Moms Will Travel For the Right Reasons

Summer time is in full swing.  Families are traveling to historical sites and theme parks across the country. Moms are packing their bags for business trips as well.  It's the season when many brands decide to use travel as way to bond with social media moms.  If history serves me right, the first mom blogger FAM trip was hosted by Disney World in 2007.  They invited 14 mom bloggers to enjoy the magic of Disney during a four-day, all inclusive paid journey to Orlando.  It produced thousands of blog posts, tweets and FlickR pictures and caught the attention of other companies who quickly jumped on the travel bandwagon.  Unfortunately, many mistakes were made in those early days but with the benefits of hindsight, you can plan the perfect media trip for your brand.  Here are considerations to ponder before booking airline tickets and rolling out the red carpet.

• Establish Your Goals: Before the first invitation is issued, your company should establish goals in inviting moms to your retail location or headquarters. Is it one-time-only blog posts and tweets you seek or is it a long-term relationship.  If it's the latte, you need to have some parameters of budget, communication and contact strategy before you reach out to moms.  A random invitation with no real purpose will only confuse the mom and bring you disappointing results in the end. Remember - you are opening the door to a relationship.  The first question a social media mom will ask when receiving your invitation is, "What does your brand want from me in return?"

• Pick the Right Date:  I recently got an invitation to visit an upscale resort in Mexico with a group of social media moms.  The invite was beautiful and the trip looked magnificent.  The only problem was that the public relations team putting the event together had neglected to check the calendar of Social Media conferences.  They scheduled the trip right in the middle of BlogHer.  Although there is no official calendar for Social Media Moms, the most comprehensive list of events and conferences can be found at ShePosts.com, www.sheposts.com. Also take into consideration the life of a mom.  Avoid planning events during her busy times, Back to School, Halloween, Spring Break and Graduation season.  Mother's Day is another time that she prefers to be with family rather than your marketing team.

• Select the Right Moms: This sounds easy, but I can't tell you how many brands invite moms to events that just don't make sense.  Recently, I was on a trip to a family destination for toddlers with moms who had teenagers. They were all popular mom bloggers with large followings but in my opinion didn't fit the brand.  Additionally the brand had neglected to invite a culturally diverse group of moms and it was very apparent in the photos we took.  The trip was fantastic and I could tell the brand spent a great deal of money on the event. However, I could only imagine the additional exposure they would have received in the mom market by having the right moms at the event.  Trust me on this note of experience; sometimes you will gain a deeper, more valuable relationship with a mom who is lesser known than in inviting only the largest, most popular mom bloggers.  

• Expect the Unexpected: You are inviting moms.  Their lives involve children which mean their lives have many unexpected challenges and obstacles.  Don't be surprised when a mom asks you to accommodate her toddler or she needs to join the trip later than you had planned because her child has fallen ill.  It happens and in any relationship you have to give and take.

• Establish the Right Follow Up:  You've invested a lot of time and money in hosting your media event with moms.  You've established a relationship which can easily grow and benefit both you and the social media mom.  Talk to the moms before they depart about their expectations for moving forward and how they would like to see the relationship grow.  Just ask them.  The one thing moms have plenty of is opinions and they will be happy to share them before packing their bags and heading home.

 

One final bit of advice.  Don't forget to say "Thank You" once they return home.  It takes a great deal of preparation and work for a mom to leave her family.  She returns to piles of laundry, an in-box of emails and a home that most likely needs cleaning.  Show her you appreciate the time she gave your brand with a quick thank you note after the trip.

Have a great summer!

Stop Calling Us "Mommy Bloggers"

I have the benefit of being a mom and a blogger. In fact, mom is the probably the title I am most proud of possessing. Last week, I even became a West Point Mom. I am also a blogger. However, I am also a podcaster, a radio talk show host, columnist, author and business owner.

And, in some ways, my roles outside of my blogs makes me more influential for the products I love. So if you had to put a name on me, what would it be? I can assure you it would not be "mommy blogger." No one calls me "mommy," not even my children these days. I prefer to be known as a Social Media Mom or even a Social Media Influencer.

I've never, however, liked to use myself as a focus group of one so, recently, I went out on my Facebook page, not my blog, to ask other moms who blog, what they prefer as a title. My mission was to validate a rumor I've heard among mom bloggers that they hate to be called, mommy bloggers. Here's what I got back, although I will use names or blogs to protect the very opinionated.

First of all, the topic was hot. In less than 15 minutes, I received more than 50 responses. I've summarized some of the common themes and comments.

1) All moms who blog are proud of being moms. Some didn't really care if they are called mommy or mom; what was important to them was that their role as a mom was recognized by brands and peers.

2) Many moms don't blog about parenting or children. These moms felt like the term mommy blogger was limiting and implied that they only blogged about diapers, toys and laundry.

3) Mom bloggers don't call each other mommy bloggers. This tells me a lot about the division between moms, marketers and brands. If you truly understand your consumer or target market, then you should at least use their language when you are speaking to them or about them. One popular mom who blogs said it best, "I don't like to be called mommy anything except by my children.”

