This is why Twitter needs groups. After only 15 days, mothers are signing up at an astounding rate to Twittermoms.com. According to its founder, the site’s growth has been unexpectedly strong, and about 39 percent of its 5,000-or-so daily users are considered “addicts” based on Quantcast figures.
So what gives?
Twittermoms is not what you think. It isn’t a Twitter clone for mothers. Instead, it’s a site where moms who Twitter can come together and talk about being mothers. It is a perfect demographic for Twitter, filled with people who have lots of real opinions based on experience and like to share them. The site features discussion forums for those that want to chat about “The NEW Twitter” or “Pet Peeves” and offers groups based on interests. For example, some mothers choose to join the “Being Moms” group, while others joined the “Twins!” group.
Much like Twitter, the service has a timeline to show the site’s latest action and users can becomes friends with others, thus allowing them to get updates about the forum posts their friends have made, as well as the groups they’ve joined. (Update: It should be noted that all of the features that Twittermoms offers comes from Ning, an online service that specializes in helping companies create social networks.)
At its core, Twittermoms is basically a group for mothers who Twitter. Because of that, it highlights an interesting point: why hasn’t Twitter addressed its need for groups? Present.ly, an enterprise micro-blogging tool we profiled yesterday offers group segmentation on its platform and the feature has proven to be one of the most useful on the service. And considering groups like Twittermoms are cropping up to bring like-minded Twitter users together, Twitter itself may want to start offering groups sooner rather than later.
If you’re a mom and you want to try out Twittermoms, the site is ready to bring you aboard.
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This shows there is a good future for twittergals.com , twitterguys.com , twittercousins.com, seniortwitters.com twittergays.com and more
twitterpimps.com, twitterhos.com, twittertramps.com, twitterchatter.com, the opportunity is endless.
who knew grouping people and websites with powerful keyphrase dot com domains could be such a great search enhancement. the sheer genius is overwhelming.
MyLocator.com
http://professionallocator.ning.com/groups
Enter TwitterMILF into internets lexicon.
Would the post MILFtweets?
Uh oh, the Indian cloners are getting ideas…
I fear this this is only the beginning of the twitter add-ons and clones. Twitter would prefer other sites to handle this kind of value-add on top of their service
Originally ran into the site earlier this morning and was very impressed; enough to send it to my ex-wife. Surprised that the founder would use Ning, as the possibility of further “groupings” would tend to scream out OPPORTUNITY! I think Marc Andreessen needs to really see this as a way to grow Ning, leveraging a company, Twitter, which he already invests in. We”ll see how this plays out.
thats just a ning network… and a small one at best… weird promo from techcrunch…. and not that innovative ning network…
why would you downplay this? Isn’t this what twitter and ning are for…folks to create usable applications of these services? A site doesn’t have to split the atom to be useful, effective, creative or profitable.
We at Edmodo also see the need for groups and we built around groups from the inception. If twitter doesn’t add groups niche sites like Edmodo, Present.ly, & yammer will keep popping up. I think all these other sites will co-exist along with twitter as they are completely different. Twitter is great for connecting, but if you want to do something privately it FAILS. I know and work in education and will keep doing my thing but also participating in the twitter community at large.
You haven’t used private twitter accounts? Hmm, seems like you have difficulty understanding how it works. Very original idea, btw.
You are so creative, can I put your logo on my refrigerator?
tinyCrunch can concur that Edmodo successfully addresses the twitter privacy concerns. But is this the situation where moms would be sharing sensitive material?
Here are some interesting empirical audience analytics that we see so far here at Lookery for twittermoms:
32.6 % are males
67.3 % are females
60 % are between the ages of 35-44 yrs old
91.8 % of their visitors are from the USA
24.6 % of them from the state of California
Looks like we know where twitter is most popular.
See more interesting statistics about twittermoms right here:
http://www.lookery.com/network/twittermoms/
Oh and if you want to get your own audience analytics, be sure to sign up for your own Lookery account right here:
http://www.lookery.com/signup/
Empirical audience analytic data and not extrapolated, that is the Lookery difference.
Rex
For a site that’s barely 15 days old, it’s worth noting that Twitter Moms is providing a very satisfying experience to users. There’s an air of ground-floor euphoria about the place. The founder was savvy enough to see the need and meet in, now I just hope she can hold on for the ride.
I’ve tried twitter and I have to say I just don’t get it. And as for Group sites, I have to say that none compare to http://www.bigtent.com - not even mentioned in this article.
