Every time I read an election news story, I look forward to guessing what journalists will think up as the NEW deciding vote in the election. If it’s not the disillusioned young person’s vote, then it was the retiree’s vote and now the papers are claiming that it will be ‘Mumsnetters’ that holds the key to a party winning the election???
My initial understanding of Mumsnet (rightly or wrongly) is it’s a bit like an online messageboard version of ‘Loose Women’ – there are probably better, more informative sites out there like NetMums or Babycentre, but it’s Mumsnet which have become the press darlings.
Maybe I’m not giving them enough credit as the site does receive more than 1 million unique visitors each month and 20 million monthly page impressions, with its discussion boards attracting about 20,000 daily comments (Brand Republic/Google Analytics, Jan 2010)… I’m probably just pessimistic as I don’t have any kids so asked my mate whose just had her first child why she uses Mumsnet and she simply said that “… it’s the place to go if I’m worried about the baby or unsure about baby stuff. I quickly get responses from fellow mums and don’t feel stupid for asking any questions.” She then went on to talk about how the site makes her feel part of an online family who can totally relate to what she is going through as a new mum…
So what muscle does Mumsnet have? Well mainly the sheer numbers of online members and their ability to mobilise as one united community has made them a formidable bunch – they’ve hosted live webchats with Gordon Brown and David Cameron, put pressure on the government to change unpopular policies and now their community members are directly working with large brands such as George at Asda in an advisory capacity (http://bit.ly/cHY7tr).
I guess it’s no wonder that all the political parties are communicating with Mumsnet users as unlike direct marketing or PR campaigns, you have the ability to speak directly to a specific groups of users who are clearly engaged on key issues and of course each one is a constituent.
With brands like Dyson, Ford and O2 also using Mumsnet for market research and product testing, I think the election is just the tip of the iceberg for how much lobbying power Mumsnet and other online communities potentially have…..
