Do you agree that incessant chatter about kids is annoying or should Ms. Skurnick lighten up? And do you ever brattle about your own kids?

The Bloggers Brunch, held at a private club in New York City, was designed to enable bloggers to connect in person with our clients and each other — as well as to enjoy a lovely brunch (complete with “momosas”), great giveaways and raffle prizes that could not be beat.

I would like to say a special thanks to a  long list of folks who joined us today:

First, to our panel of leading mom bloggers, who addressed the topic “What Does a Mommy Blogger Want?” offering insights into the issues and trends that affect the momosphere today, as well as advice on how best to interest mom bloggers in your brand. Major kudos to: Debbie of Mamanista,  Kimberly of  Mom in the City, Liz of Cool Mom Picks, Jo-Lynne of Musings of a Housewife, and Melissa of Real Moms Guide. Great job!

Second, to the members of the Child’s Play Communications review network, Team Mom, who joined us for the day. What a pleasure to see everyone in person.

Third, to the folks who traveled from out of the NYC area — New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Boston, Virginia, Maryland and even Florida! We hope you found the journey worthwhile.

And almost last but not at all least, to all the sponsors who helped make this possible. In alphabetical order: Cuisinart, FujiFilm, Goddard Schools, Good Housekeeping, Joy Berry Enterprises, Nickelodeon, the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Toy Industry Association. And, of course, to Lord & Taylor, which arranged for Louis, of Laura Mercier, to provide makeovers for our guests.

Love you all. Can’t wait until next year. Photos and video soon to follow.

• They multitask with multiple technologies. Both groups view technology as a way to easily integrate all the different aspects of their lives. Moms see technology as a solution for managing home life efficiently, and they welcome tech just as much as college students do.
• They build communities to ease transitions. Those communities provide them with support systems, as students in one case and parents in the other. Interestingly, moms are more likely to be on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter than the general population, and the majority are likely to visit social networking sites several times a day.
• They seek peer advice over experts’. According to the report, “Gone are the days when What to Expect When You’re Expecting was the definitive bible. Today, social sites have blown open the doors to more personal parenting advice and niche ideas.”
• They overshare. Though they communicate very different types of information, neither group hesitates to convey very personal information to strangers. The report cites as an example moms’ uproar in response to Facebook’s  effort to ban breastfeeding photos.

Yet along with the similarities between moms and college students come some notable differences which should be of particular interest to marketers. While college students “hardly ever” post a review about products and services, moms are “most likely” to do so “once a week.”

Moms, do these findings describe your experience? Marketers, what surprises you about these results?

For more on this insightful report, visit here.

The awards include:

PRSA-NY, Big Apple Award, Winner — Innovation & Technology

Bulldog Reporter, Silver — PR Innovation of the Year

Bulldog Reporter, Bronze — Best Use of the Internet, Consumer 

Stephanie Azzarone receives PRSA-NY Big Apple Award

Team Mom is the agency’s network of mommy bloggers — influential, social-media-savvy women who blog about the agency’s clients on a regular basis. This active network of moms reaches more than 1 million other moms per month.

This week’s awards are in addition to last month’s SABRE Awards Certificate of Excellence — PR Agency Initiative, also for Team Mom.

The PRSA-NY (Public Relations Society of America, New York Chapter) awards program has become the standard of excellence for the New York-area public relations industry. Bulldog Reporter is a leading public relations industry publication. The SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards are managed by The Holmes Group, a global public relations publishing operation. All of the awards recognize leadership in public relations.

I’m thrilled to receive these prestigious awards and especially pleased that they acknowledge innovative thinking — Child’s Play was the first agency to launch its own network of mom bloggers. My goal for 2009 is to make Child’s Play not only the leader in social media outreach to moms,  but also to creatively expand and integrate digital and traditional PR practices to produce the highest-impact connection between our clients and their target audience.

To all the members of Team Mom — a huge THANK YOU for making this possible!

Say it ain’t so, moms.

According to an April online survey conducted by MomLogic.com and Insight Research Group, one in three mothers are turning to vices like overeating, drinking, drugs and gambling to cope with the recession.

In addition, of mothers whose partners have lost their jobs, a full 80 percent say they are feeling overwhelmed.

Significantly, for 27% of moms 25-34, the recession is impacting pregnancy plans: Although they want more children, they are going to wait.

The survey involved 450 mothers ages 25-55.

For more on the survey, visit MomLogic.

How do moms’ activities online vary according to mothers’ ages and ethnic backgrounds? Here are some interesting findings, from yesterday’s Brandweek:

• Moms 25-54 with at least one child under the age of 18 at home account for approximately 19% of the total online population.

