Let’s take a moment to congratulate the two winners of our chicBuds Holiday Giveaway from last month, Jacqueline (read her chicBuds review here) and Michele (whose review is here). Enjoy your prizes ladies! And thanks to everyone else who participated in the contest.
Since Evolving Music typically focuses on topics like the schizophrenic music industry, emerging technology, social media, and artist reviews and interviews, it’s easy to make assumptions about our readership. Sure, anyone might stumble upon our blog and find a post that interests them, but you kind of picture the majority of the readers falling into certain categories like DIY musicians, other geeky music tech bloggers, people from the myspace generation…
As such, at first it was surprising to find that both our winners come from the mommy blogger demographic. Logically though it makes sense. They are everywhere! Mommy bloggers are fast becoming (if they haven’t already) one of the most influential groups online. Avid blog readers will recognize names like Dooce, queen bee of the mommy blogger tribes and one of the lucky few who actually makes a living doing it. With four million page views per month, you can easily picture the advertisers lining up with tongues all a drool. On the flip side, can you imagine the immense pressure of an audience that large? Millions of people hanging on your every written word? She is quite a lady.
With all their genuine commenting, link trading and sharing of emotions, mommy bloggers epitomize the power of social media. Naturally, this slice of society has tremendous influence when it comes to products and thus many mommy bloggers have become trusted sources for product reviews. “Marketers have just started to scratch the surface of this untapped medium,” according to Fahlgren. This phenomenon appears to be very much on the rise.
For those of us tooling about in music industry, the question is this: Are mommy bloggers into music tech? If they are, what kind of influence do they have in the space? And what does that mean for the other players in the field – the artists, the bloggers, the entrepreneurs, the fans, the record labels…? Should artists focus on recruiting and engaging fans in the mommy blogger demographic? Should music related companies target them as an audience for products and services?
Are there statistics out there that’ll tell us what these mommy blogger types are interested in? Because clearly it isn’t all discounts on diapers and parenting tips. Some of them are prolific writers with incredible pull in their circles of influence.
Great article, Sandra. Although I came into blogging a bit later than most and have been doing it for a little over six months now, I can tell you that had I known blogging wasn’t just for the younger college kids I would have been doing it way before this!
As the sister of a musician who is signed to a major label and pretty darn famous in Europe and South America, music has always been a part of my life growing up. While my blog mostly revolves around life at home with the kids, I am constantly exposed to music-whether it be through the ringtones on my phone, my teen son blaring his stereo upstairs to the latest rap/hip hop music, my 7 year old with her kiddie bop CD’s or my husband watching his Latin music videos on Univison and Mun2. Heck, when I want to do some housework I think nothing of putting in an 80’s CD and moving around the house with a broom and dust mop.
As the mom of a teenager, I try to keep up on things that are important to them. And if that means brushing up on the latest technology to finding out who the “IT” bands are of today, it’s something I want to know. While I might not LIKE all the music, I realize it is an important part of their culture. Did my grandmother like it when Elvis came into popularity years ago? Probably not, those swiveling hips were way too much action for granny but my mom LOVED them! And I can bet MY mom thought Madonna was a bad influence on me when I decided I wanted to dress just like her-and sing “Like A Virgin” with my friends at the tops of our lungs on the Main St. in our small Maine town.
I had so much fun being a winner and giving some ChicBuds away to my co-workers. I had women from their early 20’s to late 50’s drooling over them-some wanted them as gifts, some wanted them for their music devices or for computer use-Look at what you can do on an Ipod today, you can listen to music, watch movies, watch TV shows, you name it. Nowadays, with just ONE device you have so many options-before, a cell phone was just a phone and now look at what you can do with them.
