Who's Influencing Who?

Last week Radio 4 Women's Hour published its 'Power List'; 100 women, deemed by the judging panel (headed up by journalist Eve Pollard), to wield significant influence in British Society. Now, there has been a lot of debate about the inclusions and omissions of the List in the broadsheet newspapers, but in general, the idea of putting it together in the first place has been well-received. There were a smattering of women on the List from the world of the web and social media; Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com, and perhaps more interesting to us here on Pregnancy.co.uk, the founders of Mumsnet Carrie Longton and Justine Roberts, who were in the top ten. I personally wondered why there weren't more from this sphere on the List, given how much mums in this country rely on web-based advice and information - and as a place to shop for their kids!

Online Presence

In 2012 the broadband provider Plusnet surveyed over 3,000 mums and found that 8 out of 10 of them sought parenting information and advice online rather than asking their own families. Perhaps that's not a bad thing, as there are times when you might be encouraged to put your baby to sleep on his front, or put cereal in his evening bottle, by your mother or you aunt - I can hear Health Visitors taking sharp in-breaths across the country! But, our everyday use of the web, and the infiltration of social media such as facebook or Twitter makes it possible, through 'likes' and tiny URLs, for the far flung corners of the digital world to reach into our homes. People we will never meet are shaping our views, informing our choices, determining how we spend our money. When searching for information about something as important as how to care for our children, we must use all our powers of discernment to ensure that we are reading advice that can be trusted.

Lately, the routes I take to getting advice (or put another way, how I find what influences me) have changed. My writing career needs me to stay topical, and I have found that connecting to others via Twitter, facebook and blog-reading has me better informed, and ultimately, better prepared, for my work - and my parenting. Accessing these digital sources of information is rather like having a permanently switched-on research assistant; I am led to pieces in the traditional news media and digital sources alike, by others who have found it all for me. And there's more besides. What I didn't expect to uncover was the power that bloggers and tweeters possess to do good work in their own right. I'll give you a few examples. Tots100 is a blogger community website, and its founder Sally Whittle was recently invited to take a group of mummy bloggers to meet with Liz Truss Children's Minister to discuss the proposed changes to childcare ratios. You can read more about how they got on here. Three other mummy bloggers travelled to Ghana with Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall to visit projects that have been supported by Comic Relief, and one of them has written extensively about her experiences here. And when one established blogger's daughter was lost to cot death earlier this year, the blogging / tweeting community came together to both support the family, http://www.edspire.co.uk/ and raise money to the tune of £1687 (thus far) for the Bliss charity.

Mum Network on the Internet

Ultimately, Radio 4's decision to create the Power List aligned the programme with the zeitgeist; the very idea of assessing and measuring influence is very much 'of the moment'. Here at Mum Network we aren't using any sophisticated methods to establish the reach of our messages - yet! - but we are impressed by the power that mummy bloggers, tweeters and other social media soft-power-holders have. What we also know is that there is a plethora of baby care and child-rearing advice available online. We are operating in a tough market, and we will be measured, in part, by the quality of the advice and support we offer to mums seeking answers to burning questions. We also know that all this advice can quickly stray from 'being helpful' to 'overwhelming'. So we try to stay focused on what matters to you, and, in our blogs, to remain topical. In recent times we have written about proposed changes to the childcare ratios, our currently-pregnant princess, breastfeeding in public, and how, (ironically), mums are subject to information overload! And you could always use the comments section below to suggest further blog-topics or advice content. After all, it's our job to write what you want to read!

This article is a feature from the MUM.com Trusted Bloggers Club.

About the author

Leoarna Mathias

A writer who's beginning to write, claims my twitter bio. My specialist subjects include the parenting 'juggle', the 'help' we get from the policy makers, and what it means to be a mum in the 21st century. Nothing too adventurous then... Proud to lead the Trusted Blogger Club!

Click here to read my full biography.

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