26 November 2013: The overwhelming majority of UK parent bloggers want to work with brands, but poor communications – including unethical requests – is an ongoing problem, according to the annual Tots100 Parent Blogger Benchmark Survey.
There is significant potential for PRs and brands among the UK parent blogger community, the survey of more than 1,500 bloggers found:
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• 90% of UK parent bloggers want to work with brands
• 70% of bloggers are making money from their blog
• 38% publish ‘sponsored’ content on their sites
• 25% host advertising on their blogs
Despite clear guidance from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that paid-for blog posts have to be disclosed as such, 47% of UK parent bloggers said they had received unethical requests from a brand, SEO or PR agency in the last year.
Despite ASA guidance that paid-for blog posts have to be disclosed, 47% of blogs received unethical requests from a brand in the last year.
One blogger, Angie Booth, told Tots100: “I was asked recently to remove a disclosure statement from a blog post. When I said it had to be there and sent a link explaining why, I was offered more money to remove it for a month. I refused, and never heard from the agency again.”
Another, Rachel Healy, said: “I’ve often been offered double my usual rate on condition that I don’t disclose that I’ve been paid to publish the post.”
Sally Whittle, founder of Tots100, said: “Asking people to do something unethical is clearly unprofessional. Working in partnership with blogs to create ethical, authentic content will ultimately build stronger, more sustainable relationships. The UK parent blogger community is a thriving and vibrant place, made up of committed writers and avid readers. Not only do they represent a great body of people for brands to connect with, they are eager to do so.”
Use of social media is high among UK parent bloggers, too.
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• 87% use Twitter
• 83% use Facebook
• 57% use Pinterest
Twitter is the most widely used social network by bloggers, with 20% of bloggers having more than 3,000 followers. The new Google+ network gets mixed feedback from UK parent bloggers. Although 59% have an account, 36% of these users have no followers there.
The majority (92%) of parent bloggers are female and although that’s the label preferred by 34% of them, 29% are happy enough being called a ‘mummy blogger.’
For brands and their agencies to get the best out of working with bloggers, they need to improve the way they communicate, Sally Whittle explained. “43% of the people we spoke to get sent information that simply isn’t relevant to them, and 27% say they often feel they get stalked by PR agencies asking when they can expect to see coverage. It’s time for brands to get smarter, and more targeted when they approach parent blogs.”
The Tots100 survey canvassed the opinions of more than 1,500 UK parent bloggers, asking them about working with brands, their use of social media and their experiences of PR-led blogger outreach programmes.
Kaynak : 