Have you heard of #Blogladesh?

Aug 29, 2010

—

If you haven’t, it’s probably because you’re not on twitter, or don’t read many mummy blogs. It’s big news in that sector of the blogosphere, and has crept a little out into the msm, but not, I think, very far.

What it is is a fact finding and profile raising trip to Bangladesh by three mummy bloggers, Josie of Sleep is for the Weak, Sian from Mummytips and Eva from Nixdminx, organised by Save the children. It’s being blogged, tweeted and filmed (Kodak have supplied video cameras) and I suspect the writing and films will be both harrowing and heartwarming at the same time.

I know that not everyone thinks this is the most effective way for Save the Children to be spending their money. This isn’t designed as a fundraising stunt though, I think the idea is to kick off a lobbying campaign to put pressure on Nick Clegg and through him to other world leaders to meet targets previously set on child health. And I don’t think publicity and dialogue on this kind of issue is ever a bad thing really – shining a light on what is going on in the world far removed from us can’t be a bad thing can it?

I guess my worry is how bright the light is. How far do these blogs really reach? I suspect to some extent mummy bloggers blog to each other, tweet to each other, and comment on each other. I don’t know how far outside the circle it all goes, and I worry that all this effort could be a bit insular rather than enlightening.

Which is partly why I’m blogging it. I *think* that some readers here may not have come across the campaign as they may not read mummy blogs generally. I’d welcome discussion on the issues raised by Save the Children, by the trip itself and also by the concept of the trip. Is social media a way of changing the world? Could #Blogladesh make a difference?

blogladesh It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

48 responses to “Have you heard of #Blogladesh?”

Sally
29 August 2010
Wow, a really interesting post and I congratulate you on being brave enough to write it.
I was approached a few weeks ago by a children’s charity looking to run a similar trip to Africa, and I actually didn’t think it was something I could do justice, so I’m really interested to see how this trip works out.
.-= Sally´s last blog ..What do Mummy bloggers REALLY talk about =-.
Reply
1. Jax
  30 August 2010
  @Sally Am slightly worried now that you think this is brave!
  So is this the shape of things to come, mummy bloggers do trips for charities? 😉
  Reply
Sallym
30 August 2010
Seems a bit hype and no substance to me but then I don’t really get the whole Mummy blogger thing. Unless it gets picked up someone like the Daily Mail its hardly likely to make it very far into the mainstream at all which seems to me to make it pretty pointless. But like I say, I don’t really get the whole sponsored, Mummy blog thing anyway 🙂
Reply
1. Jax
  30 August 2010
  @Sallym I don’t think all mummy blogs are sponsored, in fact, if you look at Josie’s blog it’s not commercial at all. And it’s well worth looking at imho.
  Agree with you about the pickup thing, but I guess that’s what they are trying for.
  Reply
Emma
30 August 2010
I think some of it is hype but then I guess that’s the point!!! I’m sure that it’s been picked up by some local news channels but I’m not sure that Nick Clegg would be aware of it let alone having any pressure put on him……maybe now that they are out there this will happen! Fingers crossed that it works for them and that it isn’t a waste of money! Great post!
.-= Emma´s last blog ..Reviews &amp Snazaroo Facepaint Giveaway =-.
Reply
1. Jax
  30 August 2010
  @Emma I think there’s maybe a difference between hype and publicity? And it’s in what lies beneath? It’s definitely been picked up by some local stations, but doubt it’s got as far as Nick Clegg yet. I think it can only work for them if ppl *other* than them put effort into it and it’s what shape that effort needs to take that interests me I suppose.
  Reply
kerry jean power
30 August 2010
How can a campaign that draws attention to the plight of those less fortunate than us be seen as anything other than positive?
It is impossible to fully measure the word of mouth reach of blogs – we can’t track each and every conversation at the dinner table or school gates but I’m pretty sure that those who have read something interesting on a blog or on Twitter will chat about said thing with their friends. I know I have!
And let us not forget celebrities such as Stephen Fry showing support by re-tweeting campaign details to their followers. That’s 1.6 million people reached in one keystroke.
After announcing campaign details on their blogs/Twitter mentions of #blogadesh hit 40k in one morning – take it from me that most PR professionals (myself included) would kill for that kind of coverage!
The campaign was featured in PR Week and has received nothing but praise from those of us who work in the industry.
.-= kerry jean power´s last blog ..a photo iâ€™m proud ofâ€¦ =-.
Reply
1. Jax
  30 August 2010
  Hi @Kerry I didn’t say it wasn’t positive, in fact I said
  And I donâ€™t think publicity and dialogue on this kind of issue is ever a bad thing really â€“ shining a light on what is going on in the world far removed from us canâ€™t be a bad thing can it?
