More than 42 million women are involved in social media weekly, about half of them moms with children at home! Mommy bloggers reach many millions of these consumers, and they influence mothers’ buying decisions.

I call prefer to say mom bloggers or social media moms. Most people say mommy bloggers (which I don’t like as much because it sounds so patronizing for a grown adult to call someone else a mommy in any context. Would you like to be known as a daddy to your professional contacts or a dad?). Either way we’re referring to mostly stay at home moms who are actively blogging, tweeting and Facebooking. They have a lot of influence and if your product or service fits, you’ll want to pitch them.

Want to know what brands are working with mom bloggers? Just check out #GNO on Twitter or www.MomItForward.com or attend a conference like BlogHer or Evo. Can’t wait? you can attend a webinar next Thursday and hear from 5 mom bloggers who will share their PR tips from the trenches.

Leading “mommy bloggers” are going to talk about how to pitch them in a live 90-minute audio conference from Bulldog Reporter’s PR University.

“Pitching Mommy Bloggers: Top Women Online Influencers Reveal Best PR Pitches and Strategies to Drive 42 Million Consumers to Your Product or Service”

Day and Time: Thursday, October 14 (1PM EDT; Noon CDT; 11AM MDT; 10AM PDT) (Go to http://bit.ly/MomBlogs for more info)

Stephanie Azzarone, President, Child’s Play Communications; Blogger,
“MomMarketTrends.com”

Renee Ross, Publisher, “Cutie Booty Cakes”

Liz Gumbinner, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, “Cool Mom Picks”

Christine Young , Blogger, “FromDatestoDiapers;” Ambassador,

BackyardDiscovery; Contributer, WalMartMoms

Here’s what it will cover:

** What Motivates Mommy Bloggers: Key insights into the mindset fueling the momosphere—and how to use that knowledge to protect and promote your brand or product

** How each of our mommy bloggers approach what they do so you can make sure your ideas match their pitch preferences.

** Best ways to find, monitor and analyze online influencers in your particular market . . . and what to do with them once they’re on your radar.

** How mommy bloggers are using the recently updated Twitter, and PR can (and can’t) join the conversation

** New rules for crafting irresistible mommy blog pitches—the story elements and exclusive pegs that resonate with these bloggers and how to use them to generate wide coverage

** Hot Topics: Family, safety, children, economic pressures in recessions and recoveries—the concepts, trends, products, services and influencers that appeal most to the “mom market”—and how to incorporate them into your pitches and programs

This event will give you

• “rules” to follow when pitching mommy bloggers

• case studies of major brands that have been successful in social media

• PR faux pas to avoid with these bloggers

• how to communicate (without getting into trouble) in the “momosphere”

• how to build a PR campaign around mommy blogs.

Gather as many people in front of a speakerphone and a computer screen as you want for $199. No travel expenses. Use as a cost-effective, time-efficient means of training staff, while reinforcing key issues in a fresh, new manner that they will remember and act on.

I’ve been working on a national campaign that involves working with mom bloggers. It’s been very educational because I’m more used to being the blogger or participant than the one pitching. I’ve done live events with local bloggers but I’m doing more national campaigns recently.

I’m very interested in how mom bloggers have successfully worked with brands in product development and social media campaigns.

Do you want to learn more about how to tap into the social mom network?

I hope to ask a question to the panel about what charging for posts. Either way, I’ll be live tweeting from the call on Twitter – @Newspapergrl – please join me!

Related articles

• What Mom(my) Bloggers Want (ghdialogue.posterous.com)
• Mommy Bloggers: Tips for Marketing to the Mom Crowd (dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com)
• Two levels of getting it right with blogger relations (getgood.com)
• Write a Review that’s as Sparkly, Interesting, and Delightful as You Are (blogher.com)

MarketingSherpa just put out a helpful article on a topic I love: how to influence influencers. I like to watch how people get my attention (almost never with just 1 try). I resist at first but if they persist I may eventually find myself giving in. Alternatively I want to find and woo influencers I want to work with.

Why do you want to reach influencers? They have far more reach than you do. It’s a difference between you tweeting something and getting a few clicks and having someone with influence send it and getting thousands of clicks.

