FTC Stirs-up the Blogosphere

Of recent, there has been much debate over the FTC looking at the posts and reviews bloggers write about products & services. BusinessWeek kicked of this debate with their story, Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts Susan Getgood writes an excellent analysis of the FTC's intent in her post, The FTC is NOT gunning for mom bloggers

Lucid's perspective, value exchange, influence and disclosure between media properties and business have all been negotiated to varying degrees forever – but it was behind the scenes, often with the agency as the proxy. It is now a greater issue because it is being debated publicly and as Stephanie Smirnov aptly states on her recent post, ““Publisher” vs “editor” distinctions don’t apply…” with bloggers.

Our belief is that people (anybody) should benefit whenever they are approached by a businesses to help them achieve their objectives – whatever form that may take. Thus, we do feel bloggers should be compensated (money, free product, no expense trip, etc.) for their time and effort – and even for product reviews. We don’t believe that the compensation type makes a difference. Getting to keep a suite of appliances in exchange for reviews, is pretty (ahhhem) sweet –
which blogger Candace openly recognizes. And since she has fully disclosed her reward, her readers will maintain their trust. And as we all agree, full disclosure is the requirement.

MomsWhoBlog.com

a news journal about mothers active in social media

Mothers actively involved in online social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) are an important community of women. They are affecting social change from a grassroots up approach. From them, we learn about motherhood’s many joys and challenges, some of which were rarely discussed openly before. To their credit, we are no longer fed a homogenized version of motherhood and life from the mass media or celebrity perspective. Instead we enjoy unfiltered, unapologetic and, above all, sincere experiences from a variety of women living in real time.

These women are also highly coveted by businesses because of their influence, but they are often misunderstood for the reasons that they blog and the connections that they create.

MomsWhoBlog.com strives to be your ultimate source of news and knowledge about mothers
active in social media. Please take a look and choose your preferred way to follow the stories.

Long Held Beliefs

Successful and happy people tend to live their lives in a deliberate manner. They have goals and live according to a set principles they believe in. These principles are developed from the teachings by family members and mentors, and through personal observations, experiences and education.

Since we live in a complex society, goals and principles can be very helpful in decision-making and making sense of the world around us. Without goals and beliefs, it can be easy to drift through life and pulled or pushed by extraneous circumstances. But beliefs can also misguide us. Look at racism, extreme religious fanaticism, and other problems of the world where beliefs hurt other people.

Just like society, the business world (inherently a large part of society) is extremely complex as well. Successful and happy businesspeople tend to manage their businesses and careers in a deliberate manner too. Again, with goals and principles. This helps them make sense of their world, and go forward – sometimes misguided.

Andrea Learned offers a perspective in a recent marketing paper that many marketers are misguided in their beliefs about gender. In fact, she says that we should not be marketing to one's gender at all. To quote her, “too many marketers are taking the lazy way out and polarizing male and female consumers.”

Are many marketers' beliefs about men and women misguided? Read the Andrea's “Beware the Gender Trap: Marketing to the 21st Century Gender Neutral Consumer” if you want to challenge some of your beliefs.

Today's Digital Mom

This week the Today Show is running a segment they are calling “Today's Digital Mom.” This first piece is sort of social networking and blogging 101, and how it is meaningful for a mother. Appearances by Laura Fortner of CafeMom.com and Heather Armstrong of Dooce.

Respect: A Success Indicator

Watching people interact with each other can be entertaining and fascinating to observe. Given the numerous factors of role, relationship, situation and many other variables at play, they often lead to interesting and unexpected conversations. Some of my favorites are observing elderly married couples treating each with the utmost kindness and respect. Another, well mannered children talking where there are questions, answers, discovery and understanding. Truly warms my heart.

Conversely, for a long time now, I've been disappointed in the way most people talk AT (operative) people working in retail environments. All too often it seems that the customer could be talking to a kiosk, rather than another person. They have no respect for the person trying to serve them. The excuses for this behavior are plentiful, but I do not accept any of them. The most popular is blaming the level of customer service these days. Again, not accepting it. I've never worked in retail, so I personally can't describe the experience, but I imagine it to be tiring and demoralizing.

I can identify with, and have experience in, the way businesspeople interact with each other. Similar to the way retail people are treated, I've seen (as I'm sure you have as well) patience, disrespect, stubbornness, kindness, anger, etc. Name that emotion, and if you've spent any time in the business world, you've likely witnessed it. Respect of others I believe to be the most important trait in business as it is so fundamental. Without it, I don't believe effective collaboration and dialog are possible. Certainly, there are many jobs out there where this is not necessary, but how about marketing? Can you be a effective marketer today if you go about being disrespectful others? Can you anticipate customer needs if you fundamentally don't respect others? Can you communicate with them? Can you design a quality marketing experience without respect? Maybe in days of yesterday when marketing was a one-way medium, it was possible, but today it is much more like to a two-way dialog. Without inherent respect for others, you cannot be a successful marketing professional. When choosing marketing partners, it might be wise to go to lunch together before making a decision to work together, and observe how they treat the wait staff. You might just get a glimpse into the potential success of your future marketing programs.

Mom 2.0 Summit Redux

I wasn't able to attend the recent Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston, but felt almost like I did since I followed the prolific number of tweets (twitter posts) during the two-day conference, and the subsequent blog posts. Even though now it's a thing of the past, you too can catch up with the event through these links.

Twitter tweets

Flickr photos

Blog posts

Your Social Media Strategy

In today's business environment, many marketers (us included) are being asked to do more with less. One way is by attempting to harness the power of word-of-mouth and find social media glory. Social media works best for businesses when it is approached as a strategy with the objective to become involved in conversations relevant to your their business and industry. There are objectives, measurable goals, a budget, resources, a team of people with responsibilities, and a plan. A simple business 101 statement I know, but how does your social media effort stack up?