Stab me in the eye now, please. I usually tend to lay low when the crazy comes to town but tonight I find myself sitting here at 2:12 am, restless and frustrated as hell that there is nobody to skype, tweet, email or call and say, “I told you, didn’t I say something like this would happen?”
I’m talking about the #toyotafail fiasco that went down earlier today. The illustrious Shelly Kramer sums up the disastrous affair that began as the brainchild of a possibly well-meaning yet obviously inexperienced and ambitiously out of control blogger at Mommynetworks.org.
A Perfect Storm
The social media sphere is constantly evolving and while the “Mommy Blogger” phenomenon has changed the lives of many women there’s no degree, no qualification or level of experience required to start writing and working with PR in this space. Imagine the perfect storm that brews when you unleash an army of inexperienced and underpaid PR blogger outreach hacks who desperately email every blogger on earth three times a week with canned pitches that begin, “Dear Mommy Blogger”. These methods are devaluing all brand messages and don’t promote an understanding of what the word “brand” means.
To be fair, there are many brands that are doing a great job of building relationships with bloggers, partnering and coordinating on quality campaigns. Companies like Toyota spend millions of dollars protecting their brand from misrepresentation but perhaps they should start to look at banding together with other major brands and educating the hacks that put them at risk. It seems unfathomable that someone would even think of doing what mommynetworks.org did, but she did it and I feel bad for her because the ramifications are likely to extend beyond humiliation.
THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL
Is there a Bat-Phone with a main line to the PA system? Empowering people to share your message is not the same thing as tossing your brand value into a can of spam-and you’d better start educating the folks that represent your brand or clients ’cause they’re making a mess of things.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Fiona , CanCan. CanCan said: RT @banteringblonde: Toyota Caught Up In Rogue Blogger Scheme #toyotafail http://goo.gl/fb/rO9VA [...]
Hi Fiona,
I feel badly for this woman, too. And hopefully this situation will serve as a wake-up call for not only the mommy blogosphere and how they collectively conduct business, as well as for brands and the importance of working with properly vetted pros, using tools to monitor the social media space and having a crisis plan in place.
Thanks for a good read!
Shelly
@shellykramer
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Thanks for bringing this story to my attention, Fiona. The internet brings a lot of power to people who just aren’t equipped to handle it. A good tale of caution for all of us.
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I read another post about this earlier this morning after you mentioned it last night. I can absolutely see how it happened and also feel badly for the blogger. As a new blogger myself, there are a LOT of social manners that need to be observed when blogging and it is difficult to get caught up without making a mistake along the way. I remember early on posting a recipe that cost $4.75 and saying to go a specific link for even more fabulous recipes under $5. The owner of that brand was not happy that I used her brand and once I realized that, I removed the link immediately. Not much harm done, but that was my first example of learning the “rules” associated with blogging and branding. That was a much more minor issue of what the Momnetworks blogger did – but it is easy to screw up when you have good intentions.
I hadn’t considered regulating internet use – I would imagine that would infringe on Right to Free Speech issues, but I can see the benefit of making some of these rules clear and perhaps mandatory reading when you register a domain name or something.
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Love this Fiona!
But can we please stop calling her a blogger? 4 posts, a Facebook fan page and a belief that you can “conquer the mommy blogging world by starting your own network without having a clue what you’re doing” does not a blogger make.
I’m sorry, I’ve been being really good about not lambasting Ms. Snyder – but it rubs me wrong to hear her called a blogger. The women she tried to use to make a “case study” so she could lure actual clients in? They are bloggers. The women who will be suspect every time they write about a product they really, genuinely endorse – because people keep calling her a blogger or tweeting out “the problem was a mommy blogger!”? They’re bloggers.
She wasn’t a blogger. She was looking to capitalize on the work of bloggers and she got burned. Unfortunately, the fire is going to take out a lot of the surrounding area as well.
p.s. You’re one of the people I think will get why I brought the Lansinoh thing into this too bit.ly/e7m8Hy – this isn’t an isolated incident, it’s the crest of a wave. :\
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Fiona Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Fair enough – although, this is my point exactly, how can serious bloggers differentiate themselves when, like it or not, anyone with access to a computer can start a blog and instantly be called ” a blogger”? I’m fine with calling her a lazy capitalizing biatch but let’s be honest, this is exactly the same situation we find ourselves in when the cat fights and pissing matches break out with women online. Frustrating…
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Hey Fi! I spent a great deal of time talking about this and posting yesterday. I think it’s so unfortunate for the brands that get burned in this kind of stunt. Not to mention the kind of “blogger” that would actually agree to participate in something like this. I love seeing the comments from mt Twitter crush Shelly (who I got to actually touch at Blissdom) and from Lucrecia. These are women I’ve tried to emulate in building a worthwhile reputation in the space. If this woman wanted to learn how to grow her business and get brands to recognize her company… she could’ve taken a lesson from those two. Thanks for the post and I can’t wait to snuggle you again! x0
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As automotive engineer, business person, and outside observer of the fallout from this incident, I REALLY appreciate the in-depth explanations of how social media works. Trust me when I say that I even-more-so now want to leave all this stuff to you experts. Ms Snyder is inadvertently educating lots of us newbies.
* Frightened Full Disclosure: I’m Bantering Blonde’s husband.
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[...] plethora of new community building platforms that emerge monthly. It’s been called the “Wild Wild West” of times, there have been cat fights and blunders but a significant number of both [...]