Who are influencers? It depends who your audience is.

Influencers don’t always have mass followings on Twitter or lots of Facebook friends. They are not necessarily celebrities either. They are more often experts.

A study in the UK found that “most “influential” users on Twitter were actually people with much lower profiles but who were experts in their own fields rather than celebrities with the most followers,” (see Popular Twitter celebrities ‘hold no influence’ online.)

“Influencers in consumer markets are often journalists, publications, website operators and celebrities. Influencers in B2B markets are often individuals rather than organizations. They may be experts in a large company, or they may be consultants who work for several companies.”

RULE: DO NOT use sales techniques on influencers.

“Most influencers have a common trait: they hate being sold to.”

Actually most people hate being sold to but people who are frequent targets hate it the most. They can see through it immediately. They will not like you for trying.

Don’t market to influencers or be pushy.  Give them [relevant] information.

I like this approach a lot – to give influencers enough information so they can form an opinion (which requires they know a bit about you in depth). “We try to reach influencers so they at least have an opinion. We can’t necessarily make that opinion positive, but we want them to have an opinion and we want it to be as informed as possible,” Hayes says.

IDEA: Help Influencers connect with other influencers.

Successful bloggers like to meet other successful bloggers and people. We like to meet people we consider powerful or important because it means we’re part of the same group. Yes it makes us feel important. It also helps us feel part of a successful group of peers. We like to compare notes.

The article suggests giving influencers access to the most powerful people in your company. Don’t have them meet with someone on the marketing team.

Be selective — don’t send your pitches to everyone.

If everyone is special, no one is. You can’t interact and keep relationships going with too many people at once. Start with 10 or even less. That way you can get to know each person. You can find something to appeal to their ego, their interests or their needs. Always think what they may want and how you could help first, then what you hope to get out of the exchange.

Be careful how you word emails – sometimes I can’t tell if a pitch is a mass email or a personal pitch. I’d even suggest following up with a phone call. For me everyone new that I meet online stays virtual to an extent until we talk or converse enough that I remember them.

Example: I was flattered when Love Harnell of Love Jingles reached out to me — but not until I learned that they carefully chose just a short list of bloggers to reach out to. I thought they probably sent their pitch to hundreds of bloggers. If they’d called me or sent another more personal email I would’ve written about the company based on their pitch. Instead I wrote about them later. It was a rare and great example of a social media campaign that had immediate ROI.

I would say something like, “We made of list of 10 of our favorite bloggers and you were one of them. We’ve been a fan of your blog for years.” Just don’t say it if you don’t mean it. This happened to me last week. When I realized the person just fed me a line it felt cheap and again, I like him less.

I like this reason why you should flatter influencers – it makes them feel good: “Some influencers do not realize they are influential and will be delighted by the news. Others are very aware of their power and appreciate the confirmation.”

Even though I don’t like how flippant and crass this is – Shoemoney has very blunt but informative post about getting press. Getting press is a lot like engaging influencers. I’m not a fan of his attitude though. He comes off more like a pickup artist who wants something from you. Then he embarrasses you by telling everyone.

Any tips you want to share?

Related articles

• Finding and Working with Influencers Online (newspapergrl.com)
• Website ranks most influential tweeters (reuters.com)
• How Ogilvy and Adobe manage Influence and Blogger Outreach with eCairn. (ecairn.com)

Orabrush YouTube Channel

UPDATE: Orabrush was just featured in this New York Times article.

Austin Craig sounds like a film guy – he writes, produces and even stars in shows. People recognize him and he’s become a bit of a celebrity. In the process of helping a local business he stumbled upon a new media career that wouldn’t be possible even just a few years ago — he’s a YouTube pitchman.

Austin has flown around the country to promote products in his fast, slapstick style that is popular on YouTube. Now he’s achieved fame and I predict fortune to. People he doesn’t know recognize him on the street and have even offered him discounts. It usually starts with, “Are you on the Internet somewhere?” Die hard YouTubers know him as the Orabrush guy and ask for an autograph.

