I recently posted an article on Yummy Mummy Club that spoke about the difference between Advertising and Buying Consideration. You can find the post here: http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/brands_connecting_with_moms_hessie_jones

When I initially wrote it I was frustrated with the way media companies were treating blog or community properties. They were selling advertising just like any other publishing site or portal. The model didn’t take into consideration programs that could be developed that allowed brands to begin the engagement with communities to build relationships. The ad-buy was was transient and short-term,  awareness-building at arms-length.  I think there is an opportunity to transform this model and allow a WIN-WIN that ensures the audience to speak and be heard and companies to listen, engage and provide what their consumers want.

I’ve posted the article below as well:

Right now, it’s the tail end of the NXNEi conference of Toronto and the Architects of Community session where Erica was a panelist. While she relayed her story about how Yummy Mummy Club evolved, she also presented insight into some of the real challenges she faces as a social media site.

I’m here to provide a view from a brand perspective because I deal with them everyday. I want to also give you my view into how the social sites will evolve.

Erica mentioned an experience where someone had expected to pay nothing for advertising on Yummy Mummy Club because social media is free. That is a hard perception to dispel, because for the longest time social media was about rolling up your sleeves and finding sites and groups that were potential prospects for your products or service. It wasn’t about advertising. It was about effort and building relationships.

The cost to buy media had been transferred into the long and arduous effort applied to reach out and build community. And that notion still holds BUT what has evolved is that now there is a price to pay for access into these engaged and tightly-knit communities. We need to dispel the myth that social media is free. Brands need to understand that it is not necessarily an advertising medium, but a way to begin to engage and build some brand consideration among groups they care about.

And that is where I think Yummy Mummy Club can catapult this to a whole new level. Brands can always buy advertising: banners, emails, etc., but if they are looking to target social media sites they are going to get the incremental value in helping them build/tweak their products and services; providing real-time crowd sourcing opportunity that traditional media doesn’t bring; the impetus to build ‘real’ relationships that they can develop and sustain over time.

So as a marketer, I want to work with Yummy Mummy Club to deliver value over and above advertising consideration. Moms know what they want. Moms know how they feel about brands and products. Moms are creative. Moms are engaging. Brands WANT to hear from you and they are willing to allow let their guard down a little bit, eat a little crow, and let people give them suggestions that may prove invaluable to them. And I am willing to help bridge that gap and get you closer to brands so you feel you have a partnership and your words are being heard.

Please let me know your thoughts!