  But what I also said is that I’m not sure how effective it will be. I’m guessing you have very different friends to me – while I have friends that I do discuss twitter/ blogs with, I also have several who have no idea what a blog is and probably think twittering is something birds do 😉 It would take a long time to explain #blogladesh to them. This campaign can only make a difference I think if it leaps out of blogs and twitter and into real life.
  I don’t think Stephen Fry or other celebrities make that much of a difference with a single tweet I’m afraid, especially when he mistyped the hashtag. And seeing the hashtag once will barely register. It will only take off via twitter I’d guess if it starts trending.
  And forgive me, but the PR industry praising themselves for a campaign that as yet has barely launched is almost precisely what I’m worried about. 40k mentions within a small community won’t get the campaign very far – has the tag trended yet? What would it take for that to happen?
  Reply
Fiona Erlandsen
30 August 2010
Well done you for putting onto paper, what I have wrangles with everyday. I started my blog on my website to try and encourage and get people to see the other side of Lanzarote, to encourage people to holiday in a destination that they may have poo pooed before because they prefer more cultural spots. What I think we need to remember is that behind all twitter backdrops are freelance writers and journalists on twitter who will hopefully pick up this and get it into the national newspapers which might help get some other funding, sponsorship, more trips and more exposure. So, keep it up, it will get further than twitter, and social media is sometimes the only affordable option at the moment. Let’s get a #ukpr has tag on some of the blogs, or help these Mum’s get an interview or magazine article in one of the women’s glossies or weeklies? This is not just about mummy blogosphere, but women banding together to make some changes. Our lives change all the time, having children, working and being mum’s. Men’s lives don’t change in quite the same way. Connecting with mum’s in Bangladesh is about women connecting everywhere to make a difference. 🙂
Reply
1. Jax
  30 August 2010
  @Fiona
  I would like for this to change the world, Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ” and I suppose I hope that’s true. Although I guess I hope bigger changes can result from a bigger group 🙂
  Reply
Daddybean
30 August 2010
@kerry jean power – I can’t really believe you are naive as your comment makes you sound. just because something is for a ‘good cause’ doesn’t then mean that it is then beyond criticism.
There might be various reasons why it might not be seen in a positive light by everyone (Devils Advocate mode here). It’s being funded by Save the Children (I assume) – is this the best use of those funds? People might be skeptical of the all the motives of the people going – sure they are trying to publicize things, but they are also getting content, links into their blogs etc.. They might feel the whole things is rather self serving – a whole bunch of bloggers and Twitterers talking to each other and slapping each other on the back.
Personally, I think that worthy as this is, I know it’s the trendy thing an all, but I think that there seems to an inflated sense of the importance of blogs/twitter/facebook etc. in terms of the number of people it really touches in an important way.
.-= Daddybean´s last blog ..Rainbows =-.
Reply
kerry
31 August 2010
@jax – apologies – I didnt mean to infer that you said it wasn’t a positive thing. I just assumed people had been making negative comments about it which was the reason for your post.
Yes #blogladesh did trend – last Sunday I believe. As for the celeb/Stephen Fry thing (he got the link out to the website right even if he mis-spelt #blogladesh!) – believe it or not it really does make a difference.
Our company did the online social media campaign for Comic Relief last year and our fan base on Facebook shot up by over 25k within 4hours of him re-tweeting our campaign. We called it ‘The Fry Effect’ 🙂
Twitter, Facebook and blogs are all interlinked – you need to keep the flow of information moving freely between the three for the best results which is what has been happening on this campaign. The fanbase on the Save The Children Facebook page has increased as people Tweeted the link in relation to the #blogladesh campaign and from there the charity can provide a lot more information. It has also helped to get nearly 10’300 people signing the ‘press for change’ petition.
The campaign is also being featured on the homepage of Save The Children – this will mean it is reaching far and beyond the mummy blogger community.
This is – in essence – a press trip. Under normal circumstances 3 journalists from three difference publications would have been flown out there to report on the excellent job STC are doing to help mums in Bangladesh. STC would have paid for them to go as PR campaigns cost money – even for charities.
On this occasion they decided they wanted to reach mums, with mums – appealing to the very thing you all have in common – the health and welfare of your child/children.
We really shouldn’t underestimate the power of mum/dad bloggers and their influence across Facebook and Twitter. Peer to peer recommendations across social media are recognised as being the most valuable method of PR around.
Unfortunately as with any community there are going to be naysayers – you can’t please everyone all of the time etc etc – but I genuinely think this campaign is a fantastic one and I am very proud to support it.
😀
.-= kerry´s last blog ..a photo iâ€™m proud ofâ€¦ =-.