Austin learned of Utah-based  Orabrush through a marketing class at BYU. The engineer behind the product that helps eliminate bad breath tried marketing his product unsuccessfully. He created an infomercial – which cost tens of thousands of $$$ but resulted in less than 100 sales. So Austin and his friend traded tongue brush marketing for a motorcycle. The first Orabrush video was Austin ranting and raving about bad breath.

I still get clients who want their video to “go viral” and this is a recent example of a company who has done that. But as you’ll see below it wasn’t just by chance. They have a good product and the videos were worthy of going viral but they needed a push. In other words, a little cash.

Like another Utah company, BlendTec of “Will it Blend” fame, YouTube put this company on the map. You may think the landscape is too crowded but remember Orabrush is just a year old. This is a recent success (as is the Old Spice campaign which amazingly enough won an Emmy. I love how even the knockoffs like this one from BYU have been successful).

The Orabrush YouTube channel has over 37,000 subscribers. It is the #7 most subscribed to video on YouTube by a sponsor.

They have a very well-designed branded page and a branded URL — www.youtube.com/orabrush. The videos get great ROI too. They brought immediate sales. They also got Orabrush into drugstores in more than 40 countries.

This is a great example of online PR where the most expensive solution wasn’t the best solution and online outperformed offline marketing tactics.

10 Ways to Achieve YouTube Fame and Success for your business:

1. Pay (or beg or trade) for talent.
   Personality and entertainment value is worth paying for. Consider hiring this out. It makes the difference between an average and a viral video. Where would Old Spice be without the Old Spice Guy Isaiah Mustafa?
2. Invest in promotion of your video.
   Like most viral videos the first few videos needed an initial push. The team heavily promoted the video with YouTube ads.
3. Study the most successful videos on YouTube and copy the elements that make them work.
   Dissect popular videos on YouTube to figure out what elements they share and use them in your videos. As I always say, the internet is an open book where you can see what everyone else is doing. Use this to your advantage.
4. Track and test to see what works for your audience.
5. Include a “call to action” at the end of your video and a social sharing element.
   Orabrush gave a free sample of the product. To get the free Orabrush you had to share the offer with your Facebook friends.
6. Consider making an “app-ertisement” — a branded app.
   Orabrush created a bad breath iPhone app where people blow into a phone to test their breath. Then they heard Austin’s voice spew pithy 1-liners.
7. Use user-generated content to get more user-generated content.
   Austin made another video of him testing the bad breath app on total strangers, Jay Leno style.
8. Make the video entertaining enough that people don’t realize it’s about a product until they’re hooked.
9. For branding create episodes tied to a common theme or character.
   In this case, they developed a tongue character who’s always down on himself to further brand Orabrush.
10. At the end of the video, ask people to comment, subscribe or watch another video.

I interviewed Austin along with my cohost Nigel Swaby for the Web Marketing Weekly Show. We should take some of Austin’s tips to heart to see how to grow our podcast by studying successful podcasts!

You can listen to the entire episode here. Oh, and I predict the next new media career niche is a YouTube talent agent!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hasbro Brings Trivial Pursuit to YouTube (youtube-global.blogspot.com)
• How To Become The Next YouTube Star Making $100,000 Plus Per Year (businessinsider.com)
• 3 Ways That Viral Video Monetization Will Explode Like Social Games Did In 2009 (socialtimes.com)
• How To Make Images Inside Videos On YouTube Clickable (elliottlemenager.com)
• Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt Says YouTube Profitability Is Near (reelseo.com)
• An Easy Way to Embed YouTube Playlists (labnol.org)

Get free publicity for your business by tying into breaking news stories

I often write about online PR but lately a lot more of my clients want to get interviewed by the media. If you get a story published it can be good for you in many ways. Media web sites get excellent rankings from search engines and you’ll also get print coverage.

In my book, I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What??? I talk about tying into the trend or news to get coverage. When you’re the local angle to a national story, or you can comment on the hot topic of the day, TV producers, newspaper reporters, and bloggers will practically beg to talk to you. It’s one of the best ways to get free PR for your business.

But too many people miss this opportunity. They don’t pick up the phone or email. They think the media are too busy. Or they don’t know what to say.

