Interview With Beth Feldman

By Jennifer James

When a 20-year public relations veteran speaks, it’s often wise to listen. Beth Feldman, the PR pro behind RoleMommy.com and Beyond PR, is routinely tapped to connect brands with savvy digital mom bloggers. It is through her experience that she is able to help moms not only hone their blogging craft, but also become more attractive to brands.

Throughout the years as mom bloggers have stuttered into working with brands Feldman has been there along the way to help steer them in the right direction. Most recently, Feldman saw an urgent need to help moms differentiate between PR and marketing when she noticed recurring tweets from bloggers lamenting they were not getting compensated for product reviews. The comments on Feldman’s post showed the level of appreciation for her wisdom especially as many industry veterans and newcomers believe the relationship between brands and bloggers can be redefined weekly. “The main confusion is what is PR and what is marketing,” said Feldman. “I’ve been a publicist for 20 years. PR is a very murky world. We don’t pay for coverage. I give bloggers the tools they need to engage in a product or service.”

While Beth Feldman works in PR she also keeps her blogging chops sharpened as a writer for Lifetime Moms and syndicates articles on Associated Content where she is paid based on pageviews, a steady stream of passive income. Feldman, an accomplished author, also is readying for the launch of her latest book, See Mom Run, on Audible this summer.

For bloggers who are trying to raise their level of influence, Feldman recommends being mindful of their traffic and thinking in the long term. “You have to start somewhere,” Feldman added. “It’s all about discovery and putting yourself out there.”

Putting yourself out there is definitely Feldman's motto. At the Kaboom! playground build that she helped coordinate in Los Angeles in March, Feldman shared the day across multiple platforms by interviewing Justine Simmons on video, taping a podcast using Cinch, tweeting and creating a story on Whrrl, and writing about the event on Lifetime Moms and on her blog. Feldman believes the more moms share across platforms, the greater their level of influence.

Beth Feldman of Rolemommy.com and Beyond PR

When presented with the opportunity to review products Feldman recommends always posting reviews in a timely fashion and sending back the link. When bloggers RSVP for a local event, Feldman believes strongly in following through with that commitment to attend. Even though Feldman realizes things comes up, if she must cancel an event she still gives the event coverage on her blog. And, when Feldman seeks bloggers to work with she is very selective in her choices. “It’s not casting the net wide,” Feldman said. “It’s what blogger makes sense for my campaign.”

One of the reasons Beth Feldman has been able to successfully straddle the PR and mom blogging communities is she brings positivity to her work and encourages bloggers to throw aside the “why not me” attitude and embrace the “how am I going to do this” attitude. She also encourages bloggers to seek out pillars in the community who are not mean spirited. “Let’s build ourselves up,” Feldman suggests. “There are so many parent bloggers in the community. Ignore the noise and keep the positivity.”

At TripWitt.com, we understand moms well – we’re moms, too!