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Ask Your Mother

One of the things I'm most adamant about in the marketing to women space and the blogging space is the importance of the so-called 'Mommy' bloggers. Last year at Blogher, I met a number of these talented and overlooked women, and I commisserated with them on their invisibility. Women, as a whole, have felt invisible to the power-people doing the sales and marketing of the very products we buy or influence the purchase of. But, these women - the millions and millions of them - have a double-edged sword swinging at their heads. They not only get ignored by Madison Avenue types, they get ignored by the blogoshpere - as if their "ramblings" were unworthy of notice. How dumb is that - to get ignored by citizen journalists???

When I work with my clients on how to improve their blogs and how to increase their traffic, I recommend a number of the mommy bloggers as possible connections. With every client, so far, I've had push back. "These don't seem to be part of our target market," they'll say. "These don't seem professional," they'll say. "These are just - newsletters," they say.

NOT! These are your market. These are women who influence what other women buy and sell! These are ladies with vast blog readerships, connected to other ladies with vast blog readerships. And, though you may click into their blog today and find a note about how hard it was to sleep last night because they were up all night with the baby, or the dog, or worried about their child's school play the next day - that doesn't mean they won't write about YOU and your products, tomorrow. Favorably or unfavorably - and don't you want to know it?

It amazes me that mainstream media continues to treat the whole blogging phenomena presented by these marketing divas as an annoying buzz equivalent to a room full of flies. The term 'Mommy blogger' has certain connotations - none of them good. Equating the Mommy bloggers with Journal Bloggers and, Good Lord!, the MySpace kids, devalues the content found in these blogs, and relegates them to the circular file or to the intern for review. Why? How can otherwise intelligent journalists and business people not recognize the power these women wield? The power in their fingertips? The power in their connections - worldwide?

These are not women just asking for a new recipie for dinner. These are not women just asking, "Is it knit-one, perl-two, or..." These are women carrying on conversations over weeks and months, with other women - who care about their opinion. These are women who matter. And, in the end, that's what counts. People want to know they matter. If mainstream media, and others, continue to ignore these women - or to treat them with less seriousness than they treat their other media sources - there will be hell to pay. Yes, hell. Because these women are even now forming groups that don't challenge their intelligence or their purpose in life (to be good Moms, to be good wives, to be good citizens, to be counted), but rather, that support them in their endeavors. And - when their voices get loud enough - and they will - those who have ignored them or demeaned them will blink their eyes, shake their heads, and give a collective, "What?????"

The better question is: Why? Why do you continue to treat this vibrant, thoughtful, exciting group of women as if they don't matter? Didn't some of them help you tie your shoes when you were 3? Didn't some of them help you learn the alphabet? Didn't some of them tuck you in bed at night and tell you, "You can be anything you want to be, honey." And didn't some of them cheer when you graduated from high school, college, grad school? Didn't they?Yvonne

How did they do that? They did it by being Moms. Moms rock. Moms rule. If you don't believe me, ask your mother.

Signed: a mom and proud of it.

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p.s. Marketing Sherpa: vote today!

      Blogher 2006: Susan Getgood, Toby Bloomberg, and Moi! On a panel - well, an UN-panel - about blogging: case studies, what worked, what didn't. Be there or be square! Visit this page and sign on to bring your case study to the group. We mean YOU!

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