But this is the very best time to pitch. I’ve seen it work with my clients.

There’s a PR webinar next week that I highly recommend:

How to Get Free PR by Tying Your Pitch to Breaking News

by Joan Stewart with guest Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity

Time and date:
3 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, July 21

Registration:
$39.95 (includes a link to the webinar video if you can’t attend live and a PDF of the slides)

Register for the webinar

Publicist Michelle Tennant will explain the exact details of what she does when she pitches a client during a breaking news event.  She’ll even show you the word-for-word email pitches she sent to the media–pitches that resulted in major publicity for her clients.

She’ll also tell you about a free media resource website she uses, thus saving her thousands of dollars on media directories.

I’ve worked with Joan and have been a guest on a webinar she held about using keywords in press releases. It was an absolute honor. She always delivers such practical advice that you can implement. Plus her webinars are very affordable. She wrote a recommendation for my book too. Because of the trust I have in her work, I am an affiliate of Joan’s programs.

I attended the IABC and PRSA joint conference in Salt Lake City Utah yesterday.  I’d probably talk more about trends in social media, crowdsourcing stories with Twitter and Facebook, promoting content with social bookmarking, etc. It was only half a day though.

Here are 3 takeaways from the conference – because Cary Snowden asked me to.

1. Your online newsroom is a dinosaur.

As speaker David Henderson pointed out most online newsrooms are “graveyards for press releases.” He sets up WordPress-powered newsrooms that have rich content that is updated frequently. Not just from the company but stories from industry leaders, customers and employees. It should be multimedia rich with video and images that anyone can use in blog posts or stories. Tie in your social media sites. This one change can have a huge impact on a company – even impacting stock prices. It definitely helps your search engine rankings.

Example: ISCNewsroom.com

2. A successful viral campaign has unintended (positive) consequences.

When the legendary “Will It Blend?” campaign started with $50 and an idea to “sing and dance” the product – they had no idea where it would take them. They simply wanted to show how their $400 blender could blend just about anything. It was 2006 and YouTube was not well-known. My favorite is the Glow Sticks blend. I finally got to see a live blend – of a rake handle.  It was scary but fun.

Here’s what the campaign led to and takeaways:

• When video blending the iPad didn’t impact sales they connected the video about the iPad to a campaign to their web site where you could go to win a free in tact or blended iPad. That helped. At times it felt like they were advertising Apple more than Blendtec.

• Their new infomercials and boxes will say “As Seen on YouTube” rather than the way most companies make it say “As Seen on TV.”

• The campaign spawned additional opportunities such as co-branded blending where they took a new Nike shoe that was a combination between 2 shoes and blended it. They’ve done shows for other brands too.$200K will buy you a custom blend.

• Sales went from $24 million to 40 million in 5 years and their consumer blender now sells better than their commercial blenders. Even in a recession.  Total blender sales are up 700% from 2006.

• They sold blended products etc on eBay and a blended iPod fetched $1k (which they gave to charity). One episode showed them trying to return a blended video camera to Best Buy claiming they accidentally dropped it in. The manager didn’t buy the story that a blender could do that. Classic. I’m laughing about it again as I type this!

• The campaign has been called one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever. It has been covered on The Today Show, the Discovery Channel, QVC, Shopping Network, CNBC, The Tonight Show, and more…
• Tom, the mad scientist has reached celebrity status just being himself. In our world we crave the real and authentic as much as the glitz and fake perfection. Both extremes seem to sell. They’ll leverage the brand and Tom to do more campaigns.

THEY ANNOUNCED THE IPAD WAS THE LAST “WILL IT BLEND” VIDEO. This kills me. Some have denied this.

3. You too can learn to speak in sound bytes.

When the camera is on it’s natural to be nervous but what the media looks for is sound bytes for stories. This is David Henderson again.Make sure you pause after each question because they will edit out the beginning to get to the main point.

Practice saying these prompts to help you remember to get back on track during an interview:

• I think that the main point is…[pause]
• What really excites me about this is…[pause]
• The first thing that comes to mind about this is…[pause]
• I think the big issue we need to consider is…[pause]

and a natural way to say what you want to answer any question…is to say something like yes but the bigger issue is….and go on about what you want to say.

