You read that right. Bloggers need to stop promoting each other. But don’t worry, as with most statements, there are some caveats.

Let’s start with the why.

Way back when, in the early days of my blogging career (circa 2009), I stumbled onto the blogging scene. I was a newbie to the extreme not really even knowing that there was a whole community surrounding the world of bloggers.

I remember receiving the first comment on my blog from someone I didn’t know. I went through the same emotions many bloggers do early on in their career:

How did they find me?

What compelled them to leave me a comment?

Should I comment on their blog?

How do I keep them coming back?

Frankly, it was all about relationship building. I might read something I like and share it with my friends. I might visit someone else’s blog who visited mine and leave a comment for them. Or I might attend a Bloggy Boot Camp and find out that there are real people behind all of these online blogs. These real people became real friends and reading their blog was like checking in on them on a regular basis.

But that’s all changed. Or at least, it seems that it has.

Not to put the blame on Triberr but I think a lot of the relationship building ending around the time that Triberr really catalyzed the idea of link sharing. Triberr was meant to be a group of like-minded content creators interested in sharing each other’s content to audiences of similar interests. Instead, it evolved (very quickly) into hundreds of bloggers in many, many groups resulting in a Twitter feed of nothing but link sharing.

Triberr certainly wasn’t the first to come up with this idea. They simply automated it.

I participate in many Facebook groups of bloggers who believe in promoting each other’s content. Whatever it is. Share it on Facebook, pin it on Pinterest, tweet it on Twitter. And the members perform the obligatory tasks knowing the same will be done for them. And it goes beyond the basics as well. There are groups just for pinning or for stumbling or for Klout or for Alexa rankings. Everyone’s trying to game the system and I can’t say that I blame them.

I have to imagine that it works for many bloggers. By the sheer volume of distribution, I would imagine that there is a increase in traffic, which perhaps makes it all worthwhile for them.

But here’s why I recommended against it.

Bloggers have lost a lot of their authenticity and credibility. Now, I don’t mean as writers. That a whole separate topic when it comes to writing with/for/about brands. I’m talking about a blogger’s opinion.

When I tweet a link on Twitter, it’s because I’ve read it, I like it, and feel it’s worth sharing with my followers. The end.

When I share a link on Facebook, it’s because I’ve read it, I like it, and feel it’s worth sharing with my friends. The end.

When I pin something on Pinterest, it’s because I think it’s cool. The end.

Call me old-fashioned but that’s how I think things should still be done. Let me give you some examples of what I consider the right way and the wrong way.

Now, I have nothing against @richiekawamoto (I don’t actually even follow him) but if you look at his timeline of tweets, you’ll see something like this:

Based on Richie’s bio, he focuses on strategic marketing and PR for brands. It makes sense that he wants to share content that is relevant to his field and his audience. But what he’s lacking is his endorsement of the content. These days, a retweet DOES NOT equal an endorsement and people will even tell you so! I want to know why Richie thinks we need to read this content. What he found interesting or compelling.

Let me show you some examples that strike my fancy:

Modern Luxury | Houston | The Write Stuff modernluxury.com/houston/story/… <– Congrats to my friend @jaymelamm on the coverage (pretty pics too)!

— Stacey E. Burke (@StaceyEBurke) April 2, 2013

I don’t follow Stacey but I do follow @jaymelamm who retweeted this. She tweeted a link and then added a comment and a link to her friend, making this tweet personally relevant and appealing.

Here’s another one:

Scientists reportedly discover gate to hell news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow… via @yahoonews – Great place to film a #horrormovie

— Carolyn Gonzalez (@carogonza) April 3, 2013

Carolyn tweeted out a link from a Yahoo story and added her own commentary. And it certainly caught my eye (humor always does).

However you choose to format it, when you’re sharing content on Twitter or Facebook, add your thoughts and opinions and tell your audience why you read something, what you liked about it, and why they might like to read it too. If you are linking to support a fellow blogger, those few words will carry your share so much further.

Finally, I’m not here to say we should never share each other’s content. If you have a “tribe” of 5 to 10 bloggers and you all read each other’s blogs and really want to help each other out, by all means, do it! But take the time to share with purpose and give it a proper endorsement.

This post has been brewing in my head for quite some time but really came to light last night when a Twitter friend “shouted” out amidst all the Twitter parties and links being shared:

I remember when #twitter was all like talking to your neighbor over the backyard fence, from across the country.

