Amplifying Moms' Voices
Congratulations go out to Mandy for being chosen as our second mom of the week! She is an active part of many communities. She has contributed to 250 conversations!
Mandy Stevenson
Our first Mom of Week, Winnie Stotts, says,
Mandy is very thoughtful and always takes the time to check in on people she has come in contact with through Circle of moms
Mandy has two boys ages eight & two. We appreciate her dedication to Circle of Moms & her friends there.
The first Community of the Week has over 77,500 members! It’s a very active community led by Missy McCalllum. Young Moms Aged 20-30 has moms from all over discussing a variety of topics.
Missy McCallum
The description for the group is:
This is a fun site were all of us can get together and just talk about our kids, husbands, loved ones or just share a good story. We need to have other people our own age that can understand each other and were we come from.
These moms have two things in common: they have young children and are very active. It’s great that Missy has created a community where they can network, share ideas & provide support for each other!
Here’s what Miss had to say about her flourishing community for moms:
Well, first of all thanks so much! It is such a neat honor! I would have to say that I don’t really do much of anything to have such a large group. I think that it is such a great community because everyone can feel like they understand the situation. That’s exactly what I was going for. Young mothers can feel so alone sometimes and I wanted other people feeling the same to have a place to turn to. Again it is the mothers themselves that keep it so active. There are always so many questions and desperate for advice that everyone lends some personal information and that is the key. I myself would always ask my friends first for advice before going to seek advice from doctors or professionals and that is exactly what goes on here! I’m so proud of the group for doing that.
I don’t know what kind of advice I could give (on how to keep a community active). I would say just try to think about what you would want for your group and make it broad enough that other mothers would understand and want to be involved! Not sure how helpful that is, but that’s what I got.
Thanks again and remember to stay positive and learn to laugh at yourself, it will get you through anything!!!
Definitely check out the Young Moms Aged 20-30 community!
What is your favorite community at Circle of Moms?
One of the comments that we get most frequently from our users is “I love the responses that I get from other Circle of Moms users. How do I know which users are the experts and provide the most trustworthy feedback, though?” This is a great question and we’ve taken it to heart. Today, we released a couple of features that we think will help our users answer this question: user stats and badges! We’re very excited about these new features and are eager to get your feedback on them.
User Stats
This feature is exactly what you’d expect it to be: users can see how frequently people contribute to the Circle of Moms community. Right now we have five items that we measure: conversation posts, conversations started, questions answered, firsts and wall posts.
Circle of Moms Profile with User Statistics
This makes it very easy to see who is active and who is just passing by.
Badges
Badges are a great way for us to reward and recognize our most passionate users. They are a fun and easy way for us to let you know who stands out in the Circle of Moms community and why!
SmartyPants – For moms that have helped other mothers in the past and proven themselves to be wise by giving valuable responses to conversations and questions, we have the SmartyPants badge. These moms are very helpful. If you come across one, feel free to reach out to her with your question; she has helped others in the past, and will most likely help you, too!
Social Butterfly – For moms that are warm and welcoming to the other members of the Circle of Moms community, we have the Social Butterfly badge. One of the aspects of Circle of Moms that we love most is that the community is warm and provides constructive and caring feedback to other moms. The social butterflies create the friendly atmosphere that makes this all possible. Thank you!
Administrator – We have over 2,000 user-created communities and it was the community administrators that made this possible. These women take the initiative to create a community in which moms can share advice, recommendations and empathy. They keep the level of activity in Circle of Moms high and we love them for it.
Mom-trepreneur – We have a deep amount of respect for moms that run their own business and want to support them however we can. The Mom-trepreneur badge identifies those moms who are also businesswomen and have registered their business with Circle of Moms. Once you do this, we will promote your business to the Circle of Moms community and help drive traffic to your site. If you are interested in registering your business, please go to http://www.circleofmoms.com/ad_create.php.
We hope you enjoy these new features. Please let us know what you think of them in the comments!
Circle of Moms is a great place to connect with other moms & share ideas & concerns.
A very popular topic is children with food allergies. The ages range from infants on up.
And the allergies to foods are varied.
Moms share how they’re coping with the challenges of dealing with food allergies. And they also share resources where they’ve gotten information & assistance. This can be really helpful when you’re seeking answers or if it’s a new diagnosis.
If you have a child with food allergies you may find one of these groups helpful. There are many conversations that are very helpful.
Kids with Food Allergies - 628 member
Kids/Babies with Food Allergies - 547 members
Raising Children with Food Allergies - 591 members
Moms of Kids with Food Allergies
And if you have experience with food allergies or questions, feel free to join the conversations there!
We are excited to congratulate Winnie Stotts as the first Mom of the Week at Circle of Moms!!
Winnie Stots - Mom of the Week
She has made many contributions to Circle of Moms. On a regular basis she:
I asked Winnie to share a bit about her family.
I am a mama of one little boy who is three. His name is Carson. I have been married to my husband Matt for 9 1/2 years. We lived in Wyoming up until May of 08, when we moved to Colorado Springs. We were blessed to add Carson to our family through adoption. We were able to bring him home the day after he was born – which we call “Gotcha Day”. Every year we celebrate his birthday, and then we celebrate the Gotcha Day the day after his birthday. I am able to stay at home with my son every day, which is a blessing as well. There are some long days, and a few boring days, but I enjoy being able to be with him through out all of that.
This is how Winnie got involved with Circle of Moms.
I started through an invite to the application and have enjoyed it ever since. I enjoy getting to know other moms who can relate to exactly where I find myself in the parenting seasons. I am also a part of two of the adoption support communities. We were from such a small town, that adoption was a rare story. I had not really met anyone in my situation before, so these communities have opened my eyes to the different ways that there were so many people in my situation. Most of my really good friends, have been my online friends in Circle of Moms.
I asked Winnie what she likes best about Circle of Moms:
Everyone is so friendly and they open themselves up in ways that make me feel like I can get to know them better. It is a great way to social network when you are home bound with the kids and need some adult conversations. Plus it seems that you can be very open with your questions, and most of the responses are genuine and thoughtful. I appreciate the women I have met here. I also appreciate the time and energy the creators of Circle of Moms have put into making these experiences easy and fun!!
We want to thank Winnie for her generous contributions to the Circle of Moms community. We very much appreciate your efforts!