Reply
Liz (LivingwithKids)
31 August 2010
Actually, the reach of this campaign goes far beyond the blogosphere. There has already been widespread coverage in the bloggers’ local newspapers and on various radio stations; there is NATIONAL coverage planned for their return involving newspapers reaching millions. What you also have to remember is that invariably some trips like this are sponsored both by airlines and hotels so the cost to the charity may not be as much as you suspect (I’m not sure if that is the case in this instance, I’m just making the point).
Oh and to the person who doesn’t ‘get the whole Mummy Blog thing’ – the mummy blog community currently reaches over 100,000 parents and those stats are rising all the time. That’s more than many parenting magazines, and certainly many glossies. Hopefully that puts it in perspective for you.
Reply
1. Jax
  31 August 2010
  @Liz you couldn’t read back and copy someone’s name although you could reference their comment ? 🙁
  there’s nothing wrong with not being swept up by the mummy blogging wave. If it’s currently reaching 100,000 parents (and I would wonder tbh whether that isn’t overstating it) that means there’s an absolutely huge number that it hasn’t impacted on at all. I don’t read parenting magazines either and I’m guessing few of my readers here do either, so the comparson’s a bit pointless I’m afraid.
  I hope that this campaign does get national coverage. I’m rooting for the bloggers all the way. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong about thinking about this whole campaign and asking questions to see if there is any way anything can be done better, *or* to ask whether it’s the right thing to do in the first place either.
  Reply
Tara
31 August 2010
Actually, why wouldn’t you want to add your voice to it?
If there is even a remote chance that by blogging/tweeting/chatting about this your are helping raise awareness why on earth wouldn’t you join in?
So what if at the very least, it only spreads through the mummy blogger community? That’s a very large community. And not all of those bloggers have the same readership.
Save the Children – just like many of these other charities – are not stupid. They wouldn’t spend valuable money on sending 3 individuals across the world if they didn’t think they would reap the benefits for the very people they are trying to help.
So I say again, what does it matter how bright the light is?
I’m happy to support it and do my bit to make sure that I tell as many people as I possibly can because it’s the very least I can do for a charity that thinks we have a powerful voice.
Reply
1. Jax
  31 August 2010
  @Tara I think this post is raising awareness, it’s certainly raising discussion 🙂
  I do think that some charities have different agenda to what hits the headlines, and it is right to consider the finer points of your support. Informed supporters are more effective supporters, able to put across a point of view better and discussion has to help that.
  I’m sure that I have a different readership to many of those who have previously blogged on #Blogladesh, so this post may well have brightened the light, surely the brighter the better?
  And why am I thinking of Spiderman now? “With great power comes great responsibility.” 🙂
  Reply
Daddybean
31 August 2010
A few quick points.
@Tara ‘charities aren’t stupid’ . Well, they may are may not be stupid, but some certainly make dubious decisions re spending their money. There was the newsnight story recently about charities paying so much for chuggers that it’s questionable how much money they got back in return. And it certainly isn’t hard to find plenty of cases of othe poor spending decisons/financial management by charities.
Note, that’s not to say this campaign by STC is such a cas.
@kerry ‘We really shouldnâ€™t underestimate the power of mum/dad bloggers and their influence across Facebook and Twitter. Peer to peer recommendations across social media are recognised as being the most valuable method of PR around.’
Umm, I’d say you shouldn’t really over estimate the power of bloggers either(I refuse to use such a crass term as Mummy blogger 😉 ) or the importance of Twitter/Facebook in the wider world. Yes of course it’s a way of reaching people – but I I don’t think that x ooo’s of people retweeting something that Stephen Fry tweets is as important as you do. I’m also spetical about what figures like ‘reaching 100,00o parents means (comparison with magazines, don’t mean much I think given that people pay for a magazine and will spend some time with it. clicking through a blog and spending 10 seonds doesn’t have that much value)
And as for your last comment I quote, well frankly it sounds like a bit of self serving PR fluff – I doubt I’d need to look far to find people with a more sceptical view. But then a key bit of the PR industry is selling itself of course 🙂
I’m not saying that I have any problem with Save the Childrens campaign here (though the whole ‘mums meeting mums thing’ and the ‘reaching out to mums through the blogs’ is a right turn off) – it seems a perfectly laudable campaign.
Reply
HelenHaricot
31 August 2010
think you are right jax, your readership is currently not mostly ppl interested in self-referential and mostly advertising and sponsored blogs. in fact, the readership is often those that live a more independent code lifestyle, who have already made one bold decision, to home educate, and therefore feel that they prefer to network in a more respectful and even way. having clicked the links above, i am unlikely to ever return to those blogs as the are the ‘take a break’ blogs, and i prefer something just a bit more real. since i block all pop up adverts, and have trained my children to avoid them and ignore those that they occassionally get to see on tv, why would i want to read blogs that are largely a list of adverts?
i know this is way off topic, but please, i do not go to your blogs and complain about your way of writing, it is your thing, and you can do it how you wish, but don’t come here in ‘neutral’ space and criticise those that don’t slavishly follow those trends.
ps jax, please feel free to edit or delete this rantlet as i would hate to upset you, and many , many thankyous for your texts and caring support. it is hugely appreciated. x x
Reply
Alex
1 September 2010
The whole thing has me confused to be honest.
