The Importance of the Mommy Blogger

Mommy bloggers are increasingly becoming a valuable niche for marketers to target. CafeMom has received and continues to receive external funding. Yahoo! recently developed Shine, a colorful, all-in-one-stop site that combines the likes of a magazine, a website and a social network site. Popular bloggers are posting messages on Shine’s message board. And so a community of communities develops. I think of it as some sort of ‘word-of-click’ process where one thing links to the other, and the other. This online environment where a wealth of collaborators, passive and active participants and trendsetting moms coexist is fertile soil for marketers who are competing to become part of this large conversation. The conversation developing among mothers in the blogosphere is especially useful as powerful word-of-mouth campaigns originate in the online medium.

An interesting example of how these conversations are developing is Johnson&Johnson and their Camp Baby blog. The issue of the disinvitations to Camp Baby was blogged about in many sites (although I was never able to find an article in traditional media outlets) and J&J’s Communications representative, Lori XX, was criticized by many in the mommy blogging community for the company’s ill-advised decision. I include myself in that group. But weeks later I was trying to find out more about Camp Baby when I came across CampBaby2008, Johnson & Johnson’s blog about the conference, and partially changed my mind. The company created an online open forum where mommy bloggers could share their experiences about the conference but where a line was opened for further criticism. Instead of trying to go unnoticed in the blogosphere, they used this as an opportunity to further engage in the larger conversation among mom bloggers.

Another interesting example of the kind of conversations and associations developing between moms and marketers in the online sphere is Team Mom. ChildPlay Communications, the company behind Team Mom describes the model as a membership network that is open exclusively to a select group of leading mom bloggers who have been recognized for voicing their opinions thoughtfully and honestly. Members become “the first on the (virtual) block” to have access to the hottest new toys and other great children’s products. In a nutshell, here’s the model behind Team Mom: moms who join the Team Mom network periodically receive free products, which they must test out, and then write a blog post about their experience within two weeks of receiving them. They get to keep the products. It will be interesting to see how many mom bloggers actually like ‘having’ to test these products and whether they want their blogs to be in any way related to this. Nowhere does it say they have to disclose their association with the network and the fact that they are actually reviewing for pay.

Moms are important decision makers and influencers and properly targeting the mom blogging community will be key, as will be developing the appropriate opportunities for a conversation with this audience through a voice that is truly genuine.