Blogs are a Trusted Source for Moms.

Anxious mothers show a tendency to go online in search of answers to an endless litany of questions about raising and caring for their kids. And mothers who looked to the web for parenting advice considered blogs to be the most trustworthy social media platform, according to a July 2012 survey of US online mothers by blog company BlogHer.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they trusted the information and advice gleaned from blogs. Interestingly, faith in blog posts spiked among mothers ages 28 to 45, at 72%, and was a bit lower among both younger and older moms. After blogs, Facebook was the next most trusted social media network at 64%, followed by YouTube at 36%.

Mothers are not just reading advice online, they’re also taking it. That can mean that a child-specific product or service endorsed on a blog can soon be in a mother’s shopping cart. The most common purchase made as a result of a recommendation on a mom blog was that of a book, at 63%. But BlogHer also found that 56% of moms had made a food purchase based on a blog testimonial, while 48% had bought a baby product.

A reliance on the web as a parenting resource has also meant that mothers are keen to stay connected. That attitude is reflected in their adoption of tech devices at impressive rates. Mothers were especially fond of PCs, which had a penetration rate of almost 100%. But smartphones, too, had a penetration rate among mothers (83%) well above the average.

This fondness for technology among US moms is showing signs of trickling down to their kids. While they are not yet being given their own devices, children under three are getting their hands on their mothers’ gadgets in growing numbers. In 2012, more than half of moms surveyed said they had let their toddlers use a PC, and more than one-third had tried a smartphone. The number of kids under three that had used a tablet almost doubled between 2011 and 2012, to 23%.

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