November 18th, 2008
Should big brands fear or revere the mommybloggers?
The mommybloggers are not a phenomenon, they are here to stay. What are the mommybloggers? A huge network of, well, mommies who write about a variety of issues from politics to consumer culture to trends — some of them paid handsomely or taking free goods from big brands in order to do reviews or perspective pieces on what’s on the market for moms.
These women are not a group to be messed with and they bring a lot of value, especially if you want to learn more about the plight of the blogging mother, and whether or not you are a mom yourself or a brand.
Earlier this year Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger even made a short list of why mommybloggers should be watched. Here’s the high-level list (read his blog post for the back-up):
- Moms can blog at home
- Moms need the sociality of the net
- Moms have a wealth of material to use
- Moms are record keepers
- Mom blogs wield economic power
The last one was proven this weekend when Motrin, poor naive Motrin, put up an ad that was deemed offensive by the legions of mommybloggers, and Twittermoms, to boot. I kept seeing the hashtag #motrinmoms popping up on Twitter all weekend and finally did a bit of digging. I was worried. With all of the fanfare, I was certain there was some issue on par with Tylenol crisis of 1982. Strangely, nothing was popping up on Google News or Google Blogs. It was all on Twitter.
Eventually, I found the root of the crisis. Motrin had posted a commercial on its homepage that the mommybloggers did not like. OK, wow, that commercial must’ve been horrible to incite such panic during the weekend. Motrin must’ve destroyed all that is sacred about motherhood. Right? Wrong. The commercial made some skeptical comments about babywearing and made some assertions that perhaps some moms do it for “street cred.” Judge for yourself, but I thought it was kind of funny. Then again I am not a mother and also, after much competitive improv training, I’ve learned to find humor in most anything. That said, I decided to check with my reality touchstone and best friend, who happens to be a single mother of three outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Her reaction?
“It was funny. The commercial merely poked fun at the pride some mom’s feel over expressing their motherhood.”
What’s that trite saying about the inability to make fun of oneself?
Next: Should the witch hunt be rewarded? –>
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Jennifer Leggio, aka "Mediaphyter," writes about the "social business" side of social media - including enterprise, security and reputation issues. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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| 11/18/08