• Moms ages 40-50 with three or more children at home are heavy online shoppers.

• Mothers 25-35 with at least one child at home are also heavy online shoppers, but social networking is much more significant.

• Those moms (25-35) are 85% more likely to spend time with Facebook compared to the average online consumer (vs. 23% more likely for moms 39-54).

• African-American moms are more inclined to read articles online (68%) and listen to music (45%), while Caucasian moms favor social networks (45%) and message boards (43%).

• Among Hispanic moms, blogs were the top choice (55%), and social networks were second (42%).

What with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the continuing expansion of mom social networking sites,  it can be easy to get caught up in the wild world of the Web. In a recent Motherlode post, Lisa Belkin explored the relationship between moms, specifically new moms, and internet addiction.

In between diaper changes, playing and naptime, moms turn to the web for conversation, advice and interaction with other moms. Whether it is to take a much-needed break from the daily routine or an attempt to locate a great dinner recipe, some moms are finding themselves substituting blog posts for sleep or showers.

It can start with simply checking emails, move on to reading blogs, twittering — and pretty soon the day has passed you by.

It’s something I can certainly understand personally. While monitoring social media is part of my job, it’s not just part of my job. Between sending out tweets, looking up links that others have tweeted, checking profiles on new followers, searching for new people to follow, writing my own blog, looking to see if someone has posted a comment on my blog, reading other blogs, researching Web sites, emailing, reading incoming electronic newsletters, reviewing Google Reader, etc. – surely I’m forgetting something here — well, you get the idea.

Moms are you addicted to the Internet? How many hours a day to you spend online? What do you think the warning signs of Internet addiction are? And what do you do to take a break? 

From my point of view, there are several issues – and few clear answers.

At Child’s Play Communications, we know that good bloggers put a lot of time and effort into creating thorough and honest reviews. We get that. And we respect that. It’s why we’ve worked with them time and time again over the years, through our Team Mom™ and Web Mom review programs.

Here’s the win-win equation, as I see it:

• We give bloggers quality products to evaluate and we treat those bloggers with care and consideration.  Resulting, from-the-heart reviews, none of which are paid, make our clients happy.

• By reviewing products in a forthright way, bloggers offer their readers a much-in-demand service. By generating a following that relies on authenticity, those bloggers become recognized influencers – a status that makes them happy and often leads to bigger and better things. Their readers know that the opinion voiced is real because there is no reason for it not to be – the bloggers don’t work for the companies they are reviewing.

Once that mom-to-mom trust falters – if mom-bloggers start getting paid and their audience realizes that what they’re reading is potentially as valid as advertising – the entire underpinning and appeal of blogging as a credible communication tool goes away. And all those companies and public relations firms that have been providing the information for those reviews, including my own, will likely follow. Bloggers, if moms no longer trust you, companies no longer need you.

Do I believe that the minute money is involved, bloggers will be swayed to write what companies want them to? Not necessarily. Bloggers are individuals just like everyone else – for some it will make a difference, for others it won’t. But I do know that a lot of clients are concerned about the perception that goes with paying for reviews, and won’t do it for that reason.

Do I think a paid review that’s not flagged as a paid review is dishonest? Yes, I do. And if it is identified as paid, or “sponsored,” is that OK – bloggers taking money for reviews as long as they say they are? Now, there’s the tough one. Probably…yes (shoot me, potential clients, I may have just cost you some money). I just don’t see a problem with Kmart providing bloggers with a gift certificate to shop the store with the goal of having them writing about the experience, when the bloggers are up front about it. But then, as they say in the journalism biz, the results of such relationships are called advertorials not editorials — and there is a world of difference in how the audience may read them, if they read them at all.

In other words, bloggers, payment may fill your purse but devalue your worth.

Moms, I’d really like your opinion. If you read product reviews, do you care whether the blogger is paid by the company for reviewing their product?

Mom bloggers, do you feel you should be paid for your time or do you consider that a conflict of interest?

And marketers, where do you fall in all this? What works for you?

Where do all of you draw the line?

It seems that in the past month or so alone – with headlines about The Real Shaq, Jon Stewart’s Comedy Central critique, addicted-to-it admissions by major news anchors, and especially, Oprah’s April 17 segment on the subject – the entire world has discovered Twitter.

For those of you who have been focusing on less pressing matters – say, the economy — Twitter is a microblog through which people communicate within a maximum of 140 characters. The real-time result, as others have suggested, is much like a large cocktail party with many unrelated conversations occurring at the same time. Twitter can be perplexing, disorienting, even overwhelming.