I do agree that mommy bloggers are very influential in getting the word out about products. Some of the companies they mention I have never heard about before, and I have gone and made purchases from them or told others about them, either through my blog, in person or both. It’s funny, because although considered a mommy blogger I am also a consumer. This Christmas, I was in the market for a laptop. I checked out the techie blogs, and liked what I saw about the new Macbook. Guess what I got? Tonight I got a new cell phone and switched providers. Why? Because I saw a few posts on other blogs about deals, benefits and functions of new phone I wanted. So I guess what I am saying is that even if a blog has a specific focus-it is still going to get readers like myself. People who want to be in the know, and research things a little bit. People just browsing the Net and finding something that peaks their interest etc…
I really enjoyed your post, and I thank you and ChicBuds for hosting such a great giveaway and giving me the opportunity to share such a great product with others-the ladies at work were still talking about it today…(and secretly hoping I’d bring more in to give away!)
Michele
I was shocked by how quickly and proficiently my sister picked up blogging as a hobby after the birth of her son. On the one hand it made sense. Her penchant growing up for creatively expressing her spirit was evident in the way she attacked school musicals, the cheerleading squad and all of the organizational and artistic aspects that came with them. But on the opposite end, it was hard for me to imagine her actively going after a computer everyday to journal what she was doing.
However, as shocked as I was by how adeptly she adopted blogging, this post and Michele’s outstanding comment simply became a logical progression from what I had seen happening with the Gibson family of 3 (thank me later for the name drop Em.) Specifically that mommy bloggers are a serious segment of the cyberspace community.
Although, when viewed in a historical light, I don’t think that the blogger movement of mothers is any different from previous eras. Typically viewed as the centerpiece of the family unit and literal pre-natal cradle, mothers have always driven the economy from multiple angles as both consumers and producers. Without delving into history considered ancient, look no further than the contributions of working women, service women, industrial women or mothers that were consumers (and in probably a good percentage of the time, more than one of the above) who drove the economy as far back as WWI (http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets4.html). Let’s not forget that unfortunately at the time, while the door was being opened for them to serve, they were still denied the right to vote. Yet consume, produce and serve they did.
Skip ahead to the more recent (and even almost now nearly forgotten) media focus on “Soccer Moms” in the elections of the mid to late 90s, like all of a sudden a phenomenon of mothers who had children in sports had occurred. Yet, it drove focus in the election and influenced a rise in mini-vans and other multi-passenger vehicles (as a simple example, not an all-encompassing one.) And even compared to now, these examples are far out-paced by current progress, standards and ideals.
The very disparate and seemingly random points in these two observations are intended to demonstrate that even as cultures, technology and the needs of our environment change, there is always a strong focus on the mothers within each society because of the influence they hold in the future of that civilization. More importantly, because mothers will overwhelmingly do whatever they personally feel is in the best interest of their children, the result is an influence in policy and market trends.
Because of this, any new forum or medium is going to undergo scrutiny and ultimately either support or rejection from the “Mommy” sector. The fact that the internet, blogging and social platforms are now serving to connect and allow groups of all demographics to interact like never before, it should only be a natural progression from my sister, who I thought to be an isolated incident of rampant spirit in blog form, to an entire sprawling and powerful legion of Mommy bloggers.
So the answers to the questions (“Are mommy bloggers into music tech? If they are, what kind of influence do they have in the space? And what does that mean for the other players in the field – the artists, the bloggers, the entrepreneurs, the fans, the record labels…? Should artists focus on recruiting and engaging fans in the mommy blogger demographic? Should music related companies target them as an audience for products and services?”) are all emphatically yes. Not only do they provide an easy outlet into the next most targeted demographic (4-7, notably for THEIR influence on spending habits of the number one group, the mommies) but that simply leads into the other age groups. And like any good tobacco company, all manufactures seek to obtain customers early and retain them for either their lifetime, the company’s or the product’s. But with the complete drive and pull worldwide of mothers, how could anyone not want to target them?
