I mentioned earlier this week that my blogging and professional life were coming together nicely in the form of a trip to Las Vegas to sit on a panel with other, more famous mom bloggers (to be named later) and talk to corporate leaders about what moms want from them. But that's not all. I've also working behind the scenes at my agency to help them and my client understand how to better partner with the mommyblogging world. Mom bloggers are influencers in real life and online, and because their influence is Googleable from here to eternity, courting them is going to be a priority to marketers--at least in the short term.
But here's the rub. One of the questions I've been asked recently is whether so many mommybloggers have embraced companies, going on trips and accepting freebies, that they'll been seen as sell-outs and lose their credibility. I maintained that the best bloggers are sensitive to the issue: they know that if they sacrifice their honest voice to become corporate shills they'll alienate their readers. And what's a mom blog without any readers? A diary, basically.
Mocha Momma put up an interesting post on a related topic this week, railing against women whose motivation to start a blog is getting free stuff from companies. Which, if you think about it, makes very little sense. If readers what to know about your favorite hand cream, it needs to be in the context of your life. And if you don't have a readership to start with, no company worth its salt is going to send you free hand cream.
5 comments:
Good points. Before I started blogging I had no idea that the free stuff was out there. It was a happy surprise. Now the challenge is to make sure I don't sound like a mouthpiece for the companies giving me products and trips.
I still review things that I've purchased with my own money, so that gives a nice balance. And as often as possible I try to couple reviews with giveaways, to share the bounty with my readers. And since I wouldn't want to give them crap, that's another vote of confidence for the products!
But it does get a little icky - I sometimes feel a bit like a D-list star trying to suck up all the freebies that I can. I don't make money off of my personal site and it takes a tremendous amount of time, so the products help to make it worth it.
Ultimately, you just have to consider the blogger and whether or not you trust her.
I think you touched on a hot topic. I've heard a bit of this lately, esp. in reference to some of the WalMart moms. I'd be happy to share my thoughts in greater depth if you want to talk. (Any chance you are gong to the Boca event next week- speaking of sellouts ;-) But really I do buy Boca foods).
I don't read blogs regularly for product reviews or buying advice. I read them because I share the author's interests and like the author's voice and writing style. Your blog works for me because I get a vignette of what's going on n your head and life, and the vignette is almost always interesting. You point about it being a diary is a good one. But the difference is that a diary is mainly for yourself and mostly a matter of the process creating it. The act of writing the diary is more important than the finished entry, which is usually never read. Here, you always have (or want) an audience. You earn and keep them by delivering something that engages them. When bloggers don't or stop that, the readers leave.
I think sometimes bloggers/writers are missing the point when they launch a blog with the idea of getting free stuff right off the bat. If you don't have content I want to read, I won't be back no matter how many giveaways you're having. And who cares about your "brand" if you don't have any readers? I definitely think freebies, reviews, etc can fit into almost any blog, but there has to be a real balance and an effort not to be spammy. There are just too many blogs out there now--can't read 'em all, and I think readers are getting pickier about what they'll spend their online time with.
bottom line is i started blogging b/c i needed to vent about my life, what i found was people actually wanted to read my spew. yea !!! great for me. i also found that i was writing well enough that 3 other sites are letting me write for them...for free of course. my point being is - even if i didn't get another free thing (and i really don't think i have gotten a lot of stuff) i would still blog. i blog b/c i want to, getting free stuff is fun, but it is not my incentive. i also LOVE to share products i love even if i never get a free thing from them in my life.
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