Posts Tagged "Public Relations"

I was delighted to share an audioconference panel on marketing to mom bloggers last week with four top blogger moms: Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks, Liz Thompson of This Full House, Christine Young of From Dates to Diapers and Beyond! and Renee Aka Mekhishom of Cutie Bootie Cakes. The presentation, hosted by Bulldog Reporter’s PR University, was designed to share best practices.  Some takeaways from these terrific bloggers:

Understand their time constraints. We all want them to post our news immediately. Remember — they’ve got kids to take care of.

Get to know them before pitching them. Read their blogs and understand what those blogs are about.

Develop relationships. Personal connections with bloggers will help your pitch stand out.

Press releaases. Dont send them. Or if you do send them, don’t expect a blogger to post them verbatim.

Causes. Bloggers are interested in news about how companies give back to the community.

Email pitches. They’re preferred over Twitter or Facebook outreach.

Product samples. Ask before sending. And don’t require them to be sent back.

What they’re looking for right now. Anything  eco-friendly.

What to keep in mind.  Mom bloggers are not all the same. Some come from marketing backgrounds and better understand how the process works, what terms like embargo mean, and the importance of deadlines. Others don’t.

Any fellow panelists among Mom Market Trends readers — if I’ve left out anything important or if there is anything else you’d like to add, please let me know!

Last week, on the blog Everything PR, Phil Butler posted a rant on the subject of mommy bloggers. Apparently it was sparked by a news release he saw about tomorrow’s Bulldog Reporter PR University audio conference on pitching mommy bloggers. I am speaking on that panel, as a publicist who has successfully worked with this audience for the past few years.

He begins by blasting the organizers of the event for positioning the mom blogger, in their press materials, as the “holy grail” – his term, not theirs. Yet for most companies, mom is, appropriately, just that – the key target audience, the one responsible for 80-85% of household spending decisions. And these days, the way to reach her is through social media – especially, by means of mommy bloggers.

He goes on to say that “though many Moms who blog or use the Internet are still focused on their kids, some are wholly focused on the almighty dollar – period.” And if that weren’t enough, “I can tell the reader one thing about the Mommy blogosphere these days – marketing and PR money has turned many of these Moms into review slinging money grubbers whose only concerns are freebies and paid for positive reviews of products.”

Whew!

And let’s not overlook this: “I do not want to get into the specifics, or to hurt anyone unduly, but suffice it to say that large PR and marketing companies have pretty much “paid off” many of the most influential Moms out there.”

Hold on there. Paid? We don’t pay the mommy bloggers we work with. We never have. And it’s never been a problem.

He goes on: “We have people working on this very issue right now reporting all manner of “under the table” type operations.”

A little too cloak-and-dagger for me, Phil.

He then provides an example from his own experience, regarding a free service that he felt was valuable for families and that he pitched to the mom blogger community. The response:

“Out of about 50 Mommy Bloggers in our networks, and an untold zillion of others on Twitter and other networks, can you guess how many just told their readers about this wonderful kids tool? One.”

Hey, Phil. Maybe they didn’t like the service. Or maybe you didn’t approach them properly. Or maybe you just thought that they should be grateful for the information. Believe me, these days they get plenty of information. Did they not run it because it didn’t add to their bottom line or their kid’s toy chest? In some – repeat, some — cases, probably yes. The important learning here is that not all mom bloggers are alike.

“As for the ones who we have supported in their social media outreaches all these years, and offered to help in other ways so many times, not one even bothered to ask questions about this tool.”

OK. Now here – finally — we have something to agree on. Yes, when there is an ongoing relationship, and when an agency has gone out of its way to support a blogger, and that blogger simply refuses to review a product nonetheless and doesn’t even get back to the publicist to say why – well, yeah, that stinks. In fact it makes me crazy. But, really, much as I hate to admit it – how is that different from a reporter who may have covered your clients in the past, and then suddenly doesn’t?

Oh, and hey, Phil? Your “thing” in the article about the mommy bloggers’ ongoing use of the word “adorable”? Not so adorable.

There are 21 million moms engaged in social media on at least a weekly basis, and about 11.5 million of them are writing, reading and/or commenting on blogs.

On Wednesday, November 11, in New York City, Child’s Play Communications will hold its second annual Bloggers Brunch, an opportunity for companies to connect directly with leading mom bloggers in an intimate atmosphere, conducive to conversation and personal connections.

This year for the first time, the Bloggers Brunch will kick off with a panel of leading mom bloggers, who will discuss best practices for reaching moms through social media. They will share their insights and answer the questions you have about how to work with this target market most effectively. They will also discuss how the “momosphere” has changed, current trends, and issues that impact their interaction with the corporate world today.

