The state of British Mummy Blogging 2009 and predictions for 2010

Last year I wrote a post about mummy blogging just starting to take off in the the UK. I had just created British Mummy Bloggers and frankly I struggled to come up with a list of 100 UK parent bloggers.

Now there are 800+ British Mummy Bloggers members and my inbox is so full of PR pitches I've had to open a new account.

So what happened in year? Mummy bloggers are hot. No, we aren't all running temperatures with swine flu. We're a hot commodity. I spoke with one PR firm yesterday that said they are ditching celebs for the "reality" factor that mum bloggers carry. Now don't go quoting this out of context. What I mean is that right now mummy bloggers are trendy. Who knows how long the trend will last -- but given what has happened across the pond, my money is on the longer term.

Here's a summary of what happened in the parent blogging scene in 2009:

1. There were a series of articles in the mainstream press about the rise of mummy blogging in the UK, including The Times; The FT; The Independent; Red Magazine and countless others (including Italian and Irish dailies).  
2. Seven mummy bloggers were asked to review Disneyworld, making Disney one of the first brands on this side of the pond to heed serious attention to the trend.
3. A couple local indexes appeared to help rank parent bloggers: Tots100 and Cision Top UK Parenting Blogs.
4. Learning from our US counterparts, BMB led the way in terms of ethics and disclosure with the British Mummy Bloggers Do It With Integrity campaign.
5. "Cyber Mums" are being touted as the linchpin in the upcoming election -- which is rumoured to be won at the school gate. Blogging mums are voicing their political opinions everywhere, check out these articles in The Independent and The Sun.
6. Mummy bloggers have pulled together to put their new found voice to positive use in campaigns such as  Mummy bloggers launch online auction for flood victims and The Great Panto Review for NACCPO.

What's in store for next year?

1. More mums will start their own blogs. In the US "mommy" bloggers rose from the ranks of the parenting forums. With Mumsnet's 750,000 members, that's a large breeding ground. It also makes me slightly worried ;-)
2. Women will continue to ditch mainstream media in favour of blogs. This is especially true as some mainstream media move to a pay-per-view model for their online services.
3. The bloggers that are establishing themselves today will be next year's leading voices.
4. UK mum bloggers will start video blogging, or vlogging (thanks to Flip)
5. It will become harder to get a mum blogger's attention as PR pitches continue to come in thick and fast. 
6. More and more mum bloggers will become spokespersons for brands.
7. BMB's mummy blogger conference in July will be oversubscribed and a huge success! (email me for more details).

I've been busy helping brands with their social media strategy - if you want some suggestions, send an email to amodernmother (at) gmail (dot) com. Here's a link to some of my suggestions for working with mum bloggers...

So what do you think will happen in mumosphere this year?

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