In comparison to social networks such as Facebook, with its 200 million active users, Twitter is a social neophyte, with 14 million users (pre Oprah), according to Compete.com. What makes Twitter newsworthy, however, is that this figure indicates a significant spike – an increase of 76.8% in the past month alone.

Is Twitter a great way to market to moms?

The jury is still out — but the possibilities are intriguing. Moms are certainly tweeting in droves. Of the core group of 100 or so mom bloggers we work with on an ongoing basis, for example, roughly 80% have Twitter accounts. The Twitter format itself – short bursts – may particularly appeal to busy moms, as a way to stay in touch between myriad parenting tasks. The influential TwitterMoms network includes numerous subcategories for different areas of interest, from “Online Marketing Moms” to “Twitter Newbies.” March saw the launch of independent microblogging variations on Twitter, designed to appeal directly to moms.

Moms who tweet comment on everything from potty training to politics. Granted, there are numerous posts along the lines of, “What shall I make for lunch?” and “Just dropped Jimmy off at practice.” Earlier this month, there was much lively debate on a TV segment on “the secret life of moms” as well as a major fundraising effort for a mom in need. Though clearly not a direct opportunity for marketers, these activities offer insight into a mom’s world. More relevant to corporations, there is also a great deal of news and knowledge shared, mom to mom, about product giveaways, coupon offers, special events, and more. Many of the conversations that started online have evolved to off-line – the “meet ups” or in-person meetings originated by bloggers have evolved into “tweet ups” for Twitter fans.

Small and large businesses alike have tiptoed into Twitter waters in an effort to reach moms. Graco and Johnson & Johnson have a presence, as do Nickelodeon and Disney, among others. Companies such as Whole Foods, Starbucks, Zappos and JetBlue use Twitter to target a broader audience.

For those marketing in Twitter space for the first time, there is a distinct learning curve. Some basic lessons:

• Identify your objectives carefully. What do you want to achieve through a Twitter presence? Create visibility? Improve your customer service? Move a particular product? Develop greater awareness of an online or offline promotion?

• Allocate the time to do it right. For a channel known for its word limit, Twitter can be incredibly time consuming if you want to convey a specific marketing message effectively. For originating posts and reading and responding to others, expect to devote one-two full hours a day.

• Pursue followers aggressively, but selectively. Full disclosure: This is counter to traditional thinking. Many Twitter experts will tell you that the best way to establish expertise and relationships is to generate a massive following — by following the masses, who in return will most likely follow you. But what if your real audience is a lot more specific than broad? If you’re reaching foreign real estate brokers and your target is American moms of young children, what is the point, aside from big-number bragging rights? And, realistically, how can you possibly read and interact with – which is the whole point — posts from a huge list?

• Make a contribution. Don’t become one of those companies whose updates consist of constant repetition of the same message, “Here’s my product.” Share value: answer questions, address concerns, provide unique opportunities and interesting updates on activities at your company, but also volunteer helpful information on relevant subjects. For example, if you’re promoting a family travel destination, post links to third-party tips for traveling with kids.

Despite the fact that it’s been around for three years, Twitter is only now really taking off when it comes to corporate involvement. Readers, what have your experiences been with Twitter? Marketers, what have you done that’s effective? Moms, what should companies on Twitter do to make themselves more appealing?

To comment, please visit Engage: Moms.

What?

Allow this reporter-turned-publicist to point out that never in the history of journalism have traditional media been held responsible for reviewing products.

So what possible justification can there be for mommy bloggers to suddenly bear a burden that traditional media never have?

It appears that the FTC may consider such reviews advertising as opposed to editorial.

“The proposed revisions signal that the commission will apply existing principles of advertising law to new forms of media, like blogs,” according to an article posted recently on the ABC News site.

The concern is “about those instances when (testimonials) are delivered and it is not made obvious that it’s an advertisement for a company,” said FTC spokesperson Richard Cleland.

“It would only affect bloggers who are paid to write reviews but the sticky issue that is raised is what happens if a product is given for free,” said Cleland. “That is something we are going to have to address.”

Readers, before either the marketers or mom bloggers among you decide to totally abandon the concept of working together — a foundation on which a vast number of blogs and blogger reputations are based — keep in mind that a decision is not expected to be made until early summer.

My opinion: If mom bloggers become wary of posting about products, a major platform on which the success of social media is built will come crashing down. The result? What is now a win-win situation — for marketers, mom bloggers and their readers alike — will devolve into a scenario where everyone loses.

For more, please visit a good post on the subject, including some helpful recommendations, at Mamanista.