Bigtent is the next evolution of socialization - so I hope the authors who put this article together will take a second look at maybe discussing a better tool for the Tech Crrrunch!
my wife is also a big fan of the mommybar - the mom toolbar…it also isnt that original - but these moms are an online army. they are a demographic that has a huge presence
themommybar.com is the site i think…
scott
It’s true “moms” are coming into their own on the net. I agree Twitter would benefit greatly from groups. My wife runs TheHomeschoolLounge.com and The Homeschoolbar.com; Homeschooling moms are another great big group of active moms on the net! The Homeschool Lounge now has over 4000 members (there was a need) ; we are just starting to touch the surface with this “social” side of the internet. There is a huge need in many different aspects of networking. There are over 500 homeschool moms that tweet, that would be a huge group on its own.
Twittermoms.com currently has 700 members, according to their homepage (bottom right) above you mentioned 5000 members, should that be 5000 page loads? Just wondering? Nonetheless, it is a great success with 700 memebers only 19 days in!
this is like first kid born and after than mom born…
and poof ! there goes yammer ?
but seriously…
web 2.0 companies owe blogs like yours, r/w/w, gigaom such a huge debt. this is some serious consultant grade stuff you guys do with articles like this, literally proclaim customer needs at them until they get it done. it’s like ACTIVISM. i would love techcrunch to do an entire “department” called FEATURE REQUEST where you guys propose features just like this. powerful stuff.
-s
THS is real weak…look at the alexa ranking…ouch
This is pretty interesting, so now mom also goes twit, i guess the next would be daddy twit?
I’ll wait till they have twitterhockeymoms.com
Moms are connecting online more than ever…when they unite, they unite. Twittermom will go big.
Misty Gibbs, Founder
My Inspiration Lounge
http://www.myinspirationlounge.com
Twittermoms.com is growing quickly. There are lots of online networks for moms and within those networks are groups for moms who tweet or other networks with people who use twitter. Ning makes creating a network easy.
Stop by and visit us at:
http://mamastimeout.com as well!
There is a site that extends twitter for groups, themes, events: http://www.mysidekick2.com
Groups on Twitter would be a bad idea. Twitter’s appeal is in its simplicity and purposeful lack of features. Don’t fix/change something that’s not broken or try to adapt it with functionality it was never meant to support.
the moms also have their own version of DIGG - its called mommyRanks..
http://www.mommyranks.com
i am a big fan of it…go moms!
Congratulation for to Moms !
now we have the same for the Dads : twitterdads.com was taken so it is located at http://twitterdads.ning.com instead. Now the Dads has to prove they can do as good as their counterparts. Come on Dads — signup to the group and follow the tweet : @twitterdads at http://twitter.com/twitterdads
@Jeff. Agreed. Twitter is fun because it *doesn’t* have have all that baggage. Just join Facebook if you want bloat. Keep it simple.
And I note that mumsnet isn’t mentioned in the article.
You’ve got your numbers wrong.
Only 2% are addicts.
That 2% makes up for 39% of the visits.
Don, I think it’s great you can step away from huge sites and see the potential in smaller sites and use them to orchestrate your point.
Kudos to TechCrunch for showcasing a group that is predominantly moms. As a mom & twitter user, and member of twittermoms - I applaud you.
Ning groups are popular, due to their great features, ease of use and add-ons or hacks being developed to customize each individual site.
Where similar sites offer “customizable social sites”, their’s are usually are lacking in functionality, design and are 1 dimensional compared to ning. As I have tested & tried many, and have chosen to use ning for several of my social projects, I can honestly say this.
Ning does limit you in many ways. I created a news site with membership, article voting, and a built in points system for users. Ning cant do point systems.
Let me know what you think.
http://www.solarfeeds.com
I joined Twitter Moms this morning and I’ve gained 10 followers or something crazy. So it’s a great place to network and plug your blog.
But, I have a question…
I haven’t used Tweetdeck yet? But can’t Tweetdeck make groups?
And as far as Twitter creating their own groups - that would be different from TwitterMoms because on any Ning network you make a detailed personal page, with location, photos, videos - it’s just like Facebook or MySpace basically - just niched.
But I think TwitterMoms is a fantastic idea and a great place for marketers to find all of those Twitter and blogging addicts in one neat place.
If you want to follow me on Twitter by the way it’s:
http://www.twitter.com/mssinglemama
So this is just a Ning site. Okay, when did that become TechCrunch worthy?
well.. I think the same… Twitter are suppose have their own group.. so anyone who have same interest can join and discuss together..
I disagree - Twitter does not need groups. If they just want to send email and get updates, they should just join a yahoo group. There are plenty of new sites like http://www.bigtent.com that are way better for mom groups. (plus, I already get enough tweets - that last thing I need is more
Don, you misread the quantcast data. you stated “about 39 percent of its 5,000-or-so daily users are considered “addicts” based on Quantcast figures.”
In reality 2 percent of the daily users are considered “addicts”. This 2 percent of users is responsible for driving 39 percent of visits. 100 highly engaged users is very different from almost 2000 highly engaged users.