Posts Tagged "BlogHer"

On August 5th, Child’s Play Communications is hosting Dinner’s On Us. Like our past social media events, the dinner, scheduled to take place in NYC the evening before BlogHer, is designed to be an intimate gathering of leading bloggers and a select list of top sponsors, which this year include Nickelodeon, Cuisinart, Baby Boom, Cold Stone Creamery, K’NEX, Hershey’s/Kraft, Giddy Up, Backyard Safari Outfitters/Zillionz, California Strawberry Commission and Toyota.

Most importantly, at Dinner’s On Us we are presenting the first annual Bloganthropy Awards, to recognize those who have used social media to help a worthy cause. The event will also feature drinks on the rooftop at a location convenient to BlogHer as well as a lovely meal.

SPACE IS LIMITED. If you have received an invitation and have not yet RSVPd, please do so now. If you have not received an invitation and would like to be on our waiting list, please send your name, the name of your blog and your contact information to childsplay@childsplaypr.com.

Dinner’s On Us will be a very special event, and we look forward to seeing you there!

On August 5th — the evening before BlogHer 2010 begins– Child’s Play Communications will host a more intimate gathering, Dinner’s On Us, where 100 leading mom bloggers and 10 sponsors can easily network and learn about what each has to offer the other. As an added attraction, the event will also feature the first annual Bloganthropy Awards, designed to recognize bloggers who have used social media to support good causes.

This will be Child’s Play Communications’ fourth major mom-blogger event. (Click here for information on our last one, the LA Bloggers Brunch.) The agency will treat blogger guests to an elegant and authentic NYC night out–drinks, with a view, on the terrace of a lovely location, followed by a great dinner buffet, the awards presentation and the opportunity to connect with fabulous sponsors interested in creating relationships. Sponsors to date include Nickelodeon, Toyota, Cuisinart, Giddy Up, K’NEX, Baby Boom, Hershey’s/Kraft, Backyard Safari Outfitters/Zillionz,  The California Strawberry Commission and Cold Stone Creamery.

Companies: For additional information,  contact Julie Livingston, (212) 488-2060 X 12, jl@childsplaypr.com.

Bloggers: We have a few spots left for guests. Because we want to give exposure to our sponsors, we are inviting moms who do product reviews to attend. If that describes you and you’re interested, please forward your name, blog name and contact information to childsplay@childsplaypr.com.

Dinner’s On Us will be a unique and exciting event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Holidays make me ambitious. It’s true: I have so little down time during the rest of the year, I can’t think beyond what absolutely needs to be done, right now, this instant, to make sure we’re on top of things for our clients. When I take a few days off, I actually have time to let my mind rest and wander, which is when I’m at my most creative. (Then and in the shower, of course.)  My key ambition this year: create a series of wonderful events to bring marketers and moms together. We’ve already held two successful Bloggers Brunches and a mommy blogger panel presentation in New York City, as well as a lovely Team Mom dinner in Chicago at BlogHer, among other events. Next month, for client Goddard School, we’re organizing an expo offering moms answers to everything they wanted to know about choosing a preschool  and highlighting hands-on participation by moms and kids alike in events such as yoga for three-year-olds and a toddler tea party designed to teach manners. Actually, we’re putting together our invitation list now, so: Anybody out there a Boston mom blogger or able to recommend one? And by the way, we have a big Los Angeles get-together on the horizon as well, so I’m sending out the word: LA mom bloggers, send me your contact info, you’ll enjoy this event!

What about you? The manufacturers and marketers among you, what brilliant ideas did you conceive for 2010 that you’d like to share with (OK, promote to) the mom readers of this blog? If they sound good, I’ll run them in the comments section of this post.

And moms — what about your goals and plans for this new decade? I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions — we’ve already heard the lose-10-pounds, be-a- better-person mantra. Instead, what are you feeling ambitious about in terms of your life, your blog, your work — and perhaps, what do you need from the companies reading this to make it easier for you to fulfill that goal? And while we’re at it, what would you like to see in a future blogger event?

For yesterday’s issue of Engage:Moms, I wrote an article about the growing trend of moms online to meet “live-and-in- person” offline. I thought I would share it with you, below.

Much has been said about the growing community of moms online. Far less has been noted about the fact that for many of these blogging, tweeting, Facebooking moms, their favorite activity of all is connecting offline – not virtually, but in person, or as they often call it, “IRL” (In Real Life). 

While the momosphere began as a way to communicate with other mothers across the country without ever leaving one’s home, more and more moms are indeed leaving their homes and often traveling long distances for the sole purpose of connecting in person with other moms they have “met” only online.

The overwhelming success of BlogHer — the largest conference for women bloggers in the U.S. – best illustrates this growing movement. Fifteen hundred moms from across the country car pooled, plane hopped, ticket begged — and tracked down sponsors to cover their expenses — to connect, in person, with women whom they knew only through reading their blogs, exchanging comments on posts, or communicating in 140-character bursts.

Why? I decided to ask some members of our Team Mom review network for their stories. My favorite response was from Candice Bloom of Mom Most Traveled. Candice traveled to the BlogHer conference in Chicago not from its suburbs or even, like some others, from as far away as the East or West Coast. Candice took a 30-hour flight from Vietnam, where she has been working since 2002 for a non-profit organization. She made the journey not to get a taste of home or to visit family, but specifically for the conference itself.