— Sierra Rix (@SierraMRix) April 3, 2013

Now it’s all talking to the brands of “stuff” through the mouths of people I like/liked. Boo. Free market stole the grownup sandbox.

— Sierra Rix (@SierraMRix) April 3, 2013

What do you think? Have we lost true and authentic communications? Do endorsements mean anything to you anymore or is it all about the numbers? Weigh in!

I joined Twitter back in 2008. I wear that like a badge of honor that indicates that I, for once, was an early adopter.

The fact of the matter is that while I joined at an early date, I didn’t really get Twitter until I started using it in earnest in 2009. And then a love affair began. It clicked with me and I got it. I slowly built my following the old-fashioned way. I’d log in, jump into random conversations, and make friends.

I’ve been doing it that way for years but things on Twitter have changed. A big shift started when Triberr came along to automate what a lot of people had already started doing: link sharing.

I love the idea of an online community, or a tribe, that jives with you. You want to support each other and promote each other’s online work. I love to share things that I read because it’s struck a nerve with me in some way. And I believe that authentic endorsements are what really matter to people.

As a result of the massive link sharing, I’ve found myself logging into Twitter less and less. I’ve started spending more and more time on Facebook. Now I love both platforms but Facebook is what I consider a timesuck. It can easily take me down a rabbit hole that usually takes me at least an hour to climb back out of. I want to fall back in love with Twitter. So I decided to make some changes.

Last week, I took a look at my Twitter profile. While I’ve amassed over 8000 followers (the exact number goes up and down on a daily basis), I also followed over 4500 people.

Admittedly, that’s a lot of people to keep up with. I’ve never minded the large number because I’m not the type to log in and catch up on every single tweet. I’m a slice-of-life kind of gal and appreciate reading about what’s going in the moment with the people online in that moment.

But again, I’d review my timeline and see link after link for giveaways and posts that were really of no interest to me. So I’d pull up someone’s profile and look at their tweeting history. No personal engagement, no replies. Just links and retweets. So I unfollowed them.

For a brief moment, I felt guilty. They had chosen to follow me and I had reciprocated and now I felt like I was dumping them without even telling them. But then I felt something else. I felt relief. And I felt a little bit lighter. So I started checking a few other profiles and did the same thing.

Then I decided I needed to dig a little deeper and I enlisted the help of two of my favorite Twitter management tools.

ManageFlitter is my absolute favorite tool. It doesn’t take long to run, puts people in easy to understand buckets, and makes it super easy to unfollow someone if that’s something you choose to do.

The results are returned with followers grouped by:

• Those not following back (which is sometimes totally okay).
• Those with no profile image (aka “eggheads”)
• Those considered spam accounts
• Those who don’t speak English
• Those with a high ratio of followers to following (I call them the Collectors)
• Those who are inactive (usually haven’t tweeted in over 30 days)
• Those that tweet constantly (what’s wrong with that?)
• And those who rarely tweet

You can work through the list and get a snapshot of each person before you decide if you want to take action:

As a result of my ManageFlitter run, I got rid of about 500 people that I consider “dead weight.” And I suddenly started feeling lighter. So I didn’t stop there.

I was reminded of another tool I used to use called TwitCleaner.

Like ManageFlitter, it’s a tool meant to help you manage the quality of the people you follow on Twitter. While similar to ManageFlitter, it uses different categories to help you find the people that might just be clogging up your feed.

While TwitCleaner has some overlaps with ManageFlitter, it drills down into the following types of groups:

• Those that use too many @s in one tweet too often. You’ll find a lot of these on Follow Friday.
• Those people that tweet nothing but links.
• Those people that tweet the same link over and over
• Those that tweet the same tweet over and over
• Those that are responsible for a lot of app spam (like Foursquare check-ins, GetGlue check-ins)
• Those that do advertisements and sponsored tweets
• Those that are inactive
• Those that don’t ever interact with their followers
• Those that only retweet (no original intent)
• Those that only ever talk about themselves

Again, you can pick and choose. I don’t expect celebrities to follow me back and most of them don’t interact with their users. But I had to even cut some of them loose. The novelty of following a celebrity has worn off for me.

Once you review your list, you can simply click on those you want to unfollow and, unlike ManageFlitter that unfollows all at once, TwitCleaner will slowly unfollow those you selected.