As for what they’re interested in, I think one wouldn’t have to go any further than venturing a guess at “everything.” With all walks of life and all walks of women, there isn’t a single industry or product that won’t benefit from being included in homes from exposure to the mother demographic. The easy format and intensely rapid growth of technology in general and internet connectivity specifically simply creates an atmosphere where all groups, be they music bloggers, masturbatory bloggers or mommy bloggers, have a consistently easier way to become involved in the corporate production and goal of consumer satisfaction. It only makes sense therefore that one of the historically most influential groups becomes a movement unto itself in the current maternal evolution: blogging.
(as a side note…as of the time of posting of this comment, the post about Mommy Bloggers has the most hits for the day on the blog)
6 months ago I would have laughed at the mommy “blogger.” Who has time for that!? I was heard saying things like “with email, facebook, and myspace, I don’t need one more thing to update.”
After hearing about a mommy blogger on the Today Show who had been seriously burned in a plane accident in August I checked out the nienie dialogues (www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com). I was amazed at how this woman brought her world to life through photography and her everyday activities as a mom. All of a sudden I began to look at my life as a mother differently, and so my blog began.
I started connecting with other moms doing the same things as me, from cooking to cleaning, and of course, my blog changed from a monthly update of big events to a daily update of the simply things I do every day.
As my brother mentioned, we can all agree that mothers want the very best for their little ones. We want to give them everything we didn’t have and every chance to succeed. Everyone has heard that classical music will increase your baby’s intelligence; a “baby Einstein” of sorts. However, recent research (I have no source, except that I heard this in an inservice when I was teaching school) does not support the classical music spoof. It does however support music in general. While I do play the Beatles version of classical lullaby, it didn’t stop there. During his play time I would get out all of my old CDs (no, I haven’t loaded all of them onto my iPod yet, “who has time for that!?”). Touche. We would listen to Sublime, Blink 182, Green Day, T.I., Rhiana, Nine Days, Britney Spears (I know, I know, but I can’t deny my pop roots!), and anything on the radio. When I’m making dinner, I open my iTunes playlist, turn up the volume, and dance around singing (at which point my son, Brennan, hysterically laughs b/c I am the funniest person he knows).
After reading ACtual’s post (holla’ big brotha’! and thanks for the plug for gibsonfamilyof3…what will I do when it becomes 4 or more?), I was reminded of my days listening the Hieroglyphics with my high school boyfriend. Dang, they were good. I love sharing my love of music with my son. Music makes him happy, and that makes me smile.
So where do mommy bloggers fit into the world of “evolving music?” I just entered a giveaway on my mommy blogger friend’s website this week who challenged her readers to find her a song on iTunes that she had never heard. I picked Matisyahu’s “King Without a Crown.” Have you heard his stuff? It rocks. Start with track 1, and let it play. I hope I win!
My point: There is a new generation of moms connecting with each other from one coast to another about everything and anything. I guarantee that the best advice a mom can get is not from the pediatrician. It is from my girlfriend down the street or on my blog. Before you scream neglect, I do listen to my pediatrician, and he is number 1 for medical advice, but getting my child to eat peas and peaches means singing, “millions of peaches, peaches for me…,” and sharing that piece of gold with my mommy bloggers may help them get their kids to eat them too! If my blog friend said she loved her carseat or the new track from T.I., I will be all about tuning my ear to whatever it has to offer. The influence of mothers has extended far beyond the home, that is for sure.
So, T.I., if you’re reading this, I’d be happy to advertise your new track with Justin Timberlake on my blog if you’ll fund Brennan’s college education. Have your agent contact me on my blog: http://www.gibsonfamilyof3.blogspot.com.
Moms will appreciate this video: http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=m7Fxb7fWWh
Thank you so much for this awesome post and question.
As a mom blogger myself, I think marketers too often overlook that we are women as well, and that yes, we are very tech savvy.
Thanks for the link to my Fahlgren post. And there’s another piece you may love. It’s by Avenue A Razorfish – a report on the Digital Mom.
http://digitalmom.razorfish.com/publication/?m=4248&l=1