Know the Successes & Pitfalls of Mommy Blogger Social Media Campaigns
November 18, 2011
At Pixo we've worked with companies large and small on mommy blogger social media campaigns and events. We've had a lot of fun with those campaigns over the years and have worked with some of the best brands in the world. Through the years we've watched companies try different strategies with great success. We've also seen some companies hurt their image more than help by not understanding their audience and not understanding mommy blogger expectations.
Social media is well, "social." It comes with all of the pitfalls and opportunities that come with any relationship. There are prejudices, expectations, language and rules that come with every mommy blogger campaign. Mommy bloggers are a special breed. They rightly demand more than other blog groups and over the years, in general, have come to have higher expectations from companies when it comes to mom targeted campaigns. Because of this you need to know your audience or you can end up with a PR nightmare on your hands.
I think back to one invite only mom related event, put on by a well know company, that within the mommy blogosphere had become the who's who list of mommy bloggers when a mom was invited. The invited moms expected some high end merchandise to be given away at the end of the night so it wasn't with a little excitement when a mom was given an invitation.
A limo picked up the moms at a hotel which only added to thrill of the moms when the evening of the event arrived. But as the moms piled into the vehicles one of the drivers told one mom with an infant that she couldn't come. The event was being held at a bar and in that city children were not allowed in bars. In the end there was a small argument and a very disappointed mom. One of the mom's friends immediately whipped out her phone and tweeted "company X hates babies." The tweet was immediately picked up by other moms and re-tweeted into a firestorm within an hour.
At the end of the night the company didn't give out any merchandise and there number a lot of disappointed moms. The complete campaign was a disaster.
In most circles a nice event at a swanky downtown bar would meet the invitee's expectations. In this case the company hadn't thought fully through that some nursing moms might have children in tow and didn't appropriately work through those details.
Many mommy bloggers are professionals at what they do but they aren't business people. They know that they have an audience, that they have value but most don't treat their blog as a business. Some bloggers will do product reviews, others will do travel reviews, others will do ads, and others will not accept any kind of company related item on their blog at all.
Knowing the mommy bloggers, their language, their audience and their needs is what how we help companies develop strategies to share products and services through social media. At Pixo we have worked with mommy bloggers for over four years. We understand who the players are and help companies create awareness through the mommy bloggers' powerful network of audiences. If your company would like to do mommy blogger advertising campaigns we can help you avoid the pitfalls and help your next campaign be a success online.