Adrian: Michelle, why don’t you tell us how ConnectingMoms began?
Michelle: Whew, where to begin? After working at AOL for 10 years, I decided to stay home after having my daughter Makenna. As a mother, I found myself feeling isolated. I sought a support system online but, I was disappointed because I felt that a sense of community was lacking on the Internet. I remember staring out the window at 3am with my daughter in my arms, looking to see if anyone else had their lights on down the block. I thought to myself, “I wonder how many other mothers are doing the exact same thing?”
After expressing this to my brother, Tony, the two of us brainstormed for a solution and came up with the idea of creating a website that had it all. A site that showed the personalities of each mom, pictures of their lives, their children, etc. Tony and I felt it was important that moms had a forum to truly connect to one another, so ConnectingMoms was born.
Adrian: Can you tell us a little about the site?
Michelle: (smiling) ConnectingMoms is a way to celebrate motherhood. We wanted to create a place where mothers could feel free to be themselves. Our site allows mothers to interact with other women who understand the trials, tribulations and joys of being a mom. Through groups and discussions, our users are able to seek and gain support in addition to valuable, first-hand advice. They can meet other mothers who share their interests, background and/or dilemmas in a warm, welcoming and clean environment.
Tanya: Yes, motherhood is an interesting time for women. Many are learning how to balance, whether it’s working, being a stay at home mom, a first time mom or having step kids or adopted kids. Now they’re going to the Internet to search for a place where they can connect with one another at any hour of day.
Adrian: One area that I find interesting is the idea of having interactive type advertisements on social networking sites. Are you going to be doing that, or are you already doing that kind of advertising on your site?
Tanya: Funny you mentioned that! Yes, we’re currently doing this. As advertisers submit their product, we allow them to make a survey with the questions they want asked of consumers. Then we pick a member who fits the profile the best. We send them the product, complete a review, and we start a group for discussion on it where members will discuss their opinions based on how they felt about the product.
Michelle: We also have a promo that we’re working on with Paramount and King World. Rachael Ray has a new upcoming TV show for the Fall, and it will be showcasing her in other arenas besides cooking. Recognizing that mothers and women are her primary audience, Rachael Ray’s show has teamed up with ConnectingMoms, asking our moms to submit applications for show segments. Initially they were only seeking participants for three segments, but those spots were filled immediately. They gave us three more spots to fill, and then those were again filled within a few days. Many of our members are in the final stages of submitting their video clips and some are already booked for the show!
Adrian: So, your site has been around for two months. I looked at your Alexa rank and it tells me 34,000. Where’s all the traffic coming from?
Michelle: Well, we attract most of our traffic through viral marketing. Actually, our mothers are even promoting us themselves. They’ve been doing a lot of the viral marketing for us for free, which is great. Plus, our members are spending an average of 35 minutes on our site per day, which generates more traffic.
Adrian: How many users do you have?
Tanya: We have over 10,000 members so far in less than 2 months, and no marketing dollars spent, all viral! We are exponentially growing, and have just created 5 more viral campaigns to execute.
Adrian: Wow, I think you really struck a nerve with this. What about other kinds of marketing, for example, I’ve noticed co-registration showing up on some of the social networking sites.
Tanya: I think we’ll limit that. We have enough business models currently and we don’t want to overwhelm our users. I am a fan of co-registration, but I think there’s so many other ways to reach our members right now.
Adrian: What will be the most important form of monetization for the site?
Tanya: We are monetizing our site in many ways. We have a shopping mall where moms are offered discounts to shop at their favorite ecommerce site. Banners are another significant source of revenue. We have sponsored discussion groups that form around a certain product. We have what we call “Viral Interactive Branding” which allows an advertiser to submit a product, and we’ll have a couple of moms to review it and start a discussion around the product. Moms like to confide with one another when purchasing products.
