Immediate, flexible community is result of social media

What does every parent want? Besides more sleep and a surefire way to balance the demands of raising a family, we want to share information easily and have a community we feel a part of.
Being a parent can be an isolating experience, so it’s natural to look for ways to connect both at work and play: sharing news and photos with our friends and family, bonding with other parents who are going through the same joys and struggles, nurturing our hobbies or passions to escape the daily challenges of parenthood, working remotely and finding useful resources.
At the recent Kidoinfo Parents Using Social Media event, more than 60 parents gathered in downtown Providence to talk and learn about how some parents use social media to enhance their lives and strengthen communities.
Today’s parents have a great deal of technology at their fingertips. Whether we consider ourselves techy or a techophobe, early or reluctant adopters of social media, many of us are using some form of social media in our personal lives to find playdates and child care, to fund-raise for school PTOs, and in business to allow for more flexible work schedules and provide new ways to do our work.
One of the panelists, TJ Sondermann, shared his experience of being a stay-at-home dad and feeling isolated until he met other fathers by using social media sites like Flickr, where users can tag photos in a number of ways, including location. Some of TJ’s online connections turned into real-life friendships, and in some cases these friendships led to business opportunities. He is now the program director for BetaSpring.
Social media is well-suited to parents who need immediate access to resources. Whether for business or family needs, the Internet is available 24/7, allowing us to get what we need on demand – quite helpful since we often can’t control a child’s sleep schedule.
Parents blog about everything these days, from raising kids to politics and the environment. We seek answers and advice on raising our kids and how or where to look for the best day care and schools. We share photos on Flickr and upload videos on YouTube. Some use sites like DonorsChoose.org to raise money for school field trips and form social-networking communities at sites like Ning.com. As the number of parents using social media increases, so does our power to shape our surroundings. When we become a “fan” of an organization on Facebook, set up RSS feeds of our favorite food blogs, subscribe to our favorite parenting Web site and follow people on Twitter, we are building our communities and creating a sphere of trusted friends and resources. Recent statistics from Mashable.com, Twitter and Facebook show there are more than 346 million people reading blogs, more than 184 million with their own blog, about 15 million active users on Twitter and more than 350 million connecting on Facebook.
With this reach, these online communities play a major part in how we access information – from the news we read to the links we follow – that then influences how we engage in our community and where we choose to live, travel, shop and send our kids to school. A number of readers have e-mailed me to say that Kidoinfo made their move to Rhode Island easier because they could immediately tap into the vibrant family community that exists here in the Ocean State.
I love having greater access to and control over the information I give and receive, and that I can form social networks and align with groups depending on my needs. When my twin sons were born, I sought out other parents who understood what I was going through.
I found information in books and through a multiples club when I could make the meetings. I relied on the phone (when I wasn’t feeding my boys) and meeting parents at the park. Eight years later, I am involved with my sons’ school and concerned with issues of education. Although I now rely on e-mail more than the phone and log on regularly to Facebook and Twitter, I actually feel more connected to my real-life community because of the rapid exchange and availability of information through my many social-media options. When we bond or connect over similar values, hobbies, experiences, gender or age of our children, we pay more attention to the advice, concerns and connections whether they are shared in person or on Twitter.
Are we genuine in these communities we form? The panelists at the Kidoinfo meeting were asked if they were the same person online and off. The answer was predominantly yes. One parent talked of being mindful about the content she posted in her blog, since her children’s friends and teachers were likely to read what she wrote. Another felt social media allowed her to be more herself and that friends got to know her better online than off.
Although TJ loves using social media to talk business and share the latest about his kid, he has learned to respect that his family does not always enjoy the same amount of online openness. Michelle Riggen-Ransom, who uses social media constantly for her job as the communications director for Batch Blue Software and in her personal life to connect with friends and family, relies on different online platforms for business or personal use and is mindful that whatever is online is out there for people to see.
Looking to the future, panelists agreed that social media will continue to be a part of our daily lives to connect with our friends and family and to stay on top of current events and business news. The question will not be if we will use it, but what form the next evolution of social media will take. •

Anisa Raoof is the founder, creative director and editor-in-chief of Kidoinfo, a guide for making parenting easier, among other things.