Respect the Mommy Blogger
This is the first in a two-part series on mothers and blogging. The second part continues, above.
General Mills recently learned a lesson that a number of other corporations have already had to learn through the Online School of Hard Knocks.
Respect the mommy blogger. (It's really not that complicated. Moms have always talked. Now they talk online, too.)
What led to this latest eureka moment was the publication of a BrandWeek article about General Mill’s MyBlogSpark program - and the backlash it triggered.
The article highlighted the success of the program, success being measured, apparently, in hits (5 million), comments (8000), and dollars not being spent on mommy blog advertising. (Why buy the ad if you can promote the yogourt on mommy blogs for free? That seems to be the point of MyBlogSpark.)
Blogger Trisha Haas of MomDot reacted to the BrandWeek article with what amounts to a mommy blogger call to action, urging her fellow bloggers to “GET A CLUE and get it fast”
Unfortunately, right now bloggers are pretty much equivalent to a woman in an abusive relationship that keeps going back over and over again. But not for the kids…..for the freaking yogurt cups.
Haas heard back from General Mills within 6 hours. No big surprise there. The company knows which member of the family is most likely to load the grocery cart with its products -- and who it can least afford to alienate online or offline. Ultimately, Haas felt that the concerns of mommy bloggers were heard.
Each corporation has to decide for itself whether it's ready to heed the growing rumblings of discontent from within the mommy blogging community by recognizing that a mothers' time has value. And be aware: other mothers are watching.
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