companionship. The organization also ensures that mothers are provided with expert-led resources to limit misinformation and provide information based on various resources, including motherhood, mental health, and fertility (SocialMama, 2021). The organization works through its app and website in ensuring that the mothers do not feel isolated, primarily through the whole motherhood journey. It also believes in supporting mothers who feel unsupported through connecting mothers throughout the country. They connect mothers with others of the same interest to ensure that mothers form a bond with each other and survive loneliness, desperation, and isolation.
It is identified that the motherhood journey is very challenging. The various challenges of motherhood include fatigue, loneliness, and overwhelming confusion, and there are also challenges of associating with others (Cronin, 2015). Since motherhood comes in various stages, SocialMama aims at offering support for every mother at each stage. Besides providing support, the app also focuses on giving mothers healthcare support as identified, including mental health support. The founder of the app Amanda Ducach and her husband, founded the app to offer support to mothers after one of their friends called from the ER in the middle of the night feeling overwhelmed and isolated. Amanda identified that for a friend to be okay, she needed to be connected to another friend in a familiar situation. This whole insight led to the founding of the SocialMama app in early 2019.
This audience market analysis aims at understanding the different demographics of mothers that use the SocialMama app and the nature of the app in influencing the perceptions and behaviors of the mothers. From the increased use of the app, it is evident that many people have embraced the idea that motherhood is a challenging journey that needs support. Furthermore, it is also essential to understand the relationship and importance of the app during this Coronavirus pandemic period, where mothers had to spend more time with their children. Therefore, it is important to understand the perception that mothers have when it comes to using the app and if it has become an effective way to help mothers away from loneliness and feelings of isolation.
The focus on SocialMama’s mission is imminent that their role is to ensure that mothers find companionship and cultivate friendships with other mothers around them. The app and its organizers focus on it is easier to deal with issues when one has the right friends around them. The founder Ducach and her husband found out that building female relationships and having a solid foundation required women to be connected through the challenges they faced. Ducach from Houston identifies that, issues such as depression, infertility, and divorce connect people even better. Such problems are complex for individuals to solve or tackle on their own. There is also an aspect with the app that cannot be neglected and is based on the ability of the user to find relevant information about other people they can associate with and select the ones they are comfortable with. This creates an aspect where the users connect with people, they feel satisfied with and not random strangers because they already have their background information. The whole process fills up the gap and struggles which mothers constantly undergo to try and develop friendships with strangers of unknown backgrounds.
SocialMama also allows mothers to discuss various relevant topics that will enable them to complete the motherhood journey. In other words, the founders of the app clarify that the app’s primary goal is not only to ensure that mothers get support from other mothers but also a platform where mothers can discuss other relevant topics ranging from breastfeeding to even makeup. Apart from allowing mothers to form “mom tribes,” the app intends to helping mothers relate to a healthy lifestyle rather than only find friends. Furthermore, the app, which allows free downloads, enables every mother to access its services rather than including paid services that might limit particular demography. Consequently, apart from the app adding value as a social connector, recently, it introduced an added feature that informs mothers about issues related to the current Coronavirus pandemic (Lewinski, 2020). This feature aims to help mothers since they face unique health challenges during this pandemic, especially those in quarantine and isolation. Furthermore, during this whole pandemic period, the feature allows mothers to access the free Expert Program. Hence, the program enables the mothers to access various healthcare topics like emotional therapy, lactation, and family medicine. According to the founders, the app is essential this time because it will allow cutting down the communication barriers between mothers and medical practitioners, which reduces medical concerns and mental stress issues, helping mothers navigate their lives during the current pandemic.
Current statistics show that SocialMama is still within a small range of operation, considering it is still a small organization and app. On January 1st, 2019, the organization was founded by Amanda Ducach, Karishma Patel, and Vishrut Sharma currently headquartered in Greater Houston Area, Southern US. The current for-profit company now has three employees and two investors who have invested $120,000. The recent investors in the organization include Techstars Austin Accelerator and Techstars (Crunch Base, 2021). The organization, though small, is making impacts in Houston and also other areas across the country. Similar Apps to SocialMama and offer competition include Band of Mothers, SmartMom, Peanut, and Wolf + Friends. The app targets mothers within a particular location and are also like-minded. This app’s advantage is that it is wide demographically considering that it meets the need of a wide variety of mothers. Thus, like-minded mothers, including workout partners, co-working buddies, pals, and playdates, can be met by mothers searching and filling their preferred category among single moms, LGBTQ, military, and many more. In addition, the mothers get a platform where they can ask any question and get them answered, and even contribute.