When my cleaning was all said and done, I had dropped about 1000 people I was following.

Did I still feel a little guilty? Of course, I did. That’s just my nature. So I put a little disclaimer out there.

Let me just put it out there: I’m cleaning up a lot of my “following” list on Twitter. It’s not personal and I may have made some mistakes.

— Fadra Nally (@allthingsfadra) November 12, 2012

I’ve noticed that my following has gone down as well. Perhaps some of the people I unfollowed returned the favor. But I never ever keep track of who comes and goes. That’s one form of mental torture I don’t need.

Let’s get something straight. There is no correct way to spell “blogoversary.”

You’ll see it as blogoversary (my preferred spelling), blogiversary (like anniversary), or blogaversary.

But let’s face it. It’s a made up word.

Does that make it a made up celebration? Of course. But here are a few reasons I think you should pause every year to celebrate the anniversary of your blog launch.

1. It’s a celebration!

You’ve just created an entire year of content. Or perhaps another year of content. That’s something to be proud of. You have, in essence, created a permanent mark on the fabric of cyberspace.

2. It’s a memory book.

Not only did you create a year of content but if you are a true writer, you’ve created a bit of an online diary. If you are a personal blogger, you have have captured moments in your life as they happened. If you are a business blogger, you’ve just created a professional portfolio of things that mattered to you over the past year.

3. It’s a time for reflection.

What sparked this post today is not only my own blogoversary (that I recently recognized for the first time in 3 years) but the blogiversary post by Ann Imig at Ann’s Rants. She chose to write a post to herself, the Ann of 2008, from the Ann of 2012. Great perspective and inspirational not only to others but probably to herself as well.

4. It’s a time for appreciation.

Hats off to bloggers who write for the sake of writing. Most of us want to be read. We want people to visit and interact and comment. We want to know that our words means something. So a blogoversary is a day to say thank you for your loyal readers and the random stumblers and everyone in between.

5. It’s a time to give back.

It is a celebration, after all. Many bloggers choose to throw themselves a party and the party favors can be quite nice. Some plan elaborate giveaways simply as a way of celebrating and showing appreciation for their readers.

Even if you choose not to publicly acknowledge your blogoversary, I encourage to privately celebrate your accomplishments and look at your blog with fresh eyes. You’ve come a long way and there are still many more miles to go.

I should know better. I read bad pitches on a daily basis. Most I casually discard because they are so poorly written or completely irrelevant to me. But I do usually read them.

I do a quick scan for the following:

• What product or brand is this pitch for?
• Who is contacting me on behalf of this product or brand?
• Is it more than just a press release?
• Is there anything of value being offered to me? (and by value, I don’t consider content “that I thought you might like to share with your readers”)
• How did they get my name?

Now, I don’t mind blind pitches. I put my contact information on my website so that people can contact me. I just have faith in humankind that they’ll recognize that my time is valuable and only send me relevant information. Note: My faith is quickly waning.

And while I have done a Pitch of the Week in a while, it’s not for lack of material. It’s just that there’s really nothing new to learn. Bad pitches are the norm and the good pitches are actually standing out high and above the others. I just hope they don’t get lost in the mire.

When I started doing this feature, I made it a point to keep the pitch providers anonymous. I wasn’t out to make anyone look bad. I was simply out to educate bloggers and marketers alike on how to best approach a pitch.

This week, I’m breaking all the rules because I was cheated.

On September 18th, I received a pitch from a company called BuildASign.com. It caught my eye because it was personalized, visually appealing, well-written, and had a specific ask and give.

I looked at their promotion. The “Vote” sticker was only 99 cents and I thought I could put together something cute. It was fun and quirky and thought it might be a fun thing to share on my Facebook page. Also, I looked at their sister site Printcopia.com and thought it had some pretty cool stuff.

So I wrote back right after I placed my 99 cent order and got no response. Perhaps if this was a successful campaign, Brendon was being flooded with responses. Good for him! So I wrote back. And then I wrote back again, giving a specific deadline for a response.

Still no response.

So now I’m stuck with a cute little 99 cent sticker. And I feel a bit foolish for believing that a company would actually be true to its words. Bait and switch? Poor planning? Intentional deception?

I call it poor judgment on my part. Do as I say, not as I do, please.

