There are over 82 million mothers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 35 million of them have children under 18 and access the Internet regularly, based on a 2009 research report by eMarketer. Of this number a good percentage of moms are well connected power users in the social media space. The Internet is an integral part of the lives of 34 million mothers in the US. They not only go online to plan a trip or pay bills, they also use the Web to communicate with friends, share advice, blog and socialize. Moms are the ultimate Internet networkers, as they seek out other moms’ advice for what they’re looking for, with a large percentage of them using the Internet at least twice a day.

Since women do the majority of product research and household purchasing, savvy mommy blogs include product reviews and recommendations on items ranging from infant clothing to packaged food to new cars, brands have been taking noticed on the this trend and are now reaching out to these influencers to maximize their reach and presence online.

Moms visit parenting and family websites and blogs where regularly view news, weather and political content online, among them among the most current and savvy of all online users. They search for shopping deals for their kids, want to learn about cooking recipes, want to be involved in charitable causes, want to be up-to-date with the latest trends, among many other relevant conversational topics that would deal with home and the family. And when they find something great for their family, they talk about it, not only with their family and friends, but often with a much broader online audience. They are among the most technically savvy online power users who use social media channels such as blogs, social networks and Twitter as platforms to extend their influence in the space.

This group has been classified as Mommie bloggers, and they occupy a special place in the space that separates them from other groups online; as they have become the hottest and most influential target demographic that every brand wants to focus on these days. Like moms there are many other groups that are surging in online influence too, and how brands can take notice of them is by paying attention to the latest social trends and by listening to what they are saying and learning about their behaviors when it comes to selecting and buying products that best fits them.

Here is graph showing a growing trend of how much mommy bloggers numbers have increased over the years and what these numbers are estimated to be by 2013.

Written by Reese Ramos – Digital Marking Director

Twitter @porchista

Our approach here at Fabric is simple. To break through in social you got to do three things (maybe a few more, but these are a critical):

1. Connect your brand to something valuable to the person you want to influence. Starbucks has shown that 5 million people care enough about deals/coupons to fan them on Fb. You would only fan Starbucks if you got $ in return, right?

2. Use a simple idea - such as “hot or not” - to juxtapose and create an angle for interaction. Simple quizzes and polls work because it's easy to engage. I like this. I think this is crap.

3. Wrap content around your brand. If you are a food brand, build content around recipees or health. Drinks? Make a “10 hottest bars” list.

Keep thinking about what your audience is already doing. Help them do it better. Make it easy for them to engage.

Don't think they care about your product or brand. They don't really. They don't even think about it. Don't try to make them. They have things to do.

AdAge listed Easy To Assemble from IKEA as one of the top 5 branded entertainment deals of 2009! Our team worked directly with IKEA on creative, design, technology, social media, and content strategy for this record breaking campaign with millions of views in just a few months. Watch the show on the site we built ;o)

I got a bit emotional this morning. Yesterday, I forgot to feed John my virtual pet dog. He was really hungry. He's on Foo Pets. I almost spent real cash to feed him. (I discovered that I didn't have to this time - I had some foo coins I could use to get his virtual food.)

So, yes, I bonded with my virtual pet and I felt bad when I forgot to feed him. This is crazy you think? Yes, it's crazy. But it's also human nature. See, I spent some time setting up my account. I “adopted” this virtual dog. I chose him over many others. I gave him a name. I played with him for a few minutes. Threw a stick and ball. I also spent a minute giving him a bath and fed him twice. After a few minutes, I was “invested” in him. I had spent time - valuable time - and now I don't want to loose that investment.

This is why virtual goods work. You're invested the minute you engage. Once you spend time - you don't want to “loose” that investment. Standard cognitive stuff. The same trick works for auctions. Once you bid for that TV, you feel you own a part of it. You don't want to loose something you own, so you keep bidding. Yeah, sometimes it's just your time, but once you invest - you're in!

It's already clear that virtual goods and social gaming works. It's been the driving Internet business model in Asia for years. It's coming to the US in a big way in 2010.

I think the big idea for your brand is pretty clear: You have to get your brand into these models now. Just look at me. I'm 37 year old. I became invested in my virtual pet! If you want to capture the attention of anyone under 25, you have to position your brand in this experience flow.

Hey, are you snoozing again?

Are you excited about next year? We are! We have a simple plan: Do more amazing projects with you!

I know many of you had a rough year. This recession has been a real bastard. But you know what? It's going to get better. Much better! If you're a talented experience designer, developer, or marketer and want to make a big splash in 2010 - come see us now. Let's get ready!