Statement of Problem
More mothers are increasingly facing challenges with motherhood, especially during the current Coronavirus pandemic, where they may be overwhelmed. In most cases, mothers end up overwhelmed, mainly because they have to attend to childcare and professional work, which can always lead to them being lonely and overwhelmed. Therefore, mothers countrywide have the challenge of tackling motherhood individually because it is an overwhelming and challenging journey.
Focus of Study
The issues associated with motherhood cannot be neglected. Motherhood affects individual engagement, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions. This means that the challenges associated with motherhood also affect the mothers’ well-being in the long process. Therefore, it is possible to associate the SocialMama app with the overall well-being of the mothers during the motherhood process. Understanding the mothers’ perceptions of the app is vital in understanding how they relate to the app and its impacts on the mother’s well-being. This is first because data shows that mothers are greatly isolated and lonely during the motherhood journey. Even though there are isolated data about the relationship between motherhood and loneliness, researchers are increasingly finding a strong correlation between the two variables. There have been concerns associated with loneliness and isolation as a “pandemic in the current Coronavirus pandemic.” During this period, many people and especially mothers, are lonely. However, studies still show a correlation between motherhood and loneliness (Lee et al., 2017). The problem of loneliness is deeper among single mothers and affects their perception of themselves, the motherhood journey, and those around them. SocialMama provides insight on loneliness and motherhood, showing that 64 percent of mothers always feel friendless, and over 90 percent of mothers always suffer from a form known as “baby blues” (SocialMama, 2021). These are statistics showing the issues of loneliness and motherhood in the country.
Since SocialMama provides social support for every type of mother, it is difficult to isolate the issue of teenage mothers in the country. Teenage mothers are always at risk of increased challenges during the whole motherhood period. Therefore, SocialMama also ensures that it supports teenage mothers who are always at risk of having challenging motherhood. Teenage mothers continue to face complications during pregnancy, malnutrition, and financial constraints associated with poverty, lack of support from surrounding family setup, emotional problems such as depression and anxiety, and drug and alcohol abuse issues. Therefore, this shows that teenage mothers experience many psychological, mental, physical, and social challenges (Mangeli et al., 2017). Studies show that friendships are essential tools for support to teenage mothers, an aspect that SocialMama has identified (Ellis-Sloan & Tamplin, 2018). This shows that SocialMama and every other organization that has developed social apps for mothers are relevant towards eliminating loneliness within mothers.
The importance of the app during this pandemic can not be neglected. Data still shows that parenting during this time of the pandemic has been highly challenging, and isolation levels for mothers have also risen significantly. The above result has included increased levels of mental health issues needing the support of those close to them and even friendships (Molgora & Accordini, 2020). The study by Molgora finds a need for psychological and social support to mothers during this pandemic, especially from their partners and friends.
The demographic distribution of the users of the SocialMama app is vital in helping us understand the perception that mothers hold. The Cash Mama app is used by every mother, meaning that it serves a wide variety of age groups. This means that serving the population of different mothers means that they have embraced diversity. It is also essential to understand that the app is also used by LGBTQ parents meaning that discriminatory and shaming elements are eliminated on the platform. Diversity is an aspect that the app intends to promote, especially when it comes to motherhood. The app, which is estimated to be 18mbs in size and with a 3.9 rating on Google Play and Apple’s app store, has gotten reviews for helping different types of mothers interact with each other and form meaningful relationships. The positive ratings have also been because educative information is provided on the app where mothers can ask questions and other members have an opportunity to contribute. Besides, there are also professional medical and social workers who offer professional advice. Therefore, the app’s demographic characteristics that are trying to reduce loneliness among mothers are based on making sure mothers get answers and guidance associated with motherhood. SocialMama is also on Facebook, Pinterest. and Instagram to provide a broader platform to reaching even mothers within a complete geographical setup.
On aspects of location, SocialMama intends to serve mothers from all over the country. Therefore, it is possible to interact with other mothers from large locations. However, the app owners advise that the app’s effectiveness is achieved when dealing with clients from around the individual’s area. In other words, if a mother is searching for a companion or a friend and they are located in Houston, then the probability that they will find those close by is higher than those from far away. This means that even though the app can connect (SocialMama, 2020). The founders admit that the matching process for users is based on the technology and algorithm that uses multiple dimensions to effectively match users, including areas of compatibility, unique needs, location, and like-mindedness. This means that the target location for matching users is within close vicinity. Therefore, users on the app who are located close by can be matched easily. To understand this better, the users fill in information during the signing-in process to create a profile. The information that has been filled in is then factored in to develop a compatibility score used for matching. Consequently, the need for a particular mother is compared and matched with the other.
