Slummy Single Mummy: Brands need to value and respect bloggers

In celebration of Mother’s Day, Cision UK is unveiling this year’s Top 10 Mummy Blog ranking tomorrow, 4 March. But first, let’s have a look at what one of the leading mummy bloggers, Josephine Middleton, author of Slummy Single Mummy, has been up to, the brands she is currently working with and what will be big in her blogosphere in the coming months.

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different?  There are so many fantastic blogs out there that are well written, with great designs and amazing photography, that it can be really hard to stand out. The only thing that can really make me different is simply the fact that I am me – no one else can be that. People tell me that I have quite a distinctive tone of voice and so this is what I concentrate on.

How do you measure the success of your website? For quite a long time I was really keen on always checking things like my page views and rankings on various sites but to be honest that has really stopped over the last year. I’m much more excited by one person telling me how long they have been reading for and how much they enjoy it – I’d rather have 100 people read again and again than 100,000 visitors who only come once.

It used to be that comments were a good measure of success, but more and more people now engage in different ways; I might share a post on Twitter for example and have a conversation about it with someone there rather than on the blog. I think a lot of bloggers have noticed this same trend over the last couple of years.

What’s your favourite blog and why? My favourite blog is my daughter Bee’s food blog – www.teachezbee.com. I have a few other parenting and lifestyle blogs that I read, a lot of them local to me. I have a list here – http://slummysinglemummy.com/good-reads/

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Go for it! I have a bit of a cheesy motto in life – ‘Ready, fire, aim’ – the idea being that you just make a start and adjust as you go along. People spend so much time worrying about what they would call it, what they would write about and who would read it that they paralyse themselves into doing nothing at all.

How do you work with marketers and PRs? I work with brands in all kinds of ways – the more creative an approach the better! Sometimes it’s just hosting a sponsored post or competition, sometimes I use my social media channels to help spread the word about something, or sometimes it’s a trip or an event. I like projects that have a bit more to them, that I can really get involved with. For example, for the last few years I’ve been an ambassador for the Tesco Mum of the Year Awards. This involves following the process, sharing news about the shortlists, featuring the winners on my blog and attending the award ceremony. It’s filmed for Channel 5 and goes out on Mother’s Day, so then I have the fun of seeing if I can spot myself! It’s really lovely to be involved with something from start to finish.

Do you use social media to promote/share content? What are the challenges? Yes is the short answer to that. Twitter is my favourite. I guess the challenge is finding the time to do it properly, so that you aren’t just using a platform for link dumping, that you actually make the effort to share other people’s stuff and form proper two-way relationships.

What can PRs do in working better with you? This is a topic I feel very passionately about as I think there is so much potential here, yet people still often get it so wrong. I actually deliver training to brands and agencies on working with bloggers where I share insights from within the blogging community about what bloggers love and loathe about working with brands and help brands think more creatively. Essentially it’s just common sense – bloggers want to be treated with respect, taken seriously and have their time and expertise valued. A personal, well-thought out approach is always best.

What has been your blogging highlight? I love the opportunity to travel and so those have been my highlights – skiing in the French Alps (I was terrible at it), making injera with local women in Ethiopia (I wasn’t much better at that), and most recently it would have to be flying to New York to interview Antonio Banderas about his role in the new SpongeBob movie. You can judge for yourself how well I did at that when I publish my interviews later in March.

 What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? I’m really excited about a project I’m doing with Co-operative this year, which is kicking off in March. It came about after I went to speak at a blogger event they did and is all about dedicating 2015 to getting your life in order – writing a will, thinking about funeral plans, parenting and health issues – all those things you know you should do but never get round to. I’ll be talking to experts, going through the processes myself, making some short films and hosting a series of Twitter parties. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in!

Editorial information on  Josephine Middleton, Slummy Single Mummy and thousands of other media/blogger contacts and outlets, can be found in the Cision Media Database.