Canada Moms Blog

Marketers and Moms: Talk with us, not just about us

Finally, a Canadian conference about Marketing to Moms Online! I've been wondering for years when this was going to happen, and it's such a relief that there's going to be a forum where online Moms can really talk to Marketers and have an honest, open conversation. We're bursting with things to say, things about who we are and what we do and how we can truly work together for mutual benefit. There's so much misconception about "moms online" and what we do and how we behave and think.  It's wonderful to take advantage of the power in having a direct conversation, rather than having marketers just talk to other marketers about us instead of actually talking with us, or having some man present a study about "Meeting the 21st Century Mom".

Except, that direct conversation? is exactly what this conference is not doing.

I saw the link to the OpenDialogue Marketing to Digital Moms conference  from MomCentral Canada on Twitter. And when I saw the link, I was initially delighted. Thinking it was equivalent to Mom 2.0 or BlogHer Business - places where marketers who so covet the Mom market, who are dying to figure out ways to get under our skin, can actually talk to us - I thought, what a great opportunity.  A chance to talk to Canadian marketers!  And to tell them that we don't just surf. We write. We talk to each other. We find our niches. We rally around causes. We speak out against injustice, against misconception, against cruelty, against fools. We brand ourselves, and when we don't have big business budgets for branding, we figure it out for ourselves, or we turn to each other and give each other small business opportunities. We get together and start things, fun things, cool things, things that mock those that mock us (because, trust me, we're mocked a lot) and turn their arguments in to nothing more than bitter ash.

A Branded Blogger's Perspective of BlogHer 09

Cross posted from our sister site, Philly Moms.

As some of you may know, I work as the Public Relations & Social Media Manager for Graco Children's Products. Because of this, I think I have a unique perspective to share coming out of BlogHer 09.  I'm feeling a little bold these days perhaps because my time as a corporate brand blogger is coming to an end or perhaps because I'm tired of shaking my head and treading water because I don't want what we do in social media to turn into this and I know most brands, including Graco, won't have the $$ to do something like this to make an impact with bloggers.

The truth is, I'm very conflicted. When I'm around corporate bloggers I'm proud of the fact that Graco "get's it" and that we've been actively engaged in social media for nearly 2 years and I smirk to myself when I'm sitting among other "corporate heads of social media" who are asking bloggers questions like "who would you say is the most influential mommyblogger?" because I know where they're going with that question and that just isn't the right direction. But then when I'm around bloggers, the bloggers who are shaking their heads in conflicted introspection because of what's happening in the blogosphere, I'm shamed at saying I think [as an early brand active in social media] we may have helped to start all of this.

Continue reading this post on Philly Moms.