And if you want to make me feel better, vote for my dog Roscoe on Election Day. He’s actually pretty easy going and loves everyone.

—

UPDATE: I believe the way a company responds to its errors is just as important as the error itself. Shortly after I published this post, I received an email from BuildASign.com:

Hi Fedra,

I just got saw your post on Social Dialect. My name is Joe – I’m the guy behind the Vote stickers. I would like to sincerely apologize for our failure to respond – your messages were hitting Brendon’s spam filter.

We really appreciate your participation in our VOTE campaign, and hope that you’ll give us the opportunity to follow through on our promise, despite the unintentional delay. If you follow the link below you can claim a free 16×20 canvas with free shipping from Printcopia.

(link deleted)

My apologies, again. Please let me know if you have any questions or further issues and I’ll be sure to address them immediately.

Thank you,

–
Joe Massengill 

BuildASign.com, Project Manager

As I celebrated my third “blogoversary” this week, or the third anniversary of my very first post on my personal blog I took a little time to go back and read some of my early posts and reflect on how much I’ve learned in those three short years.

I must admit that I’m not offended by my writing. In fact, I feel proud of the fact that my style and topics haven’t changed too much in the past three years. I was expecting to be horrified by my early writing but I have to admit, it’s not half bad.

But there was something that offended me. It was a post I wrote called “Have I sold out already?” The wording was a little tongue in cheek because I did feel a little apprehension about writing for a contest about refrigerators. But I was so young (well, three years younger) and naive and thought it was a really neat idea.

“So today, I’ve just discovered something new. If you are a blogger, get ready to roll your eyes and say “come ON.” I’ve discovered blogging contests. I saw one that could win me a free Samsung fridge. What fascinates me, from a social media and marketing perspective, is the absolutely free promotion Samsung will get from this contest. The only blog requirements are that you share 3 tips for shortening the dinner preparation cycle.”

At least I can say that I understood the reasoning behind it. I write about Product X, they get free promotion and SEO, and I get a chance to win a new refrigerator – all for writing a simple little post!

If you’re new to the blogging world, you might be tempted to take advantage of the same type of thing. And I don’t blame you. But I will caution you.

When you decide to wear the hat “blogger,” you become a representative of a large body of mostly independent writers. Some write purely for the joy of writing. But many people are doing their very best to create a career path in blogging. That means creating a platform for generating revenue.

Generally speaking, the revenue can come directly from a blog for ad space, affiliate links, sponsored posts, or simply as a platform for selling something (crafts, services, ebooks, etc.). Where it gets tricky is determining how much each of those things is worth to you as a blogger.

If I had to put some criteria on determining your online worth, I’d look at things like traffic (unique visitors, page views, average time on site), engagement (on your Facebook page, through your comments), and probably influence (think Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and blog subscribers).

So let’s say you’re new and you don’t have a lot to offer in any of those categories of criteria. What do you do?

You work on it.

Everyone wants a foot in the door but taking offers before you and your blog is ready can hurt everyone in the long run. Here’s why.

When bloggers work for free (which I’ll clarify in a minute), it maintains the perception that many of us are just housewives sitting home hoping to earn a little fun money for girls night out. When you choose to work for a brand for free, you are saying that your time is not worth compensating. And for those bloggers that do charge, it makes their cases a lot less compelling.

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Most of the successful bloggers I know are businesswomen. They are building empires. They are making money.

But that’s not me, you say. You have to start somewhere!

Here’s a newsflash: It’s not me either. But I’m working on it.

I’ve made a few hard and fast rules about blogging and compensation that I urge you to consider and adopt where appropriate:

• Remember that you are not “just a blogger.” You are a content creator. What you provide to brands is the whole package: your skills, your talent, your audience. Sometimes, your video and photography skills. Sometimes, your creative writing and thinking. You make them look good. They should appreciate that.

• Don’t ask for compensation for a review. It not only taints your view of the product in the eyes of your readers, but it probably taints your own opinion as well. While some bloggers charge an “administrative fee” for their time for a review or for giveaways, this is not a policy I subscribe to.

• If the product for review isn’t compensation enough for your time and energy in creating content, don’t accept the review.

• Stay away from blogging contests. Yes, I’ve clearly fallen into that trap many times. And almost every single time I was away disillusioned and disheartened. No one should have to work for the chance to be paid so don’t work for a chance at a gift card. It’s just silly and you’re worth more than that.

