They shall from time to time…
Every few months, it seems, the big news outlets write a story about ‘the mommy bloggers’ – and these articles are always bad. They serve as a reminder to these women and the rest of the world that mommy bloggers are silly, worthless and not to be taken seriously.
Case in point, last week’s bitch slap landed in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times. Heaven forbid you put the bloggers in the Tech section. Because, the article reminds us, these aren’t really bloggers, they’re moms who fool around on their pink computers, talk about diapers, bitch about companies and do sippy cup giveaways. There was even a Tupperware party analogy. If the article had been anymore patronizing and condescending it would have had to have been posted in the classifieds next to the free puppies and SWF’s seeking SWM’s with BHCs.
What’s wrong here?
What’s missing? Why is it that women are moving and shaking things, and seeming to have freedom and independence and gumption in this country…but then crap like this happens over and over and over again?
Bonnie Marcus may be on to something. It might be a problem with leadership. Of the female kind. She has a new eBook out called Advancing Women’s Leadership that features 3 fantastic interviews from her (huge sensation of a) radio show, Head over Heels.
One of the interviewees featured is Marie Wilson, founder and President of The White House Project. (FYI copy buffs, the WHP’s stellar text: “Add women, change culture. Add women, change business. Add women, change politics. ADD WOMEN, CHANGE EVERYTHING“) Wilson notes something profound about our culture:
“We’ve measured the comfort level of the public, and that comfort level is up to 90 percent on most issues. The comfort level of women leading across these sectors is just great.
What hasn’t risen with the comfort level is the number of women who actually lead. What’s good is that you now have a public that trusts women to lead a technology firm, a journalistic organization, to lead in politics. Across these different areas, even in military, sports and religion the three I call guns, games and God, which are the hardest, it doesn’t drop below 70 percent.
So, the trust is there, and so I think it’s the right direction. It’s just that the political country needs to move along with it and know it’s right. Let’s put people in. We need to fill the pipeline. And the pipeline’s there. We need to just push the women in the pipeline.”
Attitudes are changing, but the action isn’t there.
I do know that mommy bloggers are only once slice of ‘women’ – but they’re a very vocal and impactful one – and they represent. So, it’s important to note that in the case of the media campaign that insists on putting mommy bloggers in their place, we have a bigger problem: A woman wrote the article. She’s a mommy blogger. She threw her peers under the bus. Her name is Jennifer Mendelsohn.
Is the problem leadership? Are mommy bloggers lacking leaders that show by example that this is a sisterhood? I’m not sure it’s that cut and dry. As far as I can see, there exist the following factions in the mommy blogger world:
- The power moms that are untouchable, revered, reviled, envied and ‘above it all’, making their millions and patting the rest of the herd on the head (if you’re lucky enough to be at arm’s length) (ie. Dooce)
- The upper-mid level moms that put on conferences, support people, interact, come up with ideas that are inclusive and helpful (ie. TypeAMom)
- The upper-mid level moms that are mean, nasty, selfish and cut from the every mom for herself cloth (ie…..I will not stoop to their level and mention names)
- The mom minions – thousands at this point of moms doing their thing, hoping one day to be a 2, praying to be a 1. (ie. there are too many to name)
Who’s supposed to lead?
The crowd is, well, crowded. And the competition is fierce. #2 above is the closest we get to leaders, but they’re also struggling to survive and constantly reaching for #1. They do lead, sometimes, but I’m not sure enough. And sadly, I’m not sure the mob would even let one or two people be ‘The Leaders’ because of the fierce jealousy and competition that pervades. Which just underlines and italicizes the basic problem even more.
And what about the rest of us, what about the women bloggers in general, the women business owners, the women every things? Where do we draw the line between independence and reliance? Following and leading? Mentoring and learning? Several strong women and the sisterhood?
I only voraciously read 1/3 of Bonnie’s (free) ebook before this all hit me and I had to come write about it…so I’m headed back into it now to learn more about women and leadership and how I can be part of using it to enact change. (I think I’ll start by sending a copy to Jennifer Mendelsohn).