“We had decided not to visit home last summer because of financial issues. (But) For the conference, I packed up my two children and flew from Southeast Asia to Chicago. I left my husband behind in Asia and we were apart for 2 months.”

To make this BlogHer trip possible, “I worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices. We also reordered our lives so that we could have more freedom to spend money on things like blogging conferences. We moved into a smaller house so that the monthly rent would be cheaper, and we also went from two cars to one.”

The reasons: “I decided that blogging is really what I want to do. I want to ‘make it’ as a blogger!” As part of that, “I wanted to meet every one face to face. I wanted to meet my online friends and make new friends. I wanted to connect with PR professionals and other bloggers whom I admire. I think it gives you more credibility as an online presence. Also the shared memories of the experiences you had at the conference can bond you together. Kind of like being in a sorority (not that I was ever in one).”

“The internet is such a big place,” she continued, “it takes effort to make real connections.”

In response to this mom-blogger passion for connecting offline, mini versions of BlogHer are popping up all over – the Type A Mom Conference in Asheville in September, the Blogalicious event in Atlanta this month, and more. On Nov. 11 in New York City, Child’s Play Communications is hosting its second annual Bloggers Brunch, an opportunity for bloggers and sponsors to connect one: one in an intimate atmosphere. At last year’s event, dozens of mom bloggers met live and in person for the first time, talked about their lives and why they blog, drank a considerable number of mimosas, and had a terrific time.

Individual companies also understand the value these moms place on live meetings. Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee, among a growing list of others, have invited groups of bloggers to their headquarters or to special events. While the companies’ goal in those cases is to launch products or promote the brand, the appeal for the guests — along with recognition and an expense-paid trip — is largely having the chance to spend time with each other.

In recent years, the term “social” has undergone some redefinition. Once a description for a live event or an outgoing person, it became the nomenclature for what appeared to be the opposite — a virtual experience, where traditional “sociability” was tossed out the window. Now, it’s beginning to shift back — all of which suggests that one way or the other, moms will find a means to connect with each other.

Moms, how important do you think it is to meet other mom bloggers in person? Why? What have you done to make it happen?

Marketers, what programs have you created to bring moms together while promoting your brand?

Today, mommy bloggers are stars — even in the movies. Yesterday’s New York Daily News pegged a story about the growing power of moms who blog to the upcoming launch of the film Motherhood, in which Uma Thurman plays a mom who blogs about her life. I was tickled to be quoted in this story, alongside spokespeople for BlogHer, General Mills and Procter & Gamble. Although the reporter did refer to Child’s Play as an advertising agency — we’re not; our expertise is reaching moms through PR, social media and marketing communications — we enjoyed the article and thought you would too. Please see below.

 In Uma Thurman’s latest flick, “Motherhood,” out Oct. 23, she plays a frazzled West Village mom raising two kids and chronicling it all on her blog, “The Bjorn Identity.”

From the big screen to the laptop screen, mommy blogging is big business.

In the last five years, the number of moms taking to the Internet to vent about topics like dirty diapers and breast-feeding has grown exponentially.

In 2005, blog tracker Technorati estimated the number of parenting blogs at 8,500. Today, 42 million women participate in social media every week (including blogs, social networks and message boards) and more than half of them (23 million) are writing, reading or posting to blogs, according to a 2009 survey by BlogHer, a community of women bloggers.

“I have seen moms turn to their blog communities as the first place they go when they have some kind of issues with their kids,” says Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer.

“It’s wonderfully validating,” says Stone, “because it turns out there are some things you can discuss with your blog friends that you’re not going to bring up at the sandbox.”

Big companies and advertisers are taking note.

“Mommy bloggers are an important marketing vehicle for Pampers,” says Tricia Higgins, a spokeswoman for the Pampers brand at Procter & Gamble. “We read and follow what mom bloggers are saying very closely.”

The corporation General Mills has even created an online network to share information with influential mommy bloggers.

“At first, we began sending product samples for reviews to mom bloggers,” says Greg Zimprich, a public relations director at General Mills.

“Many bloggers were providing recommendations to others, offering useful information like coupon links or even doing giveaways on their sites,” said Zimprich. “Ultimately, this led to the creation of our own blogger network, which now has nearly 2,500 members.”

Moms on the Net have acquired such sway that Stephanie Azzarone, president of Child’s Play Communications, a 21-year-old New York-based advertising agency that exclusively targets moms, is convinced that companies must use the blogosphere to reach them.

“Studies have shown that moms no longer trust institutions or so-called experts. Instead, they trust other moms – even moms they’ve never met before – because the feeling is that these other moms are going through the exact same experience of parenting as they are, so they can understand and speak from their personal experience in a helpful way,” says Azzarone.

Such trust and influence can translate into dollar signs.

Heather Armstrong’s blog, Dooce.com, ranked by Nielsen Onlineas one of the “Power Pack” in the “digital world of mom,” is reportedly worth $40,000 a month in advertising revenues. And while most mommy bloggers aren’t raking in that kind of dough with their musings on motherhood, many have translated their Internet fame into more lucrative gigs in the real world.

“I get a lot of writing work based on my blog,” says Alice Bradley of Finslippy.com. “I make a living now from that.”

 

 The original story may be found here.