• Be willing to work without compensation if it helps you build a relationship for future business. Many big firms want to work with the same bloggers over and over again because they know they are honest and reliable and will do a good job. This doesn’t mean work for Kellogg’s for free. It means consider a strong offer from Weber Shandwick if a job might gain you some much needed visibility with them. PR companies work with people they like!

• Be flexible and creative when it comes to paid opportunities. Many small companies will reach out to you directly but really have no clue how blogger outreach should work. Take the time to educate them and suggest ways to work together that would be within their budget. They appreciate it and you’ve created the possibility of a long term relationship.

• Work with blogger-specific agencies. There are so many great organizations outside of traditional PR that really serve as blogger advocates. Check out some of the best agencies to help you get paid blogging work.

• Give back! While you have time, space, and energy, lend your voice to a cause that you care about! Write your thoughts on a topic, help promote a fundraiser, donate ad space on your blog. And if you don’t know where to get started, visit my site Charitable Influence for a little inspiration.

Every time a top 100 Blogger List come out, I find a problem with it. And no, it’s not that I’m not on it. The problem is that they are subjective and subjectivity reigns supreme in the blogosphere.

Looking at tools like Klout or PeerIndex, everyone is trying to assign a score. They are trying to determine how to measure a blogger’s influence, and even worth, in the online space. So far, the results have been mixed. Klout has changed its algorithm several times and still provides a rather gray explanation of exactly how scores are determined:

“Klout measures influence online using data from your social networks. Anywhere you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, comments and more. The more engagement your posts receive, the more influential you are. Klout uses this information to provide you a Klout Score that measures your overall influence.” – Klout.com

How are likes, retweets, and comments measured? Is that really an indication of engagement? Or is it often simply amplification? Is there a difference? While I can appreciate the need for marketers and data crunchers to have a way to classify and organize online influencers, I haven’t yet seen the value that Klout is truly providing, except for silly comparisons between bloggers.

A score, however arbitrary, is still a measure. Everyone ranks somewhere, somehow. We may not like the ranking but we’re at least acknowledged for participating in the online space. The blogger lists are a little different. There are no algorithms. These are opinion polls.

The most prominent list out there in the mom blogging space is the Babble Top 100 Mom Blogs. The list grew from 50 in 2010 to 100 in 2011, a clear nod at the increase in bloggers in the space as well as the quality of the bloggers rising to the top. The process for determining the list changed as well:

“Our process evolved as well, drawing not only the recommendations of our panel, but also paying close attention to all of your nominees from last year. We rely on all of you to help us hear of the up-and-comers, the new debuts, and any other great blogger that isn’t already on our radar.” – Babble.com

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the link to the panelists was broken. But clearly, they are more in tune with the need for a crowd sourced list.

Then there are the other lists. Like the Global Top 100 Mommy Bloggers to Treat and Pamper of 2012.

This one has had a lot of discussion around it this week, mostly negative. While it was an entertaining read, it was one that offended many of these “mommy bloggers.” The author spouted some statistics once again proving the consumer power and influence of the American woman (I don’t actually think any of the bloggers on the list were outside of the United States, despite the “Global” tag used in the header).

Correction: I did see some of my favorite Canadians on the list.

But the offense was at the suggestion that bloggers are a cheap, if not free, channel of marketing and public relations for your company, a misnomer that many bloggers are fighting hard to correct. If I’m not mistaken, the author has since changed a lot of the text of the article since it was originally published to distinguish between amateur and professional bloggers. I call that backpedaling.

His recommended blogger strategies, however, weren’t what got me thinking about lists gone wrong. It was pretty much everything else.

Here’s what’s wrong with his list that should raise red flags before anyone offers congratulations and thanks.

1. Bad grammar

Incorrect or missing capitalization. Missing or misplaced apostrophes. Spelling errors. A professional list is professionally written and usually edited.

2. No methodology stated

So where’d you get these names? And why are they considered the top?  If it’s simply your opinion, that should be stated. And it should also be stated why your opinion matters on this subject (professionally speaking, of course). Based on the descriptors for each blogger, it’s assumed that this list is based off of Twitter in some way, shape, or form.

3. Inconsistent criteria

To recognize mom bloggers, they generally should fall into two categories:

They are moms.

They are bloggers.