I worry about the concept- it’s a celeb PR trip without the celebs, is it going to generate the same sort of interest it would have with a “name” on board? Not that I’m justifying the use of “names” but it seems the standard way to go nowadays.
I worry about the trending- if it did trend on Sunday in the UK it was brief and if it did, that was the only time it did- I’ve not seen it happen.
I worry about the harassment of celebs, Fry didn’t misspell the hashtag by mistake, he did it because he was being bombarded by requests to do something he didn’t want to do so did it wrong to get people off his back and Dave Gorman’s comment was very telling.
At the end of the day though I’m quite negative about a lot of what charities do. I’ve audited a number of them and critically read the accounts of the ones I donate to (gift aided by standing order so I don’t contribute to the waste spent on the street canvassers).
I understand of course that a cost benefit analysis will show spending money on advertising will often net a return but I do sometimes question the wisdom of it.
Reply
Merry
1 September 2010
My friend, who lived with her missionary family in Malawi until she was 14 often referred to a particular charity whose workers had the biggest houses and the nicest lifestyle by several gabillion percent. Turned out, several years in after her observations, that that charity were not spending their money wisely at all.
Last year the NSPCC chose to put time and effort and presumably money behind supporting the government in slandering home educators.
The observation that ‘charities are not stupid’ – if that means charities as a whole is err… a bit daft. In fact, it is a bit like the Labour Party currently banging on about how the co-alition has got the economics of money saving wrong 😆
I’m not sure I think charities necessarily know what they are doing at all; I’m certainly not sure that 100,000 parents being reached is much of an achievement or even the people who it moved on to from there. From the point of view of being an online business owner I can extrapolate with some confidence what an email to 100,000 parents would achieve in terms of sales – it would be okay, but it wouldn’t make me rich.
I was offered the opportunity to pay Â£15,000 for a 6 month advert in a booklet handed to new mums the other day – 250,000 of them in that time – it wasn’t rocket science to guess that wouldn’t generate me the roughly Â£80,000 worth of sales I have needed to even make that a partial success.
So I’m dubious that tweeting about a charity can make a massive difference to anything really.
‘Mummy bloggers’ is a fad imho. I’ve had a blog since 2003 and so have most of the regular commenters on this blog. I’ve got a handful of ‘mummy blogs’ on my rss and the ones I go back to are the ones that write funny, real posts about them and their children. I’m not remotely interested in the ones where people are all about the blogging – it comes, it goes and like quizilla quizzes and ‘which harry potter patronus are you’ games, it will fade. The ones that will be left are the ones that really, really had something to say, whether in their sponsored posts or about family life. But I doubt they’ll change the world any more than I will – a mummy, who blogs.
I can say that with some surety because once upon a time, in a very small world online world, I was ‘Mrs MuddlePuddle’ who made a noise and got noticed – and I could meet people and have them say “Oh, YOU are Merry!” But I stopped making a noise and the small world got filled with new people and now I’m, quite happily, nobody. Dooce, for example, has been massive in blog land for years, but I’ve never talked to any of the mums at my kids activities who have heard of her.
And all that said, I’m quite shocked by the abrasive tone of some of the comments on here really – I thought the days of turning up on blogs and trying to bludgeon people into thinking your way was long gone. But maybe I just hadn’t noticed the gentleness of netiquette among people I regularly read now.
I know one thing – ‘mummy blogs’ feel like the new intake in school compared to lots of the blogs I’ve read for years! I guess the proof will be in the pudding that gets baked over the coming years. All the clever google seo-ing with key words for rankings in whatever can’t replace real substance. I add them to my blog for the effect it produces somewhere else, but I don’t believe in them. How can my blog possibly be 183 most popular in anything. I don’t even add page headers and what I’ve got to say is only relevant to a few people. I’m pretty sure I’ll blog till I die though, on the basis of 7 years of blogging so far.
Whatever blogladesh does will undoubtedly help a few people, just like the Â£1200 I raised recently will help a few people – but I doubt blogladesh is going to achieve the effect that the Ethiopia news report that galvanised Band Aid did, or anything like it. I just don’t believe blogs are powerful enough – but I really don’t think that is obvious to the people writing them at times.
If I did, I’d be worried that road accidents didn’t stop them minute I wrote a sponsored post the other day – but they didn’t and I’m honest about why I wrote it – because I have personal experience and it was an opportunity to raise some money in memory of my son. Not because I thought anyone would listen.
