Who Said A Baby Starts Out With No Social Networking Skills?

by Kelly Wheeler

I have always had issues with baby books. My sister has many of them, painstakingly documenting everything from her very first nappy change to the time she stuck a pea up her nose. Me, not so much - not even my own dedicated photo album. I have however suitably gotten over the perils of being the second child and have fallen in love with the newest additions to our family – my sister’s twins. The photos that adorn my desk in the QuirkStation are nauseating to say the least and the worst part of it is – I am not even embarrassed. So, as most of the QuirkStars have an inkling about my mild baby obsession, it was no surprise when our resident blogger Kat generously relinquished this link to me.

TotSpot

TotSpot. What can I say? This site is awesome. And by awesome I mean by my sister’s ‘Matt sort of pointed at the teddy and could’ve possibly said “er” for bear!’ standards. As one comment on TechCrunch reads – “I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.” So be warned, it’s not for everyone.

TotSpot was founded in New York in January and went into private Beta in February. Thanks to Google, this means you need to sign up on their Home page to request an email invitation to join the site. TotSpot works in a similar vein to any other social networking sites - there’s a profile page, you can add friends, status updates and even leave a message on the wall. It is designed for parents with kids under the age of four and acts as an online baby book – letting you record every first from your baby rolling over to the first time your child writes their own name. The great thing about TotSpot for parents is that it is completely private. No limited profile lists or blocks, you simply invite who you want to share in your baby’s milestones, and those are the only people who can. Period.

TotSpot is also incredibly easy to use and co-creator Adam Katz even goes so far as to claim that it is the “easiest publishing platform on the internet”. And I think he might be right. To add in information all you need to do is fill in the boxes. You don’t even have to type “Matt crawled on such and such a date” – TotSpot does it for you – just fill in the blanks.

But Is It Viable?

Let's face it, since Facebook nothing is ever going to blow our minds in quite the same way again, so forgive us for being blasé. TotSpot only allows you to add information up until your child turn four years old, meaning that the site constantly needs to renew its client base to stay afloat. Since its launch at the beginning of this year, however, TotSpot has had a steady increase of members, peaking at over 14 thousand in March and are currently in talks with substantial venture capitalist investors, implying that the site is here to stay.

But people are still sceptical and I mean really, how many people really care when precious cut his first tooth? Apparently a lot. A recent Gallop study quoted at the third annual Marketing to Moms conference in 2007 found that a mammoth 21.2 million moms are online in the US alone, with 95% of them claiming to surf the Web at least once a day. These moms use the Internet for everything from advice to product research and support from other parents, meaning that TotSpot not only has a market, but a massive one.

Families are also increasingly scattered around the world and TotSpot gives them a chance to keep updated with their grandkids, nieces, nephews and even their own children. Mom’s are also pretty busy people, and like mine, seem to forget about keeping the traditional baby book. This is a record that kids can keep forever and in a medium that they not only understand but can relate to. Any invited members can add anecdotes and comments on TotSpot, creating an online memory bank that many of us, not privileged enough to be born into this digital age, wish we had.

For now, TotSpot also has very little competition. Sites like Maya’s Mom, BabySpot.com and bundlo are all excellent ways to document your baby’s life online, but very few of these combine all the successful features of MySpace, Facebook and Flickr so neatly into such an easy to use interface that TotSpot does. And one of the best features that only TotSpot offers is the option to order your child’s baby book. Coming at the end of the American summer, for a small fee, TotSpot will compile all your information and photos into a quality baby book, giving you the best of both worlds.

So move over tech gurus and tongue-in-cheek bloggers, the Moms are here and they are taking over the World Wide Web, one baby milestone at a time.

2008/06/09 | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

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Recent Comments

Kat on Engaging as a Company

I agree with you. There are some things that should ideally not be discussed by an employee in the public sphere.
Would a communications policy have stopped the said journo from speaking out? He/she must have known a huge risk was being taken? I suppose it's also an incredibly difficult thing to predict. The lack of control can be alarming.
I'm definitely interested in seeing a more specific list, so if you find it do share.
Thank you for your comments :). Here's hoping there's a good coffee shop close to you..
vincent on Engaging as a Company

I guess the mark of a well crafted brand starts at HR policy for new recruits - ensuring that they fit the brand's/corporate's persona. So in that sense yes you could argue that left to their own devices employees would, regardless of an online communications policy, communicate in a style the sponsor would approve of. Not sure if that's always the case but I'm inclined to agree with this generalization.
I think what is also important is that the individual writing within the bounds of a sponsor's site does so in a restricted locale. You can police your own domain if you're a corporate, you can't necessarily control the individuals mouth outside of it. For instance on twitter, personal blogs and forums. Owing to the nature of niche stardom you could argue that the employee comes to represent the brand, more so than that personifies the brand in organic conversation with consumers and would carry significant weight both within corporate sites and externally. Making some individuals very wary to write for their companies at all.
For instance in our not too distant past a prominent journo got the boot for publishing his gripes with his employers and their professional ability - he was promptly fired...He would no doubt have been policed on a company blog but owing to the fact that he chose to represent the company elsewhere he took his brand and the papers brand with him - dragging both through the mud as traipsed on towards epic-failuredom...
So to come back to a point, there is definitely a sense that the policies as listed above are quite ambiguous. Even you yourself suggest that requisite legalese is absent, and I have to assume that such legalese would include a fairly long list of do's and dont's. I have a list somewhere laying about which dictates in a very bland corporate fashion how to represent the brand in public - if I find it I will share it with you.
Perhaps its worthwhile to enforce points like "don't tell secrets" and my own favourite, "for the love of god don't gripe about the boss who you've publicly named online"...
That's my mental-riff for the day, I'm afraid I veered rather uncharitably off course but such is the nature of thought.
Now if only the company I worked for had some decent coffee!!
Kat on Engaging as a Company

Transparency is a key issue - as is allowing people to carve their own niche.
My thinking is that people engage with a personality - an individual personality - in conversation more than with a collective. It's just easier. A company personality surely reflects the people who work there as well as a crafted (constructed?) image that the stakeholders choose to present. While you want engagement it's not the same as speaking to an individual.
There are definite risks involved - but I would lean towards allowing people to carve a niche.
vincent on Engaging as a Company

Couldn't have said it better. Nice post, it is most certainly something corporates are going to struggle with. How much transparency is too much? Who should be allowed to represent a brand and to what extent should the individual be given the opportunity to carve their own niche rather than extol the virtues of the mother - brand?
Who knows. We shall soon see as this year pans out and we find out how the big media players tackle the rise of the cost effective digital media channel.
Kat on Engaging as a Company

It is a tough issue, and I can understand why you've never published. I would encourage you to do so though - you probably have a feeling for when your writing reflects your voice and when it doesn't - and the rewards are worth it.
Thanks for reading Wendy. :)

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Who Said A Baby Starts Out With No Social Networking Skills?

by Kelly Wheeler

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