Many of the people on the list are not moms, nor have they ever been moms. Perhaps it’s time to simply recognize women bloggers instead of letting their reproductive status define their blogging. Also, while sites like Babycenter, ModernMom.com, The SITS Girls all feature talented bloggers, this list is intended to focus on the individual blogger and not collaborative sites.

4. Bad math

This was absolutely my favorite part that no one else seemed to pick up on. A Top 100 list is generally assumed to include, well, 100 people. This list included 276 bloggers. If I do the math, that’s about 176 more than there should be. And I’m not just saying that because I’m number 217 on the list.

5. Questionable credibility

I’m not here to put down Robert Kim, the author of the post. I’ve read some of his posts. I watched some of his videos. He seems like a nice guy. He seems relatively intelligent. But he’s all about quick and easy traffic, and most likely, money. He knows how to create a talked about post (case in point). He knows how to drive traffic. He did a similar list for Event Management Companies and Event Planners.

But his blog has been active since June 2012 and when he’s not promoting his “viral posts” he’s hawking tea samples on his Twitter account. Nice try, Bob, but even this tea lover is not buying into your list.

What are your general thoughts on blogging lists? Do they have any validity out there for bloggers or brands? Do you only find them objectionable when you aren’t included? Let’s talk.

It’s been over a week since I returned from NYC, home of this year’s BlogHer conference. I pondered over the experience from a personal blogging standpoint. I wrote about it three time over (see my BlogHer12 posts on my personal blog). I loved it. I hated it. But I shall return next year for the conference in Chicago. But not before I have my say from a professional standpoint.

With an audience of close to 5000 women, brands had a unique opportunity to connect with social media influencers and household influencers alike. The conference was the largest it’s ever been but the attendee list was a bit different this year. It seemed to be riddled with women who, frankly, think blogging is a neat idea but haven’t even started one of their own. Others blatantly asked questions in sessions about how long it takes to become popular and earns lots of money at blogging. (By the way, if anyone know the answer, please let me know).

With the extremely wide range of experience in blogging and social media represented by the attendees, brands certainly had their work cut out for them. As I personally interacted with brands, I was looking out for a couple of things:

• Who was representing the brand (brand personnel vs. agency staffing)
• How the brand was interacting with bloggers
• How the brand answered the question, “How do you work with bloggers?”
• The lasting impression the brand had as a result of their participation in the conference

As expected, many of the larger brands were represented by reps from PR agencies or “experiential marketing” agencies. I didn’t mind but I did try to put them to the test. I asked questions to make sure they understood the brand and the product. And surprisingly, most of them passed. Compared to last year, I found the big brands reps to be more approachable and more engaging in conversation.

 A few of my brand experiences at BlogHer12

My personal favorites, however, are still the smaller brands. Not only do they have an enthusiasm for their brands but they are usually personally vested in the success of the company. And I love that they are still wide-eyed at the sheer numbers of bloggers out there. During my post-conference recaps, I’m more inclined to give these companies a shout out because I know how appreciative they are.

What I mostly got out of the brand experience part of this conference was this:

Brands still don’t get it. Not all of them, mind you. But many of them had one of two approaches:

1. You can do a review/giveaway for us!

Admittedly, these were the smaller companies that seem to only understand working with bloggers in this capacity. Although, I was told by a colleague that she found brands that weren’t interested in bloggers if they said they do reviews and giveaways.

I was asked many times if I do reviews and giveaways on my blog. So what’s the right answer?

I’d like to see brands AND bloggers move away from this solely as a model of blogger outreach. Brands need to be looking at the ROI and realizing that brand awareness and word of mouth marketing can come from many avenues.

When I answered the question, I simply told them that I occasionally review products on my blog if it’s a good fit but that I generally write stories about my experience.

 2. If we show you, you will blog about us!

Whether it’s giving away free product (like Lysol Power & Free) or simply displaying product (like Samsung), the message was loud and clear:

We’re showing you these products so that you will be so excited that you will blog about it!

It doesn’t work like that for most of us. I don’t generally blog about cleaning products simply for the fun of it. I’m not free PR for your company. The gift of content is something most of us aren’t looking for. We’re looking for relationships.

I asked the question over and over again: “How do you work with bloggers?” And I was usually met with silence.

Not to pick on Samsung, but I’m a huge personal brand advocate of theirs. I moved recently and bought a new Samsung washer and dryer, a new Samsung refrigerator, and a new Samsung microwave. I own two Samsung TVs and have reviewed a Samsung phone.