Check it out…let me know what you think…
Image credit: whyamikeenan
(and yes, I ripped my title straight from the West Wing…)
The Mommy Blogger Box
I’m a blogger. I’m a mom. But I don’t call myself a ‘Mommy Blogger’. Everyone has an opinion on this: there are some that take pride in the name, others who hide from it, some who just don’t care.
Why don’t I call myself one?
Because in the way that our misogynistic, paternalistic, sexist and capitalist society is wont to do (time and again) the Mommy Blogger moniker is weighted down with stereotype, scorn, mockery and devaluation. The image that comes to mind? Well…
- stay at home mom
- bored mom
- gossipy mom
- bitchy mom
- coupon mom
- Walmart, juice box, Wii Fit mom
And, some of the Mommy Bloggers are exactly that. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with it or them – but it doesn’t define many of us or what we do. The problem is that it is the only image that is being portrayed. In the last month, there have been five articles from major media outlets telling the same story (four of them were in the last week). It goes something like this:
“Colleen Padilla, a 33-year-old mother of two who lives in suburban Philadelphia, has reviewed nearly 1,500 products, including baby clothes, microwave dinners and the Nintendo Wii, on her popular Web site Classymommy.com. Her site attracts 60,000 unique visitors every month, and Ms. Padilla attracts something else: free items from companies eager to promote their products to her readers.” New York Times
This article, and the ones from CNET, AOL’s Daily Finance, Wall Street Journal and Newsweek then go on to discuss whether it’s okay or not that mothers who blog should be able to write sponsored posts, receive freebies, get paid by companies, etc. And the headlines are derogatory; Newsweek says: Trusted Mom or Sellout? If I cursed on this blog, I would be yelling, ‘Fuck you’ at Newsweek right now.
Putting the Mommy Bloggers into a box is bad enough, why do you have to kick them in the groin? Oh, and journalists, is it still great media if you’re the fifth person to tell the same story? It’s getting old and you’re missing the boat here. Attention: there is more to Mommy Bloggers than product pushing and diaper geenies.
Let’s talk about Mommy Bloggers finding creativity, financial independence, community. Let’s talk about the incredible exchange of knowledge between these mothers. Let’s talk about the Mommy Bloggers who talk about the law, business, health, science, sports, animals, non-profits, marketing, PR, religion and parenting. Let’s talk about the Mommy Bloggers who have been published, built empires, are household names. (Arianna Huffington anyone?)
Am I a Mommy Blogger? Hell yeah. I write about copywriting, business and marketing on this blog; social media on this blog; parenting on this blog…and just about everything else you can think of on Twitter – the ultimate megaphone. And I’m a Mom the whole time.
Let’s redefine the term. You can’t put Mommy Bloggers in a box. We’ll kick, talk and write our way out. We can change this, ‘Moms that Blog’, we really can. We’re good at creating change, banding together and having our voices heard. In fact, that’s exactly what we were all busy doing when they came and shoved us into a box.
Filed under Blogging, News, Social Media | Tags: Blogging, copywriting, mommy bloggers, paid posts, professional blogging, sponsorships | Comments (25)the power of MOM
I know that moms are powerful. I am one, I have one, I’m married to (the best) one, I’m surrounded by many in the real world and the web world. But, still I’m blown away by what moms are doing on the internet.
I will not attempt to cover all of the phenom moms that exist in the world within this post…I’m just going to highlight a few that are on my current radar screen:
Twitter Moms Moms who tweet: find, follow, lead, learn, love and share. Megan Calhoun started a social network, oh, a few weeks ago for moms on Twitter. Over 1,800 (and growing at a rapid pace) moms have joined in that time – forming groups, supporting each other’s lives and businesses, networking, laughing. Amazing. One of the most entertaining functions: #GNO, or Girls’ Night Out – an online tweet meet. If you’re a mom and you tweet, you must check it out. Follow Megan on Twitter @twittermoms.
