INTERVIEW : Carrie Longton (Mumsnet)

Ok, start from the beginning.  What is Mumsnet, how did it come about and what’s the goal? 

I met Justine, my fellow Mumsnet co-founder at ante
natal classes back in 1998 and we carried on meeting up with our group once the
children were born. Noone had any great ideas on where to take one year old
twins in October and when Justine returned from a disastrous holiday, the idea
for Mumsnet was born -namely pooling parenting know-how on the net. 

I’d already made the decision to take a break from
being a TV producer (for Clive James) when Justine asked me to join her, and
once I’d got over the initial hurdle of actually buying a computer and learning
how to use it, we trawled round the toddler groups of Islington and kicked off
with our first user generated review of pushchairs. We added a discussion forum
(www.mumsnet.com/Talk) and initially I would ask a question and Justine would
answer (and then we’d swap). We knew we were onto something when we asked a
question and someone else replied. Mumsnet Talk is now the heart of the site
receiving over 20 000 posts a day.  The goal has always been (and still is) to make parents’ lives easier by allowing them to share knowledge, advice and support.

How has Mumsnet changed since you started it in 2000? 

Well it’s certainly grown! It’s always been a fantastic community of
opinionated, educated and interesting people but that community has grown and
developed into a powerful and influential force. Mumsnet members are currently
being courted by all the political parties and some have even dubbed this the “Mumsnet
election”. The content on the site has also developed. We started with reviews
and Talk, but now have recipes, videos, blogs, editorial content, live
webchats, campaigns, books and newsletters as well as a thriving market
research arm.

Mumsnet has been known to pull to no punches and been
called all manner of names (with particular attention from the likes of The
Daily Mail) – do you think this is fair/warranted?  Do you court
controversial issues?  

Well pretty much everyone gets attention from the Daily
Mail, sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not so good. It’s frustrating when
it’s inaccurate or unfair, but it can also be positive. There was an article
recently for example backing our campaign “Let Girls Be Girls”, which is
encouraging retailers to sign up to a simple pledge that commits them to
selling only products that don’t sexualize children.

We’ve never deliberately courted controversy, but the
press often pick up on what is being discussed on the Mumsnet Discussion boards
(Mumsnet Talk) and we certainly don’t stifle debate. If you had to sum up
Mumsnetters in a word it would probably be opinionated – so it’s not that
surprising that controversy sometimes ensues.

Where would we all be without the Daily Mail?!  You’ve had some legal issues along the way too –
without going into details you can’t – what have you learned and what advice do
you have for others?

Well we’ve learnt that the libel laws haven’t really
caught up with the digital age. See our campaign for change to the libel laws
for the internet here http://www.mumsnet.com/gina-ford/libel-law.  As for advice? Well obviously you need to take libel
threats seriously, and get some up to date legal advice but not everything
someone claims is libelous is necessarily libelous.

Mumsnet and it’s impact on the election and political
parties has been in the news of late – explain the relationship/your position
as you see it and how will this change in the run-up to the election.

Well the politicians are interested in us for a few
reasons.  Firstly we’re big; with over a million users each
month, conducting a webchat on Mumsnet is a great way to reach a large number
of  potential voters quickly and
easily.

Women have been identified as potential floating
voters, so the fight is on to win them. The political parties also want to be
seen to be engaging with social network sites – it makes them look modern/ up
to date -  and Mumsnet’s ideal for
doing that.  Plus Mumsnetters, as I keep saying, are an
opinionated and educated lot, and I guess political parties think if they can
persuade one Mumsnetter, then she might persuade a few others.

Ok, enough of the media and politcos!  What about us pros?  What’s the relationship like? 

We have excellent relationships with a large number
of PR companies. Quite a few of them have invited us in to do a lunchtime
presentation to account managers about what Mumsnet can offer. If you haven’t
yet found out how your clients can engage with the Mumsnet audience, do feel
free to invite us in.

We don’t carry straight editorial so coming to us
with a press release with a survey conducted elsewhere and no budget isn’t
going to get you anywhere on Mumsnet. But we conduct lots of market research
for PR purposes, both surveys, product tests and focus groups, so the message
is come to us early in your campaign planning and we’d be delighted to
brainstorm and come up with creative ideas to engage Mumsnetters.

Any no-no’s?

Whatever you do don’t go for the cutest celebrity
baby smile / best celeb mum angle, mumsnetters hate it!  Inviting Mumsnetters to test products or just offer
opinions/feedback on our forums is a great way to engage.

Duly noted.  It seems the UK is catching up with the US in terms
of Mummy bloggers/blogging.  How do you see the advent of Twitter and new
services changing what you do?  Do you? 

Twitter is a great way of reaching
an even bigger audience and spreading the Mumsnet word as well as tapping in to
what other folks are doing. It won’t change what we do, but it has already
changed how we reach a whole new audience.

Tell me three things about Mumsnet you’ve never told anyone
else.

One of our goals is to be as open and transparent as
possible with Mumsnetters and indeed anyone else who asks us about the site. We
consult mumsnetters on everything from advertising policy to site design – and
as for everyone else well I think we’ve ‘fessed up everything in the press
already.