Okay, that’s a pretty big claim and I’ll begin by declaring I have no proof whatsoever to back it up. Well, I have some proof but nothing that would stand the test of the scientific method. And, #DadChat is just three years young, having debuted in April, 2011.
Let’s look at some hard facts and then add in some anecdotal evidence to the mix. In 2013, #DadChat achieved an unofficial world record (I actually did apply to Guinness but they didn’t recognize the category) for the number of impressions during a single chat (267 million over 48-hours). Over the course of 2013, #DadChat achieved 77,113 tweets, 7,956 participants, and 1,883,330,000 impressions (just shy of two billion). Read more about what two billion means and more about these statistics from last year.
Those are pretty impressive numbers. The consistency of these statistics continues to “impress” and the quality of our community and depth of guests and sponsors continue to grow. Below are partial lists of #DadChat Sponsors and Guests:
Sponsors: GoPro, Shutterfly, Hasbro, Playskol, Kraft Foods, Sears Auto, Walmart Family Mobile, Samsung, and Ford.
Guests: Billy Ray Cyrus, Guy Kawasaki, Peter Shankman, Chris Brogan, Pam Moore, Jodi Okun, Rachel Thompson, Mack Collier, Angela Maiers, Dave Taylor, Ted Rubin, and Jennifer Northey.
The other unique aspect of #DadChat is the eclectic participation this bashful author/host has in more forms of New and Old media than perhaps any other parent-blogger. I write a weekly syndicated column (A Dad’s Point-of-View), publish a weekly comic strip (Because I Said So), do a weekly radio show on AM-radio that is also available on iTunes (free), speak at major Social Media and Parent conferences such as BlogWorld and the Dad 2.0 Summit, published two books with a third in the works, appear regularly as a guest on HuffPostLive, post a weekly vlog (I’m NOT That Dad – a video blog), have a 74 Klout from all this Social Media activity (over 51,000 twitter followers as of this writing), post regularly on Instagram, have a 5,100+ members active Facebook Page (A Dad’s Point-of-View), and more.
So, modesty is not my strong suit. I’m seriously not trying to boast, just to make my case for the size of our #DadChat community and the fact that all these varied endeavors all feed into one another.
No, that’s NOT my mouth, though my wife says it’s the biggest!
This is where harsh statistics cannot measure or back up my claim that #DadChat is the largest worldwide community of parents in Social Media. I’m not even sure how to quantify all the synergy between all the things I do.
I’m so proud of our community. #DadChat meets every Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET but the hashtag is in use 24/7. There’s not a single day that goes by without 100 – 200 tweets carrying our hashtag. On Thursdays, that number can exceed 3,000. Occasionally, I will casually survey those present on Thursday evenings and realize the total intelligence quorum could staff the best think tanks in the world with our Phd’s, MDs, and other bright and articulate particpants.
During the recent Winter Olympics, I was fond of saying that we were the Olympics of Tweet-Chats because we regularly have participants from all over the world. I think we’ve had as many as five continents participating at the same time. Getting the two “Poles” to join us is a challenge.
There’s also a unique and some would say sexist aspect to my claim and why #DadChat resonates as the biggest parent community on Social Media. Half or more of the audience, across all media forms, is women. This is absolutely NOT true for mom bloggers. Their communities are universally female.
Why is this, you ask? Because men and women are different and women generally are more interested in the micro subjects that relate to family than men. Note, I said “generally” because of course there are more interested men and many less interested women. This singular fact is why #DadChat will always have greater demographic appeal than anything with “Mom’ in its name.
The mom community (of bloggers) will always be bigger and more influential than the dads for exactly the same reason. But, the #DadChat community will always be the biggest general community of parents, pure and simple.
I rest my case….
