Ripple6 - MomsLikeMe
23 Oct
Every day, we spend significant time researching other sites and competitors. And every once in a while we see a site that grabs our attention and makes us want to step back and analyse it. Today's subject of analysis was the Ripple6 created network called MomsLikeMe, which is a collection of geographically diverse "Mom focused" websites that are hosted under a parent domain momslikeme.com. So you have salem.momslikeme.com, sanfrancisco.momslikeme.com, etc.
Now I don't want to downplay what they are doing, or underestimate our competition, but sites like "momslikeme.com" aren't exactly innovative or new. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of mom focused group sites on the internet, and the momslikeme.com sites are just glorified forums. Forums serve a great purpose, but trying to make a forum into a social networking site isn't always a good idea. Getting traction in that niche is literally like shooting fish in a barrel. You're talking about a demographic that is likely to proactively seek community support from peers (e.g. in discussion forums), is home a lot and often uses the internet as a primary research tool. But you need to really dig deep on those sites to try and find some commercial value. Often there is none, or it needs to be explored in non traditional ways that do not offend users. Sometimes the goals of the users and the goals of the site owners can be at odds. Here are some further analysis points:
1. You go to the sanfranciso site (which I am assuming should be one of the busiest) and go to the marketplace - there is nothing, not one item for sale. We've also noticed very low traction in other sites that offer marketplaces as add ons. Craigslist and Facebook have that market aggressively cornered.
2. I went to Most Active Groups and saw a total of about 30 members
3. The videos page contains totally irrelevant videos, it looked like they were syndicated from some other video feed. The same wine tour video also showed up on at least 2 other sites I visited that we'rent from the same geographic region.
4. There's about 5 photos in the photos section.
5. The site is plastered with untargeted ads. People find bulk untargeted ads very annoying.
6. There are no subject matter experts or central authority on the websites. You NEED authoritative, niche focused, unique content for a number of reasons, not the least of which is getting your users coming back over and over. And there seems to be no two way conversation between the momslikeme owners or moderators and the users.
7. These sites seem like they are hurting on the SEO side of things. It looks like they have a good inlinking strategy, but no overall on-page or in-url SEO tweaks. And because of reason #6, they're not going to get any keyword traffic (which is a huge disadvantage for them) or contextual inlinks.
8. "Moms" even local Moms is a pretty diverse demo. Are these working moms? Stay at home moms, do they have disposable income, what products are they interested in, etc. So from an advertiser standpoint, these sites are way too broad for most advertisers. If I was a local gym or a local daycare, this would be a great fit, but then you have to look at the specific site's traffic and unique visitor counts which I suspect are low.
9. Their own users complain about the same things... See a blogpost on the topic (mvm = mid valley moms btw): http://salem.momslikeme.com/members/JournalActions.aspx?g=503487&m=2434510
It's a three page rant of overwhelmingly negative feedback concerning the functionality and usability of the site from the users perspective.
Where are the site owners or moderators to answer these concerns? The one reply from "admin" was obviously just a canned reply that didn't address any of the concerns of the users.
In a highly competitive marketplace, where you want to engage passionate users, you need to be responsive to your users needs and concerns. If something doesn't work, fix it. Your existing user base is the lifeblood of your community. They are the evangelists and self appointed social pyromarketers of your site. I invite you to take a look at the momslikeme.com and visit a community close to you and then tell me; what do you like about it? What don't you like about it?
Gannett Co., Inc. looking to connect online
As with any research or project we are looking at here at Incendia I like to understand what the needs, objective and strategy is for a project or client. It appears to me that momslikeme.com is actually owned by Gannett Co., Inc. which is a leading international news and information company. They are big, they own 85 daily newspapers, including USA TODAY, and nearly 900 non-daily publications. I assume they hired Ripple 6 to help them extend their reach online in this case to connect with Moms, and eventually to monetize that traffic to help offset huge losses the offline media industry in general has been experiencing.
So looking at the overall strategy the site looks to have user generated content, and some social networking features but really is a glorified forum site. Will this be a site that get users excited and has value, keep them coming back and will meet the goals for Gannett Co, hard to say. Their is so little quality content on the site that it seems moms would really just need to be looking to interact with other online, this is a great place for discussions but what brings them back day after day? If the coupons and marketplace sections grew substantially it may be a nice resource site for moms.
Overall the navigation elements and content presentation are tough to follow. I looked at many user generated topics and the actual interaction on the site doesn't look to be there. The regional needs and desires of moms is only partially address, they would need to dig deep to find the content or discussions that are important to them.
Will this site resonate with moms and become a successful site one again hard to say but from what I can see, some key things would need to happen in my opinion, better navigation, better content, relevant advertising or other monetization strategy. All in all how does this site meet a media publishers objective and bottom-line?
My final observation is one that could be the death of any social network. While looking around the salem.momslikeme.com region and checking out the threads Dan touched on I was shocked to find that the administrators of the network were repeatedly censoring members interaction and deleting profiles for what the message threads reference as criticism of the site http://salem.momslikeme.com/members/JournalActions.aspx?g=503487&m=24796... ouch!
Agreed: Oversized Demographic
I checked out the Los Angeles Moms Like Me.
Mom's Like Me seems like a good IDEA, but I agree with you in that it's definitely a little too broad. While it does focus on a specific geographic area, I think they would do better to focus on a specific idea, lifestyle, or goal that the members share: eg: fit moms, working moms, hindu moms, etc. In niche sites, people are united by the cominality that brought them there. I mean, yeah, moms can talk about being a mom but as we can tell from the forum section (80+ individual forums) that's not quite specific enough.
It really does have the feel of a glorified forum, since as you mentioned Dan, there is no authority writing articles, the videos are not directed toward the audience, etc. Aside from the videos and coupons, all the content is user generated so the only real draw I see for the site is a craving for peer interaction.
While this doesn't reflect well on the "forum turned social network" idea, that thought didn't dominate while I was on the site. What I did think about was just how well the "content-driven niche site" idea worked, especially when viewed in comparisson.
Momslikeme Isn't for Me
I agree with many of the comments posted by Dan. As a mom, I would not use this site.
The first thing that I noticed when I visited this site were the large number of ads! They covered the top, sides, and bottom of the page. Most of them were not targeted to the users. For example, one of the sections discussed wineries. It's not clear what the purpose of this section was. I'm not sure if it was an advertisement ,a news section, or an idea for a place to visit. Most moms that I know, especially mothers of young children, don't visit wineries very often or at all, and many wineries don't allow children to go on tours.
As well, the site was difficult to navigate. There were too many sections, many of which didn't appear to be used by very many moms.
The site did have some sections that I thought were useful, such as the mom to mom section, which breaks down posts into sections such as "Activities", and "Behavior and Development", as well as the section that has coupons. However, this site is targeted to too large of a demographic. I think that it would be better to have a few different sites, such as, "Stay at Home Moms", "Working moms", "Moms With School-Age Chilren" and "Moms with Children 0-5".
I would be more likely to use a site that is better targeted, and with fewer ads. For these reasons, I would not use momslikeme.com.