When I mentioned all of this to a Samsung, while raving about the washer and dryer to another blogger, I was met with a blank stare. I then asked, “So how does Samsung work with bloggers?” And he replied, “I’m here to talk about the appliances.”

Missed opportunity.

Advice for next year?

It’s pretty much the same as last year. Know why you’re there. Understand your brand and product inside and out. Be able to answer the question “How do you work with bloggers?”

And by the way, it’s okay if you don’t have the answer to that question and you’re using the conference as an exploratory exercise. Tell us that! We’ll be glad to share some of our favorite ways to work with brands. Consider it a focus group of sorts.

Finally, I’d like to end on a positive note. While I didn’t visit every single brand in the Expo Hall and I met many brands offsite, there were some that impressed me with their enthusiasm, engagement, and overall experience. They at least left me wanting to know more. Here’s a quick shout out to those that got it right…

AboutOne
Avon
Chuck E. Cheese
Consmr
CVS
Diet Pepsi
Halo
Hillshire Farm
Kikkoman
Love with Food
McDonald’s
Michael Angelo’s
Minute Clinic
Moo.com
Mulu
Neat-Oh
RetailMeNot
Room key
RosaceaFacts.com
Smith Bros.
Udi’s
Zamzee

If you’re a blogger, tell me where your favorite brand experiences came from. And if you’re a brand, tell me what you really thought about the blogger scene (trust me, we’ve heard the horror stories too!)

Nakeva Corothers via Compfight

Last week, as I was jumping all over bloggers about their behavior in regards to conferences, brands, and swag, I linked to a post about what brands can expect after BlogHer. In fact, after I wrote that post last year, many of those brands visited my site and read the post. And one brand, in particular, contacted me and we chatted over the phone about what went right and what went wrong.

So I thought turnabout was fair play.

I’m not in any position to lecture brands about how to manage their presence at a conference. But I am in a position to tell you what bloggers talk about behind the scenes. We talk about cool products and fun booths and displays. And we also talk about the brand representatives and more importantly, the brand experience.

Instead of waiting to attend the largest women’s blogging conference of the year (BlogHer12) and then coming back to write about what brands could have done differently, I thought I’d share a few pieces of advice in advance for brands that plan to be in attendance.

1. Know your personnel.

I’ve been on the trade show circuit as both a vendor and an attendee. The booths that are most appealing are those that have people that know their stuff. They know the company and the products and they’re prepared to talk about both.

If you have PR reps manning the booth, make sure they fully represent your brand. If you have booth models, well, we’re women bloggers. We really don’t need booth models.

2. Have some personality.

One things that bloggers are not lacking is personality. We love to engage people both online and off. Have a real conversation. And don’t complain about how hungover you are or how tired you are. We know that we’re all there to have fun but during the day, we try to stay professional. And some of us even try at night too.

3. Be prepared to answer this question.

“How do you work with bloggers?”

We love learning about new and innovative products and companies but that doesn’t always translate into free PR for you. Most of us are looking for ways in which we can form mutually beneficial partnerships.

4. Give direction.

When we walk into your booth, we want to be pitched. Tell us what’s going on, who you are (if it’s not entirely obvious), what you’re highlighting this year, and what you’re offering (if anything). Otherwise, we might look like a deer in highlights and end up simply walking away.

5. Be upfront about the swag.

Yes, there will be swag hags. There will be people that have no interest in what you have to say and simply care what you’re giving away. If it’s up for grabs, give it away. But don’t assume that about everyone. Be sure to engage us and tell us more in addition to loading us up with the stuff.

With that said, I’ve already downloaded my BlogHer app and checked off the sponsors I hope to visit and actually have a conversation with. And I hope they’re doing the same.

This post is for brands and bloggers. For brands, it’s more of a caution and clarification about who bloggers really are. For bloggers, think “What Not to Wear” for blogging. We’ll call it, “What Not to Do.”

Blog conference season is in full swing with the grandmommy of them all right around the corner. BlogHer ’12, the world’s largest women’s blogging conference, is headed to New York City for their annual conference during the first week of August. As things heat up, you’ll find a LOT of chatter on Twitter using the hashtag #BlogHer12. But I have to warn you… it’s not all pretty.