I could write more but you only asked for 3!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why One Entrepreneur Threw His iPad Into a Blender (blogs.hbr.org)
• Will It Blend iPad video seen by 4 million people (telegraph.co.uk)
• Social Media Use on the Rise in TV Newsrooms [STATS] (mashable.com)
• “LIFE should be a networking event” – Peter Shankman (newspapergrl.com)

I got a mention in an article about getting paid to tweet on ReadWriteWeb (thanks HARO!). I occasionally tweet ads for pay on SponsoredTweets. I’m also trying it out more as an advertiser. I’m totally sold on having @Shoemoney tweet something – awesome results! I try to get the cost per click down to less than $3 and most average half or less. I also look for people with high engagement scores.

I’ve made all of $60 total on SponsoredTweets but the great thing is it’s easy. I’ve turned down some offers because they don’t fit my audience but several have worked out. The best is from an outsourcing company. They hired me to tweet. Then they became my client. Now I hire them back.

After reading the article I wanted to try Twittads but I gave up after not really getting how it worked and not having the time to look into all the details.

Here are 5 tips for using Sponsored Tweets:

1. Post something conversational or like a question – not an advertisement.
2. You can and should rewrite tweets so they are in your own voice.
3. Use related hashtags in your tweet.
4. You can use the term “brought to you by” instead of ad.
5. Don’t be greedy. It’s crazy what some people charge for a tweet. Keep it reasonable and you’ll get to choose from more offers. I’ve found little correlation between cost and results. As an advertiser I skip the people who are priced much higher than their peers with similar numbers of followers and engagement.

As John Chow said in the article: Since they allow you to use “brought to you by” as one of the disclosure mechanisms, you could write: “Hey guys! I found this great $1.99 web hosting deal bought to you by bluehost. Go check it out. URL” and get away with it.

He was also mentioned in a New York Times article about being paid to tweet.

Who should use SponsoredTweets? Authors (like me). People planning events. People who are launching campaigns and want to attract more participation and visibility. The results are quicker than some other methods like SEO, press releases and articles that build over time. Plus it tends to cost less than Google AdWords which has gotten quite crowded (read: expensive).

Sponsored Tweets made me a hero today – so I’m extra motivated to write about them. Plus I’m so fascinated by the instant feedback you get on the results. It’s like candy to a marketer.

Note: I’m partial to Sponsored Tweets (so far in the past several months I’ve experimented with others & it’s my fav so far). I’m also an affiliate. As mentioned I also manage advertising campaigns on Sponsored Tweets. You can use my links above to give me credit for referring you or go there directly (or not at all).

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Make Money On Twitter By Telling People What You Like (johnchow.com)
• 5 best Web Apps to make money from Twitter (shoutmeloud.com)
• Sponsored Tweets: Kim Kardashian’s $10,000 Tweet Has Been Surpassed (blippitt.com)

Whenever I go on a trip I subscribe to Problogger on my Kindle and then write blog posts and “to do” lists based on what I learn. This time it’s about one of my favorite topics, which is blogger PR.

Cirque Du Soleil – the offbeat circus/acrobatic show was smart. They teamed up with bloggers who were in town (Vegas) for Blog World this year. They invited 250 bloggers to see a show and then blog about it.

They point out that bloggers tend to give a lot of detail about the experience of watching one of their shows. The emotions and feelings, not just the facts. And a lot of bloggers, if they are really happy are also on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. So you can get coverage on many different networks.

Benefits of Blogger PR

• Exposure to new audiences on each blog + any social sites the bloggers post to.
• Some bloggers post video and pictures from the show or event. This means more exposure.
• Search engine optimization benefits – blog posts tend to do well in search engine and come up when someone searches for your business or product name.
• Reviews – get honest feedback from bloggers about your product or service – bloggers tend to be great at this and are usually savvy and have strong opinions.

