In a marketing world that presents a too-perfect image of parenthood, many moms turn to online communities to get real talk from other moms, including what brands they love and use.
One of those communities is Social Common, a platform for millennial moms created by Toronto’s Catherine Belknap and Natalie Telfer. The site features the duo’s candid “Moms Truths” videos, a live YouTube show, and videos with experts on topics like fitness and finance. Social Common also integrates content from brand partners, and Belknap and Telfer (or Cat and Nat, as they are known) serve as media spokespeople for their favourite mom-friendly brands.
Marketing spoke with the co-founders (who have seven kids between them) about the story behind Social Common and how brands can better connect to today’s millennial moms.
Tell me the story behind Social Common. How did it all come about?
Natalie Telfer: We started Social Common as a much-needed [real world] moms’ group in downtown Toronto. We were two moms who wanted to make a connection with moms, but didn’t want to go to the traditional moms’ groups that took place in a church-like setting with your baby. We always found that we were not able to finish a conversation when the kids were around. So, we wanted to start a moms’ group that suited us better. It was an event that took place in the evening after baby bedtime, and with wine. We brought in experts, we sold tickets and it was a really popular. Moms were clearly looking for what we were looking for too.
[As word spread], a lot of people in different cities said they want a Social Common in their city because there really wasn’t anything like it. But we just couldn’t do it because the two of us were always the hosts at the events, and every single detail mattered. So, we figured why not go [online] and have a YouTube channel and we would reach moms all over the world? And that’s how we started our live YouTube show, where the mission is the same as the events: moms connecting after baby bedtime, with wine. So every Tuesday night at 7:30, we’ve got this live show where we bring in experts into the studio [with topics] that are just for moms.
What did you both do work-wise before starting Social Common?
Catherine Belknap: I was actually a social worker with zero business experience, zero marketing experience. We just figured out everything as we have gone. Literally we are living the experience as we create it.
Telfer: I did marketing for a fragrance company and I worked in finance for a bit. When we both had babies, we never went back to our jobs.
What do you think is different about millennial moms compared to the generation before them?
Belknap: Before, you had to choose between work and staying at home—you didn’t really have an option. Somewhere along the line, our [generation] started creating their own rules and their own ideas of what it’s going to look like. With a lot of moms we know, having kids fires them up to create their own journey, like starting their own businesses. There are so many millennial moms who are inspired to just go for it. They’re creating exactly the life they want. If they want to work between drop-off and pick-up, they work between drop-off and pick-up. We are redefining how work and motherhood blend.
Telfer: Also, the generation before didn’t have as many outlets to be able to search and research the kind of products and programs and things they were into. But now, through social media and the internet, moms are so much more savvy when it comes to traditional advertising and what [products] they’re bringing into their house and for their babies. I don’t think five years ago, you’d be able to recognize sponsored posts as much as you do now. And we can see right through all of that. Millennial moms are really looking to moms they trust—not necessarily the actors on TV, or the celebrities who claim to use [the product]. They’re looking within their community to get advice on parenting.
So, what does that mean for marketers?
Belknap: I’ll talk from our perspective, but if you go through our social media, it is so clean because we do not want to – excuse my language – whore a product out or hawk product to our community. We’d much rather partner with brands. I think brands need to know exactly who they’re partnering with for their community. We know our demographic and our audience so well that if a brand is suggesting something that we know won’t resonate, [we’ll tell them] we can’t put that on our social media. But brands are coming to us and saying, ‘I trust you guys, you know your people, we’ll let you unroll it how you want.’ That’s really the most effective way because we know exactly how to integrate it and build out content rather than just posting a picture and being like, “go buy this!” We like to embrace longer-term partnerships so we can authentically speak to it over time… For brands, it’s not so much about [the number of] followers as it is engagement. Influencers know exactly who their demographic is and if a brand will be a natural partnership rather than just one for monetary purposes, which doesn’t always work.
Telfer: It’s so true. In our community, we speak with other mom bloggers and so often brands are so set on the numbers. Smart brands are looking at the engagement and dedication of the followers. It’s about building out content around the product rather than posting a picture of the product.
What types of marketing resonates with you as consumers?
Belknap: The Dove campaign about girls and empowerment, that obviously speaks to us having daughters. Anything that evokes emotion and gets a conversation started is really interesting to us. Word of mouth [is important]—something that people are authentically using and talking about. It’s the culmination of a conversation, interesting content and real content. It is so much more interesting to see real [content] rather than an over-polished commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker. It’s just not believable to us.
What mistakes do a lot of brands make when it comes to marketing to moms online?
Telfer: When a brand goes out, gets 500 influencers, sends them the product and says ‘we’ll pay you 200 bucks to post it.’
Belknap: You know exactly when a campaign is going on – it pops up all over Instagram, and you’re like ‘paid, paid, paid.’ I think influencers are to blame too because when you’re just taking product left, right and centre just to take product, it’s not authentic. It’s diluting the whole point and it’s not trustworthy.
Telfer: [Marketers] also really need to look at the people who are representing their brands. Often we’ll see somebody like, as we said, Sarah Jessica Parker. Obviously these people are influencers in people’s lives, but sometimes the person just does not match the brand at all. I don’t just want to see a pretty face matched up with a brand. I want to know that [she] matches the brand… What we appreciate is when we partner with a brand that trusts us, we’ll all meet together, we sit down and brainstorm, and they really listen and let us talk about our audience and what we believe resonates.
Is it difficult for brands to give up a certain level of control when working with influencers?
Belknap: If you’re hiring them and putting dollars behind them, you have to believe in them. That’s why we say don’t just hire for numbers. Create a relationship and trust that they know exactly what they’re doing and then see the relationship grow. That is so powerful when that happens and also really forward thinking.