It was two years ago as I was gearing up for BlogHer ’10 that my eyes were opened to the true character of some bloggers. There was a lot of buzz on Twitter about a private party that was going to be announced for Schick Intuition. The party was promised to include a big name musical act and the tension on Twitter was palpable. Everyone (including me) was waiting for the invite link to go live. It was promised at 2pm.

The time came and went. They announced they were having technical glitches and that the invite link would be live soon. I waited and watched. It was for Gavin DeGraw, after all. I wanted to hear him perform so I was willing to wait in the virtual line. And having working in software, I know that technical glitches are more often the norm than the exception.

And then it started…

“I’ve been sitting around waiting for an hour for this.”

“You don’t do this to bloggers.”

All tweets directed at the sponsor.

I was astonished and embarrassed all at the same time. It was a sense of (unfounded) entitlement and even sounded a bit like extortion (Oh yes, that’s gone on before too. Ask someone from years gone by about the famous Crocs story).

Two years later and I’m a little wiser and a little less flabbergasted at this kind of behavior. But I don’t like it anymore than I did then. Frankly, it gives bloggers a bad name.

Don’t believe me? I witnessed a Facebook exchange a few weeks ago between a Marketing Fella and Prominent Social Media Director.

Marketing Fella asks the question, “Why do brands want to work with bloggers? More importantly, why do bloggers want to work with brands?”

Prominent Social Media Director (who works with a lot of bloggers) responds, “Free stuff.”

Ouch.

You see, bloggers, they’re onto you. You may promise posts and tweets and glowing reviews in exchange for a free wardrobe, loaner car, or even a full ride by a MAJOR brand. But many of them know your full ride is often simply a free ride. I’ll caution any brand to think carefully about sponsoring a blogger without some sort of ongoing relationship with them.

(For those brands that don’t know if their offer/relationship is a good one, I’d be happy to advise you.)

And now, on behalf of professional bloggers everywhere, I’d like to formally apologize for those conference attendees showing the following kinds of behavior:

• Begging, pleading, whining about and for every private party invitation out there
• Lacking tact when it comes to flaunting party invitations
• Commandeering the #BlogHer12 hashtag for said begging, pleasing, whining, and flaunting
• Randomly tweeting out the need for sponsor for BlogHer (although this has surprisingly worked for some people)
• Searching EventBrite for any possible invitation to a private event and responding, even if not invited
• Signing up for events “just in case” they want to go
• Planning to bring wheelie carts to the Expo Hall to collect as much swag as possible
• Actually bringing wheelie carts to the Expo Hall to collect as much swag as possible
• Whining because they didn’t get some really awesome swag
• Lack of interaction at booths (because they are only interested in swag)
• Grabbing things out of the booth that aren’t even intended for swag (yes, this has really happened)
• And of course, too much drinking and all the ramifications that go along with it

While there are plenty of bloggers that will fit the bill, my personal experience is that, like you, we are professionals. We like to have a good time (truly, we are a friendly bunch), we like to try out really cool things, and we really like expanding our network and meeting new people.

With that said, I wrote a post just for brands when I returned from BlogHer last year about what to expect after the conference. We have expectations of you too.

Whether you are a blogger or a brand, I’d love to have the chance to connect at BlogHer’12 this year and talk down and dirty about the state of the blogosphere. Be sure to follow my personal account on Twitter (@allthingsfadra).

(P.S. A quick note about the Schick Intuition party, I sent a quick note on Twitter to the party sponsor apologizing for the other blogger’s behavior and to let them know that there were many of us that were gracious and simple hoping for an invite. I got a DM telling me not to worry. That no matter what happened, they would put me on the VIP list. Which they did. See? You do catch more flies with honey than vinegar.)

I recently look an early morning trip to Philadelphia to support a one day bootcamp for pregnant teens and teen moms. My role was to speak on a relevant topic concerning social media.

I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve been a teen and we certainly didn’t have social media waaaaaaay back then. So I made some assumptions about Facebook and maybe Twitter and even schooled them a bit on LinkedIn. While I got a lot of blank stares and sleepy heads on desks, some actually paid attention and I think some of them took in what I was saying.

But as I was presenting, I realized that most of what I was saying was relevant to ANY mom (especially a new mom) getting involved in social media. And I thought it might be a message worth sharing with a broader audience.

What does social media have to do with motherhood?