.-= Merry´s last blog ..Donâ€™t rock the boat- we donâ€™t have lifejackets =-.
Reply
Liz (LivingwithKids)
1 September 2010
Jax,
Sorry I didn’t have time to reference the contributor because I was in the middle of 101 things yesterday. My bad. It was @Sallym.
As far as the mummy blogging readership goes – I know for a fact the reach of mine and several other of the leading parent blogs is a considerable percentage of the 100,000 I quoted. The reason advertisers, PRs, marketing people and charities like mummy blogs is because they’re perfectly targeted. It would be foolish to underestimate their influence.
Reply
Alex
1 September 2010
Merry, I think your comments are absolutely brilliant all the way through. Completely agree with you on the brash new kids stuff 🙂
Reply
Tim
1 September 2010
@Liz “I know for a fact the reach of mine and several other of the leading parent blogs is a considerable percentage of the 100,000”
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/kidstart.co.uk/ for anyone who cares. 🙂
Reply
Linda
1 September 2010
Hi, there’s also the msm interest in the campaign as something new and innovative, I’ve seen major coverage of Josie’s trip in our evening paper in the Midlands, which is the biggest outside London and heard Sian interviewed on regional BBC radio – I’m not sure how significant unconnected onlookers may find these two random examples but combined with the word of mouth through blogs, Twitter, facebook etc, plus national coverage, I’d say the on-going momentum is definitely making a splash publicity wise. I’d disagree that a connection with a blog would be less fleeting than with a mainstream media outlet, bloggers *may* be more trusted than msm journalists in some cases and have built up trust and loyalty with their readers. Videos posted on youtube etc all add to the mix and these can continue to work in the long term and not be at the mercy of news editors or producers, there’s a huge amount of potential, I personally like the ‘grass roots’ feel of it as your commenter has said – mums talking to mums. Just my 2p. Charities like everyone else have to find more imaginative ways of communicating and so far they seem to be doing a brilliant job. I also like the ‘democracy’ of being able to discuss what’s happening and that’s another bonus of a social media campaign as opposed to an msm campaign, I’ll look forward to seeing how it’s all monitored and measured. Re the Fry effect I know that when he tweeted something on behalf of a charity project I oversaw, we got 10,000 hits on a blog post in the next couple of hours, I remember punching the air as I saw him do it on my Blackberry. Shame I was queuing in a chip shop at the time. Of course for many the acid test will be ‘yes but how many of those 10,000 went on to support the charity?’ That’s the age-old thorny question for anyone working in PR and many of those will tell you it’s not all about “sales” but as none of us are party to results of the Save the Children campaign as yet, it will be very interesting to see how they fare. So many people are wishing the bloggers well and I hope they make a massive difference.
.-= Linda´s last blog ..Got twins Lets quit apologising! =-.
Reply
Merry
1 September 2010
I don’t think Jax is being negative about the campaign, nor is anyone else – just wondering how effective it can be. I’ve looked at those 3 blogs and Josie’s is, at any rate, one I would read again. But I doubt I’m going to spend much of my life concentrated on the message being set out, because there is no clear cut “and you can do this…” action that I can see. So Josie gains a reader – and with good enough cause I’d say – who has the PR been successful for? I’m not remotely saying that is Josie’s fault, or any of theirs, but could it be a flaw in the campaign? Is it worth thinking about that if another charity chooses to do the same?
I think it behoves anyone with an interest in how things work to look and query and question and wonder – I’m certainly not someone who would blindly accept something as right just because a PR agent told me it was right. If I was, I’d be signed up to every seo contract, adwords contract and back link offer from bootcamps for teens that comes my way via my blog. I want to be more savvy and thoughtful than that – and I think querying and questioning is a good thing. It doesn’t mean someone disapproves; it means they are thinking and 10 years of online life (from before blogs even… imagine!) has taught me to query and question. Having known Jax through most of that online life, meeting online and eventually becoming real life friends, I’m 100% sure that her motivation is to do that, not to snipe at people or wish mothers and babies out of sight and out of mind.
One of my children is an infant mortality statistic, I’ve a deep emotional investment in wanting children and their mothers to have chances. That gives me as much right as any to wonder whether money is being well spent and about the motivations of something are really about that or something else. Regardless of the 3 bloggers motivations, it seems to me to be mindful to wonder if something will achieve what it sets out to achieve.
I mentioned the NSPCC before – given the previous governments obsession with quangos, I think questioning their motives in backing a government campaign in an evidence-less attack on home educators was wise indeed. I’d not have liked them to get the inspection/legislation job at all.
STC may well have Bangladesh at the heart of their campaign, or they may have “how can we appear a young, trendy, trailblazing charity – I know, let’s do something trendy with bloggers and um…. I know… Bangladesh!” I say it’s meaningful to explore the use of money in any circumstances – and the effect it has, if it achieves the goal, what the real reach to new people is, by what do they measure success, is value for money proven? Charities are businesses after all.