4) Why don't companies and the media call dad bloggers, "daddy bloggers?" Good question. Many moms asked this question and left it at that.

5) Mom bloggers use mommy blogger only to open the door to media and brands. They know if they use the term, marketers will be more open to talk to them because, after all, it's a term marketers understand since they coined it.

6) Mommy blogger sounds condescending and doesn't represent the professionalism of moms who own blogs. This is perhaps the comment I heard the most. The media is to blame for breeding the sexiness of the term. It started with “mommy wars.” Sexy sells but, honestly, does anyone thing of their own mommy as sexy?

So what do you call a mom who blogs?

I bestowed the title of Social Media Moms on these women a few years ago. I also use Power Moms as I believe their influence goes well beyond social media audiences. There were several terms and titles offered up but the moms on my Facebook page. Social Media Influencers, lifestyle bloggers, writer, and blogger were among those suggested. However, the most popular of all was, "I am a mom and I am a blogger." I'll leave it at that.

I Love Twitter. You Should, Too!

I love Twitter. Absolutely love it and as a marketer you should too. As the mother of four, I use Twitter much in the same way I used to use Google or Yahoo!. When I need a recipe for a quick kid-friendly snack, I tweet it. Looking for a great gift idea? I tweet it. Once I even tweeted my search for canned pumpkin and found it, thanks to Twitter.

For many moms, twitter has become a search engine on steroids because of its ability to return recommendations from a peer group you trust and who knows your preferences, lifestyle and lifestage. This personalized delivery of relevant content is a dream come true for both consumers and companies trying to connect with them.

Unfortunately, companies have entered the Twittersphere haphazardly and without any real thought to how best utilize this powerful marketing channel. It’s not enough to just set up a Twitter account and tweet out the promotion of the week or newest press release. In fact, there’s been much tweeting about this lately among moms on Twitter. “Why do companies flood my Twitter account with garbage I can’t use?”, tweeted one mom last week. Another tweeted, “I spent 4 hours blocking companies who send me only marketing messages.”

A marketer can do a very effective job in connecting with moms in 140 characters or less as long as they follow a couple key strategies in mind. So to support these points, I did what I do most when I want to gain the prospective of moms, I tweeted this question out to my 13,000 followers: “What would you tell marketers about using Twitter when marketing to moms?”

1) It’s called Social Media because it’s social. For a woman, this means speaking back. Moms will quit following you if the dialogue is not a two-way conversation. @Gomominc tweeted: “Companies shouldn’t ask your opinion and then just go off …..”

2) Twitter shouldn’t be a platform to only broadcast promotions and sales. @ameladramaticmommy tweeted: “Be a person first and a company second. I would follow more companies if they tweeted out something interesting about them first”. If you want to see how a company representative can support a brand AND allow their personality to shine through, follow @comcastcares or @babycenterPR.

3) Take part in Twitter events. If you are surprised that there are “events” on Twitter, you probably aren’t using Twitter to its greatest potential. There are lots of events in this virtual space ranging from #FF (Follow Friday) and Twitter Parties. @Resourcefulmom created the former which have proven successful in gathering thousands of moms. Just last week BSM Media and @Resourceful hosted a Twitter Party for Zhu Zhu Pets. The event attracted over 1,000 moms and generated almost 9,000 tweets with the hash tag #ZhuZhuPets.

4) Don’t wait for moms to find you. Timing is important in delivering relevant content. Pick a few key words that fit your brand and search for twitter conversations on Summize.com, www.summize.com. In maintaining a Twitter account for one of my toy clients, we search daily for tweets that contain the word, “birthday”, “gift” and “toy”. Often we will find tweets that say” Need a birthday gift idea for 5 yr old boy”, to which we reply, “have you seen the new (insert appropriate toy) which is on sale at (insert retailer)” Relevant content delivered when a moms needs it.

5) Fear not! The conversation will happen with or without you, so you might as well join in. Many companies tell me they fear setting up a Twitter account. “ What if moms have something negative to say and say it to me on Twitter?” Well, guess what? They are going to say it whether you are there or not, but at least if you are Twitter, you have the chance to engage in the conversation.

Think back to the 80’s before social media existed and moms used to talk about products on the physical playground. Marketers were often blindsided by guerilla consumer chatter and only had the opportunity to react after it had reached the masses. With Twitter, if you see a mom complain about your product, you have 140 strokes of the keyboard to rectify the situation almost immediately. Customer service at its best.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter. I’m @momtalkradio. You can DM me or List me and if you don’t know what I’m describing, it’s time to learn. Today’s moms are doing more than just talking about brands, they are tweeting them too.

Maria Bailey is the author of “Marketing to Moms”, “Trillion Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers” and “Mom 3.0: Marketing With Today’s Mothers by Leveraging New Media and Technology”. She is CEO of BSM Media, the premier marketing to moms s firm connecting companies around the globe to mothers. Maria is also Co-Founder of BlueSuitMom.com, Newbaby.com, and MomTV.com and host of Mom Talk Radio, the first Nationally syndicated radio show for moms. You can follow her on Twitter @MomTalkRadio or email her at maria@bsmmedia.com.