Mom Bloggers Club Jennifer James supports the mom bloggers of the world with her social network. Over 1,800 moms meet up with the common connection of blogging. Conversations are alive and well via many groups and the site runs sweet giveaways. Jennifer also runs The Mom Salon which is a comprehensive catalog of mom bloggers…submit your blog today and get listed in the soon to be realeased, revamped directory. Follow Jennifer on Twitter @mombloggersclub.
Jessica Smith hails from Wishpot, Jessica Knows (her blog) and Chief Mom Officer.org. Honestly, she does so many things, it’s hard to keep track. But, after being hired as the Chief Mom Officer (CMO) for Wishpot (a very mom-style shopping/search/cart), she created Chief Mom Officer.org to help companies attain and leverage the untapped professional experience of mothers to build their businesses – how smart is that. Follow Jessica on Twitter @JessicaKnows.
The MOMocrats blog was started by Stefania Pomponi Butler, Beth Blecherman, and Glennia Campbell because, as mothers, they wanted to participate in and influence the 2008 presidential campaign. Their tagline: Rage against the McCain. MOMocrats is a serious political force doing incredible grassroots work online and in the world – it’s where moms get political (and don’t you all know that this mom is all over that!). Yesterday, Michelle Obama guest blogged, how’s that for going to the top political mom? Follow MOMocrats on Twitter @momocrats.
I could go on and on and on…but I’ll save some other cool moms for another post. If you take the time to peruse these women’s sites and accomplishments, you’ll be busy for days and thank me for not adding more.
Bottomline: these women are powerhouses, they have grabbed the internet by the horns and demonstrated gumption, creativity and kindness. That’s right, kindness – these are good people, righteous moms.
Filed under Networking, News, Politics | Tags: Jennifer James, Jessica Knows, Jessica Smith, Megan Calhoun, Michelle Obama, Mom Bloggers Club, mommy bloggers, MOMocrats, online communities, Politics, The Mom Salon, Twitter, twittermoms, Wishpot, women bloggers | Comments (15)webkinz marketing ploy or true groundswell?
For one of my clients, I have a Google Alert set for ‘environment kids’ and over the last week, the query has returned several blog and zine articles talking about how wonderful the Webkinz animals and website are. The articles are quite similar which makes me wonder if these bloggers and writers are desperate for things to write about (and recycling content) or if Webkinz is spreading this promotional material around.
My cycnicism might be connected to the fact that I think the only thing that Webkinz is teaching children is the art of needless consumption. Don’t these articles show that people are still drinking the Kool-aid? Because if it is the groundswell, then the people are speaking and they truly like the product. Maybe I’m too harsh, and the Webkinz franchise is good because it keeps kids away from drugs and sex.
Let’s just say that this article proliferation is the product of a Webkinz marketing programme. I wonder if it’s effective…and I imagine how it could be more so. Warning: There may be some true marketing nuggets buried under my glib attitude.
1. Get more people to post this article. I’ve only gotten about 15 returns (mind you my Google Alert’s reach is limited). If they really wanted to energize this thing, they could activate thousands of mommy bloggers by offering a free stuffed animal in exchange for a post. It would be a great investment because the toys are as addictive as crack…according to the articles.
2. Add some video. That’s where it’s at. Why ask people to read, when they can watch. Show us some adorable children playing with their toys and computers. Prove that Webkinz are so wonderful.
3. Sprinkle in some links. The articles only have one link – and it’s to a Webkinz blog…not even to the Webkinz site! Hmmmm, very interesting. Maybe this blogger is behind it all!
4. Try to shut down the articles. Nothing makes press like trying to get something removed from the web. If the company made a stink about this blog being linked to (even if it’s theirs) or about all of these unauthorized articles, it would be very loud and then the articles and attention would spread like poison ivy and eventually turn into money.
Don’t think I haven’t noticed that their ploy has worked on me. Here I am, talking about Webkinz. Something I vowed not to do, ever.
Have a wonderful weekend…
Filed under How To, Marketing | Tags: blog marketing, copywriter, copywriting, Groundswell, Julie Roads, marketing writer, mommy bloggers, online marketing, viral marketing, Webkinz, Writing Roads | Comment (1)
