Ask a mummy blogger why she started blogging and she will generally say the same as me: “I had to get all this stuff out of my head”.
For some mums that might be that they have a child who is autistic and they want to raise awareness, vent about form filling, systems designed to help that actually hinder, or they are just seeking support from fellow parents. Or they might be mums suffering from post natal depression who need to get off their chests how they are feeling and find mutual support from other sufferers, past and present.
For me, it was different. I found that working from home means that I don’t get a chance to rant about the Kardashians or Honey Boo Boo or Jamie Oliver’s latest 15 minute recipe book over a cup of tea with colleagues. For my husband’s sanity I have to get it “out there” somewhere so my blog www.mummybarrow.com is my little part of the world wide web to put my opinion across and, sometimes, spark a debate with others.
I have been blogging for over a year now and I have seen my subscriber list and Twitter followers increase on a daily basis. It seems people like hearing my opinions on world events, newspaper articles or chocolate. A fact that both surprises me and at the same time makes me just a little bit proud. Who would have thought that a tubby middle aged housewife from Hampshire might be saying something that other people want to hear?
And now it seems that various brands want to hear my opinion and to blog about their products.
Mummy bloggers are great for brands. You send us a product, we use it and we talk about it on our blogs. Blogs that are part of larger communities: Love All Blogs, Britmums, Netmums, Tots100 to name but four. Communities who, in turn, will promote those blog posts to their subscribers and followers. Who will RT our tweets on Twitter when we talk about your products. Who will be promoting YOUR product simply because they trust the blogger.
Beware though. Mummy bloggers are not stupid. We now know the value of our blogs and how powerful our voices can be. We are unlikely to want to promote a product that has a retail price of £5 JUST because it has been sent to us. A brand was horrified recently when I turned down the opportunity to review a tube of teething gel that retails at £1.99. “I have read your blog and see you have children”. Yes, I do. They are 18, 17 and 14. So teething gel is not something I can get passionate about.
Nor do we necessarily want to publish a pre written press release just because it has been sent to us. Many brands and PR companies think we should be flattered to have been chosen to cut and paste a document that includes a back link to a site we have no interest in.
We are not free advertising. We work hard on our blogs, we pay to join some of these communities, we photograph products and write up these reviews. We promote them on our Facebook pages and on Twitter. Do brands really think we are going to do that for product we don’t have an affinity with?
Get it right though and brands can have us eating out of their hands, doing much of their PR for them. I am incredibly loyal to the brands that I have reviewed on my blog. They approached me in the right way, they made a killer pitch and they see me as a brand ambassador, not just as an advertising space on the world wide web. I have continually talked about them whenever I can. If I see other people asking “anybody tried this?” I will jump in and sing the praises of the brand or the product.
To me, mummy bloggers offer the kind of publicity that many brands cannot buy. We should be taken seriously and certainly not viewed as mummy blaggers.
Now if you will excuse me I have a whole box of chocolates to get through for my next post.
You can find Mummy Barrow at www.mummybarrow.com or @mummybarrow
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Actually Mummy
Very well put, and factual too.
Rachel
Love this!!!
Wendy Hirst
Good post and very well put.
Chelsea Msmummyoftwo
Loving this! x
Emmacomms
Brilliant. Thank you for the lessons – too easy to forget bloggers aren’t just ‘media’.
Emma (PR Consultant and mummy or an autistic child who sometimes has to ‘get stuff out of her head too!)
Laura Briggs
Very well said Mummy B!
20somethingmum
Very true. I don’t get miffed about the age mix ups (generally, I just pass them along to someone more suitable). There are good pitches and bad pitches. I think, and I say this as a blogger too, you have to know your own worth too. That’s the key, if you know it, and show that you have this blog which you work hard on, then other’s will see that too. You are always going to find people who chance it- of course for every blogger who says no, they may get lucky with a few who are happy to be contacted- so you just have to be polite and decline. I’m not a fan of the Twitter scandal thing where disgruntled Bloggers will name and shame a PR or brand who offers something which doesn’t fit.
pinkoddy
Exactly that.
BavarianSojourn
Well said! I turn down many many opportunities as they just don’t fit my blog, my readers want to read my voice and not someone elses, and lastly that they a lot of these opportunities are just not worth it!
sonya
Like you I blog so my OH gets to get a word in edgeways sometimes! I had no idea about PRs and the like when I started, but over the last two years have worked with some brilliant ones and had some brilliant opportunites, equally I have been asked to do some odd things, irrelevant to my family/children things, and downright cheeky things!!