2012 is just around the river bend and for most of us, that means putting the finishing touches on the fallout shelter and making lists of resolutions we have no intention of keeping.
As a member of both the mom blog community and PR freak show, I'd like to offer up a few (strong) suggestions for us uterus-using scribes going forward.
Here are seven behaviors that mom bloggers may want to shelf come 2012:
7. Ending a giveaway post with 60,000 ways to enter. Yes, your $15 prize bundle from Bouquet of Fruits looks amazing, but must one really:
-- Leave a comment-- Send you a tweet-- Write on your Facebook page-- Text you -- Tickle your back-- Follow you on Pinterest-- Take you out to lunch-- Nurse your baby
and
-- Make out with your cousin
in order to have a chance at winning it? Whoever started this practice needs an indefinite time out. It has spread like hand food mouth, and needs to be shamed out of existence.
6. Complaining about PR people. I know getting pitched for adult diapers and emails that begin with "Hi Mommy Blog Person" are annoying. We get it. Not all PR people are created equal. At least 60 percent of them are account executives, fresh out of college and working jobs they hate. They could care less about your blog and the email to you is a time-kill before happy hour.
Make like Kristen Chase and find a way to pay it forward and pass the pitch on to someone who needs it, politely decline to review the new do-it-yourself chicken pox vaccine, or ignore the email altogether.
After awhile, going on and on about how dumb PR folks keep coming after you starts to sound like some kind of backhanded self-compliment: "They just won't stoooop!"
We all heard about the blogger who threatened the Crocs representative at BlogHer with bad press if she didn't get shoes in her kid's size. Using your blog as a platform when you feel the need to share legitimate complaints against a business is awesome. Using your blog as hammer to slam someone into submission, isn't.
As bloggers we're continually working towards establishing ourselves as credible media and literary outlets. Don't take us all six steps backward by acting four.
5. Taking cues from A&E's Hoarders. Just as every blogger has received a bad pitch, every PR person has had a "SEND ME STUFF, NOW" email. When a blogger asks for 18 full-sized toys for her son's birthday party/Birthday Bash Bonanza Blog Event, expect digital side eye.
Ask for items that you genuinely want to review and share with your family, not for enough to open your own daycare or retail store.
4. Pettiness. The mean girl stuff is getting old. Nuff said?
3. Exacerbated competitiveness. Believe it or not, the Internet is bigger than your backyard. There are more than enough companies offering swag and ambassadorships to go around. Another bomb: readers and Twitter users can actually read more than one blog at a time. Every minute that you devote to picking at the scraps of other bloggers is wasted.
Develop your voice as a writer. If you must, create a brand. You're not in competition with anyone when you're being yourself.
2. Using the word "sarcastic" in your Twitter bio. We get it. You are.
1. Tweeting about Klout.