Payment and the FTC Guidelines
Most of the time it’s a trade – the bloggers don’t get paid but they don’t have to buy tickets. As of this year, bloggers must disclose that they were compensated (or got free products), per FTC rules. They have to Bloggers will find the positive to say about the experience, but the better it is the more raves there are. If by chance it’s a bad experience, bloggers usually won’t write anything at all. There’s not really a point in writing a bad review unless you need to warn your audience.

Why Hire a Blogger or Consultant for PR
You either have someone on staff who has strong relationships with bloggers or hire someone who does. This is important – if you email people who don’t know you and you don’t know the culture – most likely your request will be ignored. Unless you’re a big name or the offer is incredible. Bloggers should be treated like partners and not as employees.

I’ve been told, we can email the bloggers ourselves, why do we need to pay you to do it for us? Because the bloggers know my name and don’t know yours. I’ve been there for the behind-the-scenes talking between bloggers who get random emails from people they don’t know who act like they know them. Unlikely you’ll get a good response. And even if people come, part of the event is making sure the bloggers get the right information in a timely way and in formats they want them in.

In 2009 I participated or organized blogger PR. This was new to me until this year and I hope to do more in 2010. Here’s the list of events.

• Communal – a new restaurant opened in Provo Utah and invited about 20 bloggers to come for lunch and try it out. It was amazing and I’d go back even more if it were closer. Best new restaurant of 2009. I helped organize this.
• Grand America Hotel Spa escape. I joined 5 other bloggers for a night and a day at this beautiful and opulent hotel in Salt Lake City Utah. I was the organizer.
• Goldsmith Jewelers – Another Utah company who invited 30 or so bloggers to try a new line of bracelets. They did an excellent job and got a lot of buzz. Jyl organized this.
• Social Media Retreat – April invited several local bloggers to try out her favorite products and enjoy some time outdoors. This was a great event because it included a lot of Utah bloggers of all types, which isn’t always possible.
• The Melting Pot in Salt Lake City invited bloggers for some fondue. Jyl organized this.

Another highlight of the year was seeing Julie & Julia with a group of bloggers (we paid). I think that bookstores who bring in authors and movie theaters should do more blogger PR. I thought of doing a project for an orthodontist but I chickened out because I’m afraid of having to wear braces. This month I’m going to a cooking class with April to learn about making chocolate.

I’m using blogger my online PR book and DVD. I’ve gotten some great reviews and hope for more exposure to new audiences this year.

Please be sure to listen to this interview with me (Janet Thaeler), Pete Codella and Mark Polson. They produce a weekly show called the Online PR Podcast. This episode is about the power and purpose of online press releases. It was a lot of fun to do this interview because Pete is a PR pro and he knows online PR.

This was in person which I liked. On a webinar or phone interview you don’t get the interaction that you get in real life. Talking about online PR with someone else who loves it reminds me of how much I enjoy what I do.

We discussed:

• Online public relations versus traditional public relations
• How to identify what topics are newsworthy and appropriate topics for press releases (on a basic level, tell us what’s new in your business, industry or products)
• Blogger relations and outreach campaigns
• Press release formatting

To listen, click on the arrow at the bottom of the post and the player will start. While you’re there, check out the past episodes of the Online PR podcast. After listening,feel free to leave a comment with your feedback or questions.

PRWeb is offering free access to view their Best Webinars of 2009. My webinar with PRWeb and PR expert Bill Stroller is in the top 5.

PRWeb’s top five webinars of 2009 include:

View the Best Webinars of 2009 are available on-demand for a limited-time only. Check them out – I’ve always found PRWeb’s webinars to be top-notch. I was especially interested to hear Greg Jarboe because I mention a case study in my book about Southwest Airlines. It’s a classic. I learned that Greg is the one who was behind the successful campaign.

I’m going to join Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound next Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 3-4:10pm for a teleseminar.

It will be about using keywords in press releases.

Many people make this mistake: they fail to use keywords in their press releases. Unless you have news that the media is looking for right now, your press release is pretty short-lived. But in search engines it continues to send people to your web site.

A press release with keywords, distributed online also helps your web site rank higher for key terms relating to your business. It does that even if people don’t find and read your actual press release.

Hope you’ll join us on the call!