The morning presentation will be followed by a noon brunch at which sponsors may exhibit their products to up to 50 mom bloggers, for consideration in time for holiday reviews. The exhibit area will be low-key and provide the ideal opportunity to create a relationship with our blogger guests. This invitation-only event will feature no more than 10 or so exhibitors.

Last year’s Bloggers Brunch event was a huge success. Please visit here for a description, photos and video. For details on the 2009 event, click here . We invite you to register now to secure a spot at 2009’s exclusive event. Child’s Play is offering a 20% discount to all guests and sponsors/exhibitors who register and pay in full by October 1.

I was delighted to be quoted in last week’s Computerworld blog titled, “Why K”NEX brands loves mommy blogs.” The author talked about how toy companies such as K’NEX Brands value working with mom bloggers. In the article, K’NEX chief marketing officer Barbara Rentschler is quoted as saying “We raise awareness much more with mom blogs than we did with advertising.” In the story, I answered questions about how Child’s Play has created visibility for K’NEX through our Team Mom blogger network. The article looks at some of the current hot topics in the momosphere — payment for posts, pending FTC regulations and more — in a way that I believe was both fair and thorough.

I thought you might find the article informative.  For the full story, visit here.

A few days ago, I blogged about the PR Blackout proposed by some mom bloggers. Today, I have an article in the online newsletter, Engage: Moms,that looks at the changes taking place in the blogosphere right now, with a shift in blogger attitude toward publicists and other marketers just one among many. I can’t help but wonder how such current developments will play out in the near future. Below is a copy of the article, called Mommy Blogger Backlash, for your comments:

Is the momosphere ready to implode?

A relationship that was once based on a simple understanding — companies supplied products to mom bloggers to review, moms reviewed products for fun and to attract an audience — may suddenly be in semi-crisis.

There are several contributing factors — legislation, compensation and, well, “vacation,” among them — all of which are in play at this very moment:

Holding the Line

While many organizations view mom bloggers as individuals expressing opinions, there is one influential group that does not: The Federal Trade Commission. This summer, the FTC plans to determine whether bloggers, including mom bloggers, and the companies that work with them, should be held to the same advertising standard that bans deceptive or unfair business practices. That is, the agency may choose to go after bloggers  for any false claims or failure to disclose receipt of a free product or of payment. While some moms are unperturbed by this pending regulation, others are taking action — checking with attorneys or posting disclaimers on their sites. Still others are considering beating a retreat — getting out of the blog review business for good.

Gimme Money…

Two or three years ago — when many of today’s bloggers were just coming into their own — a few brave companies thought there actually might be something to communicating with moms directly via social media rather than through third-party, traditional media. At the time, a lot of moms really loved the idea of being sent products to review, and the recognition and appreciation for their blogging skills and influence that relationship implied. And let’s face it, all those freebies were pretty cool too.

However, in recent times, the values of those giveaways has morphed dramatically upward. What was once a $20 toy is now an appliance, an automobile on loan, or an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World. Meaning, some bloggers will turn up their noses at anything less. Others, meanwhile, will now only comment on companies if paid to do so.

…Or at least, Gimme a Break

That’s if they still want to blog about companies at all.

As of last week, a number of mom bloggers are protesting that they’ve had enough. Of what? Apparently, of a good thing — too many freebies! They are feeling put upon by the surge of marketers sending them products and asking them to write about them.

So — they’re going on strike. The plan is that the week of August 10, certain mom bloggers are taking a “vacation” from marketing — what they’re calling a “PR Blackout” — refusing to post anything that could possibly promote a brand, or to even TALK to a publicist that entire week.

One wonders what would happen if the marketing world instituted an extended “Blogger Blackout” in return — no samples, no giveaways, no coupons, no trips. And readers would then keep going to those blogs because…?

On the surface, this blogger pushback is all about these busy moms giving themselves a well-deserved break from all of us evil marketers who insist on giving them things. Or it could be that, totally unrelated to PR “demands,” some moms are getting tired of the whole gotta-get-a-post-out-there-every-day grind — and beginning to feel that what used to be a wonderful mode of self-expression may have become too much like a job. According to some blogger comments, certain moms may also feel that it’s always the same few other moms who get recognition for their work — by media and companies alike — so why bother putting in the effort?

So — where does that leave mommy bloggers and marketers alike? Between bloggers who are changing their attitudes and marketers who may not appreciate the FTC ruling, paying bloggers or having their phone calls refused because of a bloggy strike — well, time will tell.

For the original Engage: Moms article, visit here.