Thanks to wonderful friends and my dad’s frequent flier miles and the opportunity to volunteer my time, I’ll be attending the Mom 2.0 Summit next weekend in Houston. I’ve never been to Houston! And I haven’t flown or traveled by myself since I was 16. (I flew to Ohio in 2005 but I don’t count that cause I was pregnant and the wee Chipmunk fetus offered surprising comfort and companionship.)
Wait. This is an overly complicated introduction to a post that has nothing to do with flying or babies.
Lemme try again.
Yesterday my therapist asked me why I was going to Houston, and I paused for a while and then explained the freelance copywriting, design and consulting work I do for a living. Then I told her a little about FTC regulations and mommy bloggers and review blogs and the bleeding frontier that is the way brands establish relationships with bloggers.
Then I smiled and told her about some of my ladyfriends and the ways we all care about each other and how happy I am to put my arms around people I admire and/or love deeply.
She started crying! It made me realize how foreign our world can be to those who aren’t deep in it. It also made me realize that in explaining the blogosphere, I didn’t say anything negative. All the good, even the complicated good, outweighed the bad.
When I attend Mom 2.0, I’ll be there as a mom, as a friend, as a blogger and as a professional. My blog, this blog, is a hobby. But I’m keenly interested in business blogs, individuals who blog as a business, and every weird little tweet and permutation in between. I write a review blog. I work with small businesses to help them establish best practices. Until I went freelance, I worked directly with the the top consumer goods and packaged food brands and their agencies.
I struggle with and generally avoid taking this blog (and my Twitter account) in any sort of commercial direction. This is my happy sandbox. When I choose to spread the word about a cause or I establish a relationship with a brand, a shitload of thought goes into it first. For example, between now and BlogHer, I’ll be working with a few small businesses on my own weird hybrid form of sponsorship. (The one I blathered about a couple of weeks ago.) And when I’m in Houston, I’ve volunteered to tweet about panels and to post twice a day on Friday and Saturday to share carefully assembled recaps, thoughts and interviews.
Which leads me, holy cow finally, to my point.
What do you stand for?
If you’re out here talking on the Internet for fun or for business or for a little of both, carefully consider what you’re willing to endorse. Consider who you stand for and what you stand for. Spend five minutes investigating a brand. Maybe you don’t care about high fructose corn syrup in kid’s foods. And maybe you do. Maybe you don’t care about the chemicals in big brand baby wash. And maybe you do. Whether you care or not, you need to be aware of what you’re promoting.
Value your voice. Value yourself. Don’t lend your voice to a brand’s cause unless it resonates with you. Don’t spread the word unless the words are your own.
I believe we can and should continue, as individuals and as a community, to establish these strange relationships with organizations and brands. Just don’t compromise your voice or your space. Approach professional relationships with respect for your identity and lots and lots of questions.
You owe it to your friends, your readers and yourself to know exactly what a brand’s messaging and motives are. People will disagree with you. People will question your choices. At the very least you should be able to stand by your words and your relationships.
It doesn’t matter if you have five readers or five thousand. Your voice is important. You are important. Don’t get taken advantage of, and don’t take advantage of those who are listening.
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