We think Easy to Assemble - the web series sponsored by IKEA - is the coolest example of branded entertainment we've seen. The second season is out and it's starting to make some waves. Hollywood is taking notice and IKEA Burbank is flooded with tourists looking for Tom Arnold. (That part is not true).

We got to work on this project and we're really excited about it! If you are over - or close to 40 - you should also check out 40 & Bitter. It's brilliant!

On Monday, we launched Bidzilla - a new entertainment auction site from a Florida start-up. We always knew it was going to be a challenge. Of course, that's partly why we did it, but we really got our hands dirty on this one.

Auction sites are tricky to architect and build. Here's why:

1.    “BETA” is not available

You can't do a “BETA” and make excuses as you fix bugs and errors. Why? People don't like to pay for BETA products. You can Alpha and BETA all you want with small-time applications such as Twitter - but this is about money.

2.    Good experience = conversions

Your user experience and interaction design has to be really good. Unless it looks and works really well, people won’t trust you and they won’t be excited about getting into it. If you look at a lot of the penny auction sites out there, you'll see what I mean. For instance, look at Bidblink. That looks a bit cheap to me. You’ll notice the same problem here Edubli. The design does not breed confidence. That's a big problem for conversions. Keep in mind, people will look at five sites at a time. You want to stand out as the most trusted brand. You can't let design get in the way.

3.    Web auctions are mission critical business systems

If your content management system fails, you just republish. Had a misfire in your video player? Just fix it and people forgive you. People are a bit more sensitive about their money. Once that credit card is in, you have to deliver.

4.    Your system must scale

Auctions are real time and every second counts. Data processing is high volume. The system needs to be efficient and it must scale. Your profit is probably going to be on volume, so you'll want to serve a lot of users. What happens if you get hundreds of users entering any one auction at one time? You have to be prepared or you go out of business.

We’re excited to have built Bidzilla. It was a real test for the Fabric development team. Thanks to everyone who made it happen!

Come on - you think you can handle it? You want to be our new PHP / SQL Developer – Full time. Why don't you submit your resume right now. Let's see what you can do.

This is an onsite position. No outsourcing. No telecommuting.

Interactive agency seeks a developer with PHP and SQL experience to participate in team based and independent development of new and existing projects. Recent CS graduate a plus.

Requirements:

• Strong work ethic with diligent follow up
• 2+ years of PHP programming
• Ability to hand code with compliance to standards and existing procedures
• Familiarity with SQL queries and functions; preferably PostgreSQL / plpgsql
• Mid-level HTML / CSS / Javascript. (Cross browser experience a must!)

Responsibilities:

• Provide production estimates based on technical and / or functional specifications
• Manage own development process for multiple concurrent projects
• Develop unique web products and admin tools based on existing code library
• Testing and Quality Assurance

Some end user documentation and technical support required

This is a career advancement opportunity for the right candidate.

Compensation: $40K+ DOE

Please include resume, code samples of PHP and Javascript, why you prefer your browser of choice, a limerick and three references.

* Job location is Los Angeles

Want to make social media work for you?

Clients ask the same question every week: How do we make this social media thing work for us? What's the secret? The good or bad news is: There's no secret. You just need a few things:

1. A brand or product that doesn't suck
2. Some cool content or a video with a hook
3. Time (or money)

So, go out there and do something cool. Be interesting. Different. Try new things. Keep going. You'll get it!

What's better than a basket full of kittens? One puppy. That's right; just one. Not a litter. No, that's too much love and awesomeness for anyone to contain. Just one cute, adorable, fuzzy puppy.

*cough* cats suck *cough*

Fabric recently finished designing and developing a new beta site for Dogasaur, a social site aimed at helping dog lovers improve their dogs' lives.

We started with a few simple goals: create a site that placed the best, most pertinent information on dog products, services and health at dog lovers fingertips; give dog owners a place to rate and review these things; and develop a home for canine experts to get their information out and available.

But, we quickly found in our discovery phase that ratings and reviews just weren't enough. Dogasaur needed a place for dog lovers to express themselves, to add their own personality (and their dogs' personalities) to their profiles. And, not only just dog lovers but the businesses serving them. We discussed options with the client and out new profile layouts were born.

We've had a ton of fun creating Dogasaur with our client and we're not finished yet. On the horizon: bigger and better tools for businesses to reach (and help) the Dogasaur audience; videos, pictures and dog breed information; more robust interaction tools with dog shelters, rescues and charity organizations; and other social tools to engage our user base.

One puppy!