On Monday, as my team and I were finalizing pitching assignments for our mommy blogger media list, we came across this post from Momdot.com advocating mommy bloggers join in a “PR Blackout Challenge” for one week in August.

On her blog, MomDot founder Trisha posted:

“With the allure of giveaways, reviews, and blog trips, Mom Bloggers have turned from what they love the most, their family, into working directly as public relations for their captive audience. It boils down to knowing your worth and then standing up for it…We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week.”

As PR professionals working with a juvenile products client, my team spends a good amount of time identifying mommy blogs and fostering respectful, involved and professional relationships with these bloggers. We love our mommy bloggers, and we hope they love us, too. Yes, we offer gear because we hope it will be positively reviewed, and yes, we hope it will be used in reader giveaways and as contest prizes. We do this not because mommy bloggers have a “captive audience” but because we believe in word of mouth, and we know that moms are each other’s allies, whether next door or via the World Wide Web.

The whole point of blogging is the sharing of information, whether it be the amount of dirty diapers your husband (didn’t) change, the “surprise” redecoration your twins did with a set of permanent markers and your new white couch or, drum roll, the amazing new lightweight stroller that saved the day on a recent trip to the zoo or the hook-on high chair that allowed mom and dad to sit in a white-clothed restaurant and enjoy a real meal that didn’t come in a Styrofoam box.

I understand that mommy bloggers likely get hundreds of spam-type emails from marketers (and PR folks) every week, offering coupons and links to giveaways, with the sole strategy of online saturation/domination. But, mommies…that’s not me or my team.
So, my own plea to my mommy blogger friends: don’t participate in the PR blackout —participate in a brown-out. Delete the spam emails and canned requests for free publicity, and maybe throw away your calendar of deadlines. Your real PR partners will operate on your schedule, because we know you. We’re friends.

--Lisen Syp, Account Supervisor