The SocialMama app having better reviews on both Google Play and Apple Store shows that mothers have a positive perception of using social apps. Various studies show a positive correlation between current parents and the use of parenting and social apps. More parents are embracing technology in parenting, which also includes the SocialMama application. Parents are increasingly developing a positive perception of parenting apps, especially those identified as quality apps (Virani et al., 2019). Research has also shown that mothers turn to parent apps, the internet, and social media platforms for advice on parenting because of the availability of tons of parenting information online that eventually helps them make reasonable decisions about the whole process (Moon et al., 2019). Besides, early motherhood has always affected mothers, and they need help and support from others. In this case, SocialMama tries to ensure that mothers receive companionship during this whole process and relevant information that can help mothers navigate motherhood. Most mothers currently depend greatly on parenting apps to associate with the entire motherhood journey (Lupton, 2016). Therefore, the current mothers in this digital era hold a positive attitude towards parenting and socializing apps.
Analyzing the mothers’ perception of parenting and socializing apps like SocialMama also leaves us with the option of studying the interests and consumer preferences of the app. Since SocialMama has positive reviews compared to negative ones, it is imminent that mothers are averagely satisfied with the app’s services. The app has various features that help to develop user preferences and interests. First, the app allows for direct chat and messaging capabilities, enabling mothers to chat directly with other mothers and even experts. Secondly, there is an option of meeting mothers across the country, or one can filter to allow access to those within the locality. Third, it will enable mothers to have free meetups with licensed professionals. Finally, it allows for personalized matches for mothers based on their needs, preference, and location. The consumers within this segment prefer the effectiveness of the apps. In this case, for SocialMama, it is the effectiveness of helping the mothers meet their match and also chat with them. Users also prefer efficiency with the use of the app without glitches like login failures. Currently, the app with over ten thousand installs has been receiving negative reviews because consumers are unable to chat and log in.
Statement of Purpose
This study aims to try and understand the effectiveness of the SocialMama app among other social apps for mothers. The study also aims at having an in-depth understanding of the perception that mothers hold for social and parenting apps like SocialMama. Finally, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:
RQ1: Are parenting apps effective in helping mothers pass through their motherhood journey?
RQ2: Are apps like SocialMama effective in supporting mothers during the current Coronavirus pandemic?
RQ3: What perception do mothers hold regarding these social and parenting apps like SocialMama?
RQ4: How can such apps like SocialMama be developed further to effectively influence and improve motherhood by improving mothers’ overall well-being?
RQ5: Do social and parenting apps affect the behavior of mothers?
References
Cronin, A. M. (2015). “Domestic friends”: Women’s friendships, motherhood and inclusive intimacy. The sociological review, 63(3), 662–679. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954x.12255
Crunch Base. (2021). SocialMama – Funding, financials, valuation & investors. Crunchbase. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/social-mama/company_financials
Lee, K., Vasileiou, K., & Barnett, J. (2017). “Lonely within the mother”: An exploratory study of first-time mothers’ experiences of loneliness. Journal of Health Psychology, 24(10), 1334–1344. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105317723451
Lewinski, J. S. (2020, April 15). Social Media Savvy Mothers Connect With Their Peers Via New SocialMama App. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnscottlewinski/2020/04/15/social-media-savvy-mothers-connect-with-their-peers-via-new-socialmama-app/?sh=6cb48bc168a7
Lupton, D. (2016). The use and value of digital media for information about pregnancy and early motherhood: a focus group study. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-016-0971-3
Mangeli, M., Rayyani, M., Cheraghi, M. A., & Tirgari, B. (2017). Exploring the challenges of adolescent mothers from their life experiences in the transition to motherhood: A qualitative study. Journal of family & reproductive health, 11(3), 165–173. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6045691/
Molgora, S., & Accordini, M. (2020). Motherhood in the time of Coronavirus: The Impact of the pandemic emergency on expectant and postpartum women’s psychological well-being. Frontiers in psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567155
Moon, R. Y., Mathews, A., Oden, R., & Carlin, R. (2019). Mothers’ perceptions of the internet and social media as sources of parenting and health information: Qualitative study. Journal of medical internet research, 21(7), e14289. https://doi.org/10.2196/14289
Social Mama. (2020). FAQ. SocialMama. https://www.socialmama.us/faq
Social Mama. (2021). About SocialMama. SocialMama. https://www.socialmama.us/about
Tatham, S. (2015, August 1). Using target audience analysis to aid strategic level decision making. Apps.dtic.mil. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA623135
Virani, A., Duffett-Leger, L., & Letourneau, N. (2019). Parenting apps review: In search of good quality apps. MHealth, 5, 44–44. https://doi.org/10.21037/mhealth.2019.08.10
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