.-= Merry´s last blog ..Donâ€™t rock the boat- we donâ€™t have lifejackets =-.
Reply
Liz (LivingwithKids)
1 September 2010
@Tim, sorry but I’m not sure why you think those stats you’ve pulled off have any relevance to my blog or why you felt the need to do behave in such a petty manner. The stats you’ve linked refer to KidStart (and not LivingwithKids!) but in any event they are woefully inaccurate. I’ve asked @liveotherwise to remove your comment for legal reasons.
Reply
Tim
1 September 2010
:rofl:
Reply
layla
1 September 2010
ah … this has made me feel quite nostalgic 🙂 Nothing like online silliness to provide respite from real life.
Tim rofl indeed 😀
Reply
Bob
1 September 2010
@Liz (LivingwithKids) My understanding of the stats Tim linked to was that it was for all pages in the domain kidstart.co.uk – LivingwithKids and anything else. So, if there is any error in them, it would be that they _over-estimated_ the LivingwithKids figures by including other things within kidstart rather than being for just LivingwithKids.
I hope this isn’t seen as heaping pettiness on pettiness because it’s not intended in that way. It’s just a friendly reminder to be sure of your facts before you threaten legal action.
At least one commenter here builds websites for a living, so I hope any mistakes I’ve made will be corrected.
Reply
Daddybean
1 September 2010
@Liz That’s a frankly laughable response. As for being petty, seems to be a bit of pot and kettle situation here. FWIW, Compete probably doesn’t have very accurate stats on UK blogs though. But that’s by the by.
But if you are going to come along telling people you are a ‘leading parent blog’ and how great your stats are then expect to be pulled up about such claims.
You said ‘ The reason advertisers, PRs, marketing people and charities like mummy blogs is because theyâ€™re perfectly targeted. It would be foolish to underestimate their influence.’
Yes, they probably are fairly well targeted , but I suspect they also like them because they are cheap advertising and they are seen as a bit of trendy thing – and it’s an industry susceptible to fashion. Influence – I think you need to walk away from the keyboard and actually see how many parents out there in the real world read blogs.
As to the meat of the discussion. I think I’m agreement with much of what Merry says in her last comment.
And in reference to Linda’s comment. It makes sense that charities or who ever should explore using social media to get their message across. It’s likely to be an important area of interaction in the future – long after twitter has tweeted it’s last. But some people just feel that the importance of it all is being over egged somewhat.
But we should also be questioning about things, nor that we should just accept that something is a good thing because some nice cuddley bloggers are involved in it.
And I’m also skeptical of in a sense people being used to do the promotional work by being encouraged to pass things on. In the future I think people will become more wary about such things.
.-= Daddybean´s last blog ..baby bunnies etc =-.
Reply
Daddybean
1 September 2010
@layla – Oi! this is serious stuff you know 🙂
Reply
layla
1 September 2010
:p I’m more interested in the bunnies 😉
Reply
HelenHaricot
1 September 2010
would you like some baby bunnies? it has been pointed out that there may already be another pregnancy ongoing…
Reply
Linda
1 September 2010
@daddybean yes I agree with you, it can be good to discuss, my own view fwiw is that social media/twitter is already important and that people are already wary of how bloggers may be “used” (same as journalists), understandably in some cases. I suppose with something like this as a former (voluntary) media adviser to Save the Children, I admire what they are up to and as Tara says above I don’t fully understand why people wouldn’t embrace it, some people are bound to see this as naive I think, but how I see it nevertheless. When I was involved in a charity project through Twitter, what stayed with me sadly was some of the nastiness and very open and direct hostility displayed, not like this discussion, but more akin to comments on Josie’s piece on the Sky News site today with claims about UK poor being more deserving and so on. It’s predictable stuff but I know from experience however much you protest such comments don’t affect you, they may well stay with you. You adopt a sort of tunnel vision with your aim of raising awareness or whatever in sight and that’s why I think it’s laudible that this campaign also brings into it discussions such as this. I’m not sure how much the discussion here is acknowledging the ‘chain reaction’ that blogs/facebook/twitter fit into *alongside* mainstream media which the PR team will have planned as best they can. There’s me wittering on about an evening paper in the Midlands and a local radio station and there’s Josie’s posts on Sky News online. That’s pretty good going and the way these different media can fit together is interesting for me. There will be plenty more coevrage to come. All best.
