Blogger relations and mommies
4March 28, 2007 by Colin
Blogger relations programs have moved a little farther up the hype cycle and are, as a result, running into some minor problems. Public relations agencies, old line marketers and word of mouth specialists have been at the game for about two years now, and niche markets have finally begun to overlap.
Example one: I have a friend who is a mommy blogger. She was the grateful recipient of a Nokia N6682 last year. This year, Motorola’s sent her a KRZR.
This would be expected at more focused blogs. For example, you’d expect a travel writer to receive more offers for free travel, or at least a phone call from a charter airline operator.
Mommy blogs, though, seem to be a more valued target for blogger relations programs. Maybe its their open and frank discussion of real-world problems and events with their readers. They certainly fall into the right target demographic.
Clearly what’s needed is some sort of clearinghouse, where PR, marketing and WOM agencies can compare notes on the blogger relations programs currently in the field.
Maybe that’s something the the Welcome Wagon could take over – now that the internet and hyper-effective direct mail have destroyed their marketing model.
[tags] blogger relations, Nokia program, WOM, Word of Mouth [/tags]
Don’t underestimate the power of the Mommy Blogger!
From a February Advertising Age article, “Mommy Blogs: A Marketer’s Dream”:
“Moms are the ultimate internet networkers,” said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.com. “They seek out other moms’ advice for what they’re looking for.” All of today’s e-media buzz words, from Web 2.0 to blogging to user-generated content, are “right down the alley of today’s moms.” Ms. Williamson’s recent report, “Mom’s Online: Parenting With Web 2.0,” found that in 2005, 32.2 million internet users — or 18.4% of U.S. internet users — were females with children under 18 in the house, a number that is predicted to rise to 36.6 million by 2010. And mommy-blog readers are a marketer’s dream: Blog-ad firm Blogads in March reported that the average consumer of such content is a 29-year-old female with annual income of $70,000 who taps in to five blogs a day and spends four hours a week on them.”
I get somewhere around five e-mails a week asking for links, offering content, schlepping various stuff. And I’m barely B list with traffic in the 6K to 7K hits per month, far from the inner circle of the most popular Mom/Dad bloggers. The rest of the blogosphere seems to think “Mommy Bloggers” are a bunch of dilettantes chattering inanely about baby’s first steps and what to make for dinner, but the smart marketers are paying attention!
Mommy Blogger Catherine Connor (currently at http://www.badladies.blogspot.com/) was one of the presenters at the January Toronto CaseCamp (www.casecamp.org/home/show/CaseCampToronto4).
In her short presentation (participants are limited to 15 minutes), Catherine focused on the real sense of responsibility she felt towards her community when posting about baby-related products and services, not to mention the ads she accepted on the site. (She is a lecturer at the University of Toronto, so perhaps some of her rigour can be attributed to her background and place of employ.) According to Catherine, it was very much a trust situation, something of which blogger relations programs should be aware.
Thanks for taking notice of our KRZR outreach programme.
For this particular programme, mommy bloggers made sense. As you’ll notice in DaniGirl’s post, she was looking for a good- looking phone that wasn’t feature intense, but something she could use to capture photos here and there of the little one. Perfect fit.
I think mommy bloggers are the most underestimated blogging groups out there. They’re passionate in their posts, write frequently AND have loyal readers.
Thanks for the comments, Judy and Ian. It’s clear that mommy blogs are a receptive audience for this type of program, and that they touch the groups marketers and community reps are really interested in.