A Modern Mother

Cybermums and social media week

 It's social media week which means the CyberMummy founders (me, Jen and Sian) are going to be very, very busy.

What's social media week? It connects people, content, and conversation around emerging trends in social media. And it's global.

We're going to be speaking at LBi and at a few other venues across London.

So watch out ... mum is definitely the word!

 

 

British parent blogger benchmark study

Are you a British parent blogger? Please fill out this benchmark study; it is anonymous and will only take a few minutes. We'll share the results when it's done. Who knows maybe we'll discover that the online middle class mum stereotype is all wrong. Or that you all bloggers are based in Birmingham. Regardless, this is your chance to have your say!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

The mummy bloggers

 
You MUST go out and get the October issue of SHE magazine. There's a big fat photo of this blog on page 69. Really. I gave them a photo of myself but apparently it was rejected, they thought the blog looked better. The article also listed BMB and CyberMummy partner www.jenography.net as a must read, along with sandycalico.blogspot.com, singleparentdad.blogspot.com, and dooce.com! Go mums! (and Ian). Thanks to Suzanne at Skybluesea for flagging this for me

What I learnt from CyberMummy

What happens when you gather a group of 180 highly talented and influential women in a room together?*

Friends are made, advice is given, hugs and cupcakes are shared.

CyberMummy: What will today bring? (w/links)

I'm still trying to digest yesterday -- will write more about it later.

All I want to say is what is the obession with bacon and the Garofalo spaghetti was not meant to beat people with.

Below is the post I read during my welcome talk:

3 July 2010. 3am. I can't sleep. Too excited. I can't believe it is here. The starched white hotel sheets are bunched to the side; I've been twisting and turning all night. My body is tired, but my mind is alive.

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.

Want to know what a bunch of mummy bloggers look like?

This is a sponsored post.

Not bad, actually.

A bunch of us got together this weekend at the London Zoo. It rained. It rained really hard. It was cold. But the atmosphere inside was buzzing and we had a fab time. It was nice to meet so many online personalities. We really are an eclectic group.  What else would you expect with names like Potty, Rubbish, and NixdMinx. And bless the dads, they patiently let us gab away.

Thank you to Procter & Gamble for making it all happen. If you haven't checked out their new web site for women, www.supersavvyme.com, then head on over. It's a great site. I'm a contributor!

While we are on the subject of mummy blogging, the Cumbria Flood Auction is live. There's lots of cool stuff over there, and it's for a good cause (thanks DisneyMoviesUK for your donations).

Photo credit: Matt Crossick

Will the next election be won at the schoolgate?

A few mummy bloggers (me, Alpha Mummy, Potty Mummy, NixdMinx, and Karen from The Rubbish Diet) will be chatting today about our take on David Cameron's appearance on Mumsnet. So if you have a few spare minutes before school pickup, and want to add your two cents, head on over the Times' Alpha Mummy blog and let 'er rip. The event starts at 1.45.

UPDATE: After a slow start (and mummy bloggers proclaiming pot noodles as the new biscuit) Cameron finally appeared on Mumsnet and answered a few select questions on topics such as childcare vouchers (a keeper); schools (and plans to "bust up" the state monopoly); special needs (an end to school closures); and family tax (eliminate the couples penalty tax). He did of course evade some of the biggies: like Europe. If you want more info, the Guardian did a nice summary.

The answers were few and far between, and at one point Cameron had to change laptops during the Q&A. Perhaps this is why he answered way less questions than Gordon Brown in the same amount of time. I can't blame him though, live chatting is definitely a female multi-tasking thing.

Did this help him? Cyber mums are a tough crowd, but it did show a human side. And who doesn't love oat cakes with cheese?

Mummy bloggers: We have an opportunity, let's take it

I have to admit to being a little flustered recently. All this talk around mumosphere about the British mummy blogging community getting  too competitive and too commercial. How the heck did this happen?

Money, or the misconception that money can be made from blogging, seems to be one of the drivers.  Can I just clarify one thing: THERE IS NO REAL MONEY IN BLOGGING. Did you hear me? Unless you are Dooce, your blogging intake will not get near any tax threshold. I've been in the top 10 the past year and I've made barely enough to fuel my Cafe Nero coffee habit. I make 100x more as a marketing consultant (and it takes less time). There are occasional freebies, but really how useful is a coffee mug, a wall clock, or another naff plastic toy? Some are nice, but do you really want all that extra stuff in your house?

Hmmm, what shall I do now the girls are in school? I know, read an online serial novel!

Ooohhh, how fun! What better way to fill in my time, now that all the girls are all at school, than to be involved with an online serial novel. How cool!

Corduroy Mansions 2 -- The Dog Who Came In From The Cold, by Alexander McCall Smith (best known for the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency) starts Monday. Sign up, and every weekday over the next 13 weeks a new chapter will be sent to your laptop or iPhone. Did I mention this was free? (thank you The Telegraph).

McCall Smith, who got the idea for digital serial genre while talking to Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), only writes the first 40 or so chapters and likes to get feedback from his readers before he gets on with the plot. So you really do become part of the story. How Web 2.0!

Not to toot my own horn, but...

This little blog has made it into the top 10 UK British Parent Blogs!

Sally Whittle over at Getting Ink and Toty's Place created a weighted list of The Top 100 British Parent Blogs and A Modern Mother came in 8th. They used all kinds of criteria including  "currency", "influence" and "popularity" for scoring, and more than 250 blogs were analysed and ranked.

Wooo - hoooo!

Maybe now hubby won't give me dirty looks when I sit down at my laptop to whinge publicly...

Attention PR: How to engage a mummy blogger

Mummy blogging is on the rise in the UK and it's no surprise that I've been on the receiving end of quite a few pitches from PR people lately. My background is in marketing, so I tend to be fairly friendly. But I'm loosing my patience. Consider this:

"Please see below for a great new baby product from XXX. Please let me know if you need any info, samples or images. Thanks"

I don't have any babies (sob) my youngest is school age.

"I thought you'd be interested in our Mother's Day competition. We'd like you or your readers to nominate their mum..."

I don't think my readers are children, but maybe I'm wrong...

The blog nightmare

OK, this is proof it has to stop.

Last night I woke up around 3 am. The sheets were damp. My heart was racing. It was all so real.

My worry? I had a blog somewhere that I needed to update. I just couldn't find it. I couldn't remember what clever name I had christened it. Tired Mummies? No. Mummies on the run? No. Mums on Medicine? No. No. No.

Oh, where was it? I knew it must be in need of a new post and it must be time to respond to comments. Where, where, where?

The state of British mummy blogging and the best ones of 2008!

So, the other day at coffee, I brought up my mummy blog. I might as well been speaking Slovenian. Non capiche.

What’s a mummy blog?” asked one of the mums, a particularly chummy friend of mine who loves veg patches as much as I do.

“It’s a place where mums can share info, write about their experiences, make new friends, stay sane," I said as enthusiastically as I could, but the look on her face said it all. “Why?” was oozing out of her.

Now remember, I live in the heart of the Thames Valley, the tech capital of the UK. Many of these mums either have worked in the IT industry, or have husbands who work in IT industry.

Is blogging dead? Not on this side of the pond!

First, the Best of the Mommy Bloggers is up on Under the Big Blue Sky.

Check it out, it’s an eclectic mix of stories from the trenches of motherhood.

Second, I read something the other day that is really bugging me.

Is blogging dead?

The debate is raging in blogosphere. Some prominent bloggers have decided to “retire” because, to sum it up, now that blogging has reached mainstream in the US, it’s not cool anymore.

Microblogging, such as Twitter, is now the “in” thing.