Interview with Ophélie Morelle, Strategic Planner@aufeminin Groupe, about digital mums
Ophélie, as part of your Strategic Planning work at aufeminin.com, you are interested in digital mums To begin with, what is the purpose of strategic planning for a group like aufeminin.com?
Strategic planning at aufeminin differs in some respects from the role of strategic planner in advertising agencies, where it is usually represented. At aufeminin, the strategic planner plays a pivotal role between the Sales and Editorial departments. They have to ensure that the brands are properly integrated into our content while promoting the editorial line of our media. He or she must turn each brief into an editorial opportunity that will enable our media to renew their discourse and formats. That's why we are often called on to help with product design, to instil a dynamic of perpetual renewal in our formats while keeping our monetisation challenges in mind. Finally, strategic planning involves daily monitoring, which we try to promote through weekly presentations or via Workplace by Facebook.
In your opinion digital mums have changed a lot in recent years...
There was a real buzz around the target digital mums between 2011 and 2013. They were seen as a marketing Eldorado, and numerous studies were published to decipher the phenomenon. Since then, nothing much has happened. At aufeminin, we work alongside the digital mum and we've seen it evolve over the last four years. Our communities are laboratories that enable us to constantly analyse changes in their uses and practices. We used to see them chatting on forums, consuming practical content on our site or sharing their product reviews on specialist testing platforms. Today, we can clearly see this part of our audience shifting towards more mobile and, above all, more social uses.
Of all the profiles we met, one in particular stands out: the "social mum", whom you describe as the "new queen of digital mums"...
This social mum totally crystallises the changes in the habits of the digital mum of 2013. Its most fascinating representative is the Instamum, who shares the highlights of her motherhood on Instagram. A whole community of mums is being built up on this network, with its own codes and signs of recognition. It's here that we're seeing a very interesting change in behaviour: before they were looking for advice and conversations to improve their daily lives, the digital mum is now seeking to represent herself by scripting her maternity.
These "social mums" can be found on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook, but they don't do the same things there: what do these networks specialise in for them?
The idea that there is no porosity in the uses of each network must be qualified. Nevertheless, it is certain that specific behaviours emerge for each platform. Instagram, the network king of representation and the sublimation of daily life, lends itself to this game of daily scripting. Every key moment of motherhood is staged: the announcement of the birth, the "moiniversary", the first words and the first steps... So much so that the Instagram accounts of new mothers sometimes take on the appearance of birth books. They will use Pinterest to archive inspirational resources: resources that are no longer limited to making everyday life easier, but aim to re-enchant it. Mums won't go on Pinterest to organise a birthday party more easily, but to find ideas to make it even better: superhero themes, ready-to-print origami invitations, castle cakes... Finally, Facebook is the network of emotions: raw emotions are replacing conversations on forums. Mums express their outrage or their delight at a video with a like, a wow or a grrr. At aufeminin, we really work on opportunities to share that are specific to the target audience: special occasions (back-to-school, Christmas, etc.), situations ("My child is sorting vegetables" "My child doesn't want to go to school", etc.) or even portraits of other parents in whom they see themselves.
What about tomorrow?
The trend towards a return to locality is not escaping them. After exposing themselves to their social community or to anonymous people on forums, mums are looking for a more tangible relationship. The Netmums network, the British maternity media owned by the aufeminin group, is a good example of this. They have succeeded in building an entire mutual support system based on contributions from individuals, which they are now enhancing with geolocation to create neighbourhood parenting communities. In the end, we find that the behaviour of mums doesn't really change: the basic needs, such as helping each other or finding solutions, remain the same. But they express themselves differently depending on how digital uses evolve.
