Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Rise of Mommy Bloggers

While doing more research on female PR practitioners and blogging, I came across an interesting new movement currently taking place in the blogoshere – something that has become known as “Mommy Blogs”. It all started with Dooce (real name Heather B. Armstrong), an American mommy who was fired because her blog became more popular than the company she worked for. She never challenged her termination, however a fierce debate about privacy issues started as a result. Armstrong is now so famous that her nickname has become a neologism: being “dooced” refers to losing one’s job as a result of something one wrote on the Internet.


The mommy blog community is now growing by the day, both in numbers and influence. It demonstrates that women are powerful communicators and is fast becoming a place where people are turning to seek access for their messages. Dooce even posts press releases on her website. And marketers have already taken notice of this new phenomenon. As pointed out by Rohit Bhargava on his Influential Interactive Marketing blog, with the help of blogging these women can now easily connect with each other and create online communities. They represent an influential audience, and marketers are increasingly trying to develop personal relationships with the leaders among them. Guy Kawasaki, one of the original Apple employees responsible for marketing the Makintosh in the 1980s, is maintaining a rapidly expanding Ultimate Mommy Blog list. Even large corporations are participating. For instance, Johnson & Johnson (an Ogilvy client) is launching a mom blogger directory.

According to Michael Sommermeyer, a PR strategist and writer, mommy blogs will become a channel for groups seeking access to targeted audience, which will lead to more PR campaigns in collaboration with mommy bloggers. Sommermeyer sees a cottage industry emerging, with mommy bloggers aiding in generating buzz and promoting viral marketing.


Generally, there are large female bloggers networks emerging, devoted to the women on the Web. One of them, Blog Sisters, was founded by a female PR practitioner. Other examples include BlogHer, BlogsbyWomen and BlogSheroes.