Reply
HelenHaricot
1 September 2010
sorry @jax and @linda and thankyou for bringing the subject back to topic. i guess my concern, as a cynic, is that potentially a lot of money being expended on something with an unknown payback to the charity and therefore potentially losing money to where it is required. I wonder whether there aren’t already people working for the charity out there who couldn’t blog and attract interest that way – think dr karen woo . that 2 of the people going are journalists, i believe, makes this seem more a ‘pr stunt’ rather than anything else to me. and although I am v glad that publicity is getting out, i guess i would perhaps not necess think this was the best way to do it. but if it works for those actually suffering rather than just raising the profile of the charity within pr circles…
giggle, i am so the product of my profession!
Reply
layla
2 September 2010
ok this is my issue. I won’t support a charity which is basically sending a couple of journos off for a jolly (in the same way I am immediately turned off any type of celebrity endorsement) – I don’t sponsor people so they can go off trekking the Himalayas/kayaking down the Amazon/skydiving in the name of ‘raising awareness’ – this really is no different, even if you do stick a hashtag in front of it.
As Helen said I can guarantee that there will be intelligent/interesting/invested people on the ground & if STC want to engage with social media perhaps they should be looking at resources they already have.
wrt ‘mommy bloggers’ I avoid TV, why on earth would I want to read anything that is little more than a series of infomercials.
Reply
Jennifer Howze
2 September 2010
Interesting original post. It’s really valuable for everyone – charities, PRs, journos and bloggers – to examine how workable and effective different types of campaigns are. After all, as a lot of commenters here point out, there are a lot of people who don’t log on to Twitter or follow blogs. Social media is still growing at an amazing rate and evolving at the same time.
I’m a journalist who also blogs and don’t see what the problem is with a charity taking writers places to see what they are doing and how important their work is. You could say that Save the Children should have brought along 3 journalists from the Mail, the Times and the Telegraph but knowing the state of newspaper staffing and budgets, and the shrinking number of pages in papers, it’s harder than ever for papers to devote resources to a good story or a charity they may want to get involved with.
In terms of taking bloggers, STC has done it right: it has chosen 3 very active, connected bloggers who also reach out beyond the blogosphere and interact with types of media such as newspapers and radio. They have a lot of followers on Twitter. Basically that’s called raising grassroots awareness. As any grassroots campaign picks up, it’s more likely to gain coverage from traditional media (which increasingly looks to Twitter and the blogosphere for indication of new trends and public opinion).
We should always keep asking ourselves if something like this is valuable, what value it does add, how it can be more effective. You have to keep the end goals in mind. If we don’t, then we are just talking to ourselves in a giant echo chamber.
Reply
Liz (LivingwithKids)
2 September 2010
Bob, yes fair enough, sorry my points was that those stats Tim quoted are not accurate, as Daddybean points out the site Tim quoted is not accurate/reliable. I’m not sure why Tim felt the need to be so unpleasant. I would happily have taken this up with both Tim and Jax privately if I knew how to contact them. In any event I was trying to point out to Jax, whose blog this is, that she needs to be aware of legal issues surrounding the comments on her blog. I should point out that I’m a journalist with an impeccable knowledge of defamation and the law. If you print a comment quoting an inaccurate source intended to cause commercial damage to a company (or individual) you must surely know that this can be a serious issue and that does extend to comments posted on blogs. The company that hosts my blog is not my company but I’m just pointing this out for Jax’s sake.
Daddybean what you’re saying is completely valid and I think you’re right that of course PRs see mummy blogs as an easy way to get coverage. In terms of influence – as I said the mummy blogs reach over 100k and in terms of influence while that might not be as big a readership as Take a Break or one of the other weekly magazines it’s certainly not to be sniffed at. Also, as Linda has pointed out the trip has already achieved coverage on Sky News and as I have already pointed out coverage in national publications is planned for the bloggers’ returns.
And Jen, I agree with everything you’ve said. An extremely intelligent, well-balanced comment.
.-= Liz (LivingwithKids)´s last blog ..Do you dread the school gate – or do you feel like youre making friends =-.
Reply
Amodernmother
2 September 2010
I’m not sure I would describe a trip to Bangladesh as a jolly. This trip is a positive thing and I admire the bloggers for going, and STC for thinking out of the box.
.-= Amodernmother´s last blog ..Win a break for two at the UKs first eco-spa =-.
Reply
Henrietta Pretty
3 September 2010
Looks like i might be bidding for the rights to yet another film. (after the MADS/civil war debate) This mummy blogging thing is getting serious – i only started mine to talk about poos and shoes.
M2M
.-= Henrietta Pretty´s last blog ..Want Instant Delivery of New Blog Posts &amp Comments =-.
