• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 26, 2013

Mothers of young children, including new and expecting moms, are more likely than the general public to use social media, according to the 2013 Social Mom Report from BabyCenter.com, based on a survey of 1,480 online adults conducted jointly with comScore.

Overall 91% of moms are using social media regularly, the BabyCenter-comScore survey found, up 20% from 2010. The same proportion have used Facebook in the past six months, compared to 80% for the general population. Social media is obviously a key way to stay connected for busy young moms: in fact, 22% said that friends or family members who don’t participate in social media aren’t as big a part of their lives as those who do. What’s more, 45% of moms surveyed said they are using email less and communicating more via social media.

In terms of devices, 81% of moms surveyed own smartphones, compared to 54% of the general population, and within this group, 89% said they use smartphones to check their favorite social media sites -- around four times the rate for the general population.

Moms are also more likely to make a purchase based on social media recommendations: 59% of moms surveyed said they bought a product because of a recommendation from a parenting Web site, and 44% said they made a purchase after a friend posted a recommendation or liked a product on a social network. 78% said they follow brands and products on social media to get coupons and discounts, compared to 55% of the general population. According to BabyCenter, moms were responsible for 32% of all online spending in the first quarter of 2013 -- an impressive state considering they make up just 18% of the total Internet audience.