We separate ourselves from other mom community sites because we offer a shop mail section and a mail section. The mail section is comprised of emails between members, and the Shop Mail box has offers tailored to the member’s profile. Advertisers buy on CPM and are guaranteed opens and clicks. Of course, we review the email creative and make sure it is a call to action offer that is appealing to moms. There are countless studies that show mothers love receiving coupons and email promotions if done the right way.
Adrian: In the last 12 months have any other social networking sites for mothers come out?
Michelle: I don’t think so, not necessarily geared specifically towards mothers. There’s been a site that came out for women. There are a couple of sites out there for families where the fathers can join as well, but nothing that’s geared towards mothers only.
Tanya: The mom market is a superb market. eMarketer states that there are 88mm moms, 33 million moms online, and mothers control 80% of household spending. So it is no surprise that small mom social networking sites have sprung, but none with all our features or the Hollywood component.
Adrian: So how do you guys compare with Club Mom? Do they have any kind of social networking or if they do, how do you compete with them?
Michelle: We are quite different from Club Mom, so we don’t really view them as competition. That site focuses on information from outside sources, but it lacks a community or any sense of connection. Additionally, Club Mom has so much information that it gets very cluttered and hard to navigate. That’s one of the reasons why we have so many members that are spending so much time on ConnectingMoms. It’s because our information is readily available.
Tanya: Definitely, it took us nine months to make sure that it was appealing to the eye and very easy to navigate. Moms want information from other moms who are experiencing the same events. They want to feel connected. There is enough literature out there for moms to pick up at any store, but leaving the house is not always easy for mothers, so we provide a 24/7 access place for them to connect and discuss.
Adrian: I know that you have five partners building the company. Does having a lot of partners cause conflict?
Michelle: (laughs) Oh no! Actually, it’s been a huge asset. Everyone has a specific role from the creative side, to the advertising/marketing, to the Hollywood connections, to the technical. For example, I’m the face of ConnectingMoms, kind of like Tom from MySpace. So I’ve been going to interviews and meeting with people in California. Meanwhile, Tony, the CEO, carries the whole Hollywood flair. He’s met with great companies like Paramount, King World Productions, Disney and Yahoo to help promote our site because many Hollywood studios are looking for that mother audience, especially online. Tanya deals with marketing, strategic partnerships, and creative component on our site. Emerson is the logistics man for the site. Howard, former AOL developer, is the tech magic behind our site. We also have a board of moms, which Sandy heads up, and makes sure all content on the site is for moms. With this combination of different energy, brainstorming sessions are always fun!
Adrian: Can you tell us a little about how you hooked up with Tanya?
Michelle: Actually it was my brother that hooked us up with Tanya originally.
Tanya: It was at Affiliate Summit. In a nutshell, he was one of my clients and he informed me about this idea of creating an online network for moms with his sister. Coming from a big family, and having many friends becoming new mothers, I often heard these stories of sleepless nights, concerns, and trying to meet other moms. I knew right away this site would be a great resource for women. I knew that the mom’s market was untapped and that more mothers were going online in search of a community. We brainstormed and got the logistics together, and my team started making the idea into a reality. We researched every mom site out there and made sure ours was visually appealing, as well as easy to navigate.
Adrian: Are there some other things that you want to mention about the site or the direction it’s going in?
Michelle: We just launched Yard Sale, which is the buy/sell/swap section; it’s like Ebay or Craigslist for moms. It’s just another convenience we added.
Tanya: Our site has only been live for 2 months, and Version 2 with new features will be rolling out in the next couple months. Things to look out for are interactive contests, mobile coupon/locator feature, pictures, and lots of new techie advances.
Adrian: Just one last question, what are the areas that you want to talk to people on? If, for example, a venture capitalist is reading this, are you interested in funding? If any advertisers are reading this, should they contact you? What about sales reps that help you sell your inventories? Who do you want to hear from?
Tanya: (smiles) Great question! We’re looking for any of those that you mentioned, and of course mothers looking to join the network. I can be reached at [email protected]
If you’d like to be interviewed by Adrian, sign up for his newsletter here: http://AdriansTips.com, and reply to the first message you get to contact him directly.
Network
