When it comes to online reviews, the benefit of using parenting bloggers is our commitment to honesty and transparency. That’s why it works – we write about our own personal experiences of using a product or service, and as we aren’t spokespersons for a particular company, we can be unbiased and impartial.
And parents talk to parents, so who better to tell you about a product or service that someone you know and can relate to? That’s the benefit of social media vs push marketing.
When writing product reviews I always try to keep the content balanced. If I like a product I’ll state my reasons why. Equally if I have reservations about it I’ll state my reasons for that too. Not all products will appeal to everyone and what one person likes, another might not; so there will always be an element of subjectivity.
So I’m disappointed today as I have a review post half written, complete with links and images, and I can’t finish it off and hit publish. I can’t publish it because there are aspects of the product I don’t like and I’ve been told I can’t mention that. So rather than an open and honest review which would have detailed all the aspects of the product I liked, contrasted with the aspects I did not, there is no review at all because I can’t just present one side of the story.
These situations are incredibly rare. In fact it has never happened before, but this isn’t how parenting blogging works, so I’m a little bit frustrated. Feedback that isn’t 100% positive, in all areas of life, if provided constructively can be hugely beneficial. As it happens, my little niggles about the product won’t affect anyone’s enjoyment of it and there’s no risk to human health or anything like that. I would not have been passing on any significantly important information that consumers needed to know.
But still.