Reply
Natalie
3 September 2010
This is a really thought provoking post and I personally don’t feel there is anything wrong with looking at how effective it is, although admittedly, as individuals I think it’s very difficult for us to gauge that. We all live in our bubbles and don’t necessarily consume the same media which is what makes this campaign interesting as I think it has a variety of touchpoints. I think the whole questioning who will hear about it thing really could be said of any charity campaign. If each charity worried about only doing stuff if they could reach ‘everyone’ they’d probably do nothing or reach a limited amount of people. There are lots of charities doing lots of different things – I don’t know about all of them and there is nothing wrong with that. The bigger picture says that this is about raising awareness and no doubt money as well. They will have their targets for measuring the effectiveness of the campaign and I know that each of those bloggers will work their butt off to achieve the aims.
As for the whole stats thing, Compete clearly state themselves that they only base their data on US samples. Unless your site is based in the US or has a significant US readership, the stats are extremely inaccurate, something they themselves say, much like Alexa. Any figures shown about anyone’s site are relative to a US sample. Period.
.-= Natalie´s last blog ..Cracking My Productivity- TenPlusTwo iPhone App =-.
Reply
1. Tim
  3 September 2010
  @Natalie While I agree with everything you say about Compete’s stats I still think it is quite impressive that Liz is managing to build up a significant US readership for a commercial site with such a clear UK market focus.
  Reply
Kat
3 September 2010
You can’t tell me this campaign has failed to raise your awareness even a little. I am pretty sure you were not talking about Bangladesh and what you can do to help last month. I could go on and on responding to what has been said, I could defame Liz some more but I will save myself the bother as I don’t know what it would add to this discussion.
What I will say is if you haven’t already, please head over to the Save The Children site and add your name to the Press for Change petition: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/12263.htm once you’ve done it, why not ask some of your friends to join you? Add it to your Facebook page, tweet about it even?
The aim of this campaign is to gather signatures, it would be churlish to withold yours because you do not like how they have chosen to kick it off. Please, sign, you can make a difference.
Reply
Manda
3 September 2010
I can’t be arsed reading all the comments incase it turns into another bitch fest! (and I’m working, I just noticed this on a tweet deck pop up on my screen!) However, its a view spoken (and spoken by a lot of people recently) which should maybe make everyone say, “Ok, so how can we help spread awareness, Let’s not forget that this is for SAVE THE CHILDREN, so how can we get parents who tweet and blog to each other to reach out over the border of blog land to get the petition up?” If we (this average sized circle of parent bloggers) all sign the petition, then it will do its fair bit… but if we all facebook it to our non tweeting and non blogging friends, thats where the difference can be made. Any awareness is good awareness xxxx
Reply
Alex
3 September 2010
To a degree you can judge how well this campaign is doing by heading over to the save the children website and checking how many thumbprints they have on their petition. http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/12263.htm
How accurate it is I don’t know, my computer shows 2,600 thumbprints, my colleagues shows 10,250. Either way, so far with a reach of Liz’s 100,000 people, even without factoring the people who would have signed up without Blogadesh happening, that’s a disappointing return. Hopefully the news coverage will boost it as obviously nobody wants to see this fail.
Reply
Merry
3 September 2010
Hmmm… in everything I’d looked at so far, the petition (signatures, whatever) had been utterly unnoticed by me, I have to say. Maybe that’s what I’m worried about (in as much as I am worried, which frankly, given the real state of crisis and tragedy I’m living with, I’m really not!) – the call to action doesn’t seem clear enough.
.-= Merry´s last blog ..Donâ€™t worry- Iâ€™m ok now =-.
Reply
Merry
3 September 2010
Kat,
I don’t think any of this was ever not liking how it was done – it seemed to start of as question as to whether people thought it was an effective method and turn into some other people feeling very defensive, like it HAD to be a good thing if it was some cybermummy’s doing it.
To be honest, I wasn’t talking about bangladesh a month ago but I’m not really talking about it now either – other than the furore it caused here – which is another reason I’m curious as to whether it can have been as effective as it will have been expensive. Alex’s stats, (hello Alex, nice to meet you, do pop by mine and say hello sometime 🙂 ) don’t entirely suggest it will be.
Maybe that has more to do with my lack of belief (following a depressing amount of effort last year) that lists of signatures affect politicians than anything else though. It sort of strikes me that this might have worked brilliantly if the call to action was “these people are dying, please donate Â£1 per member of your family so these people don’t lose 50% of their children to needless poverty” but that what it is aiming for doesn’t give people a sense of purpose.
I could be entirely wrong of course.
.-= Merry´s last blog ..Donâ€™t worry- Iâ€™m ok now =-.
Reply
A Modern Military Mother
5 September 2010
WTF – this is all a bit mental. Please can everyone take their head’s out of their botties and get a grip! Word on the street that I have heard is that the parenting blogosphere is full of women that get their knickers in a twist and are a bit up their own arses. If you were to read this stream it would be hard to convince them otherwise.
.-= A Modern Military Mother´s last blog ..On Blogging Leave â€“ Back on 13th Sept 2010 =-.
Reply