Musings From My Minivan
Last year at the Social Media Master’s Summit, I spoke on a panel with some amazing ladies, Kim Moldofsky, Danielle Smith and Esther Crawford. We spoke in depth about brand and blogger relations. Looking through the footage, one clip jumped out at me. I think it contains a message that is especially important to hear as much of the blogging community prepares to go to Blogher 2011 in San Diego. I can sum it up in one word…AUTHENTICITY. [Read more...]
I am heading to Blogher for the third time next week. I am really excited, mostly because it is the only time of the year that I get to see many of my online compatriot’s in person. It’s a fantastic social gathering. There’s some business too. However, the business that I must attend to right now is packing. I started with a list. And in making my list recently I discovered 8 essential things that I simply must purchase before I go. [Read more...]
2010 has been quite a year for me, with serious highs and lows. But through it all I have had some fantastic, inspiring, hard working company. On this very special, final Follow Friday of 2010 I want to acknowledge some people who I think you should take notice of. [Read more...]
Listen Up! Okay, after the PR pitches I’ve been receiving these last few weeks it seems to me that we are in need of a reminder post about PR and Social Media. Now I am not an expert, I am just a working stiff in this Social medium. However, I do know a thing or two about a thing or two. (Hopefully some of my even more knowledgeable friends will chime in with their two cents as well. Hint, Hint). But here is the list of my four top pet peeves, I mean suggestions, to PR folks out there to improve their social media interactions. [Read more...]
Last week I published a post about determining your blog worth. After Blogher 10 and speaking at The 2nd annual Social Media Master’s Summit I realize that this question is heavy on many people’s minds. Social Media has empowered all of us in an economic time that was making many of us feel powerless. With the communication explosion that is social media comes opportunity. Opportunity has been knocking on the door of a number of bloggers. So the big question is how do you get opportunity to come to your neighborhood? That’s exactly what we’re examining.
The first step, as I mentioned last week, is to understand who you are and what you have to offer. We do that by examining our own blogs. But since it can be hard to be objective about ourselves I encouraged you to buddy up and evaluate each other’s sites. Hopefully you have taken some time to look at your blog and other people’s as well. Was it hard? Looking within, really looking within, can be uncomfortable at first, but ultimately it’s a great lesson. The goal is to understand what you are projecting to the World and make sure that is in line with what your inner intent is. On top of that you want to make sure that your blog functionality is in place. Do you have your contact points, disclosures, pr guidelines etc… Chris Brogan has an in depth article posted this week with some great suggestions always worth reading.
Now armed with a better sense of the real estate you have to offer it’s time to talk numbers. [Read more...]
Okay, it’s time to talk seriously folks. Brands, PR and most especially Bloggers, it’s time to talk worth. Right off the bat let’s get one thing straight…your services are never FREE. Say it with me… “I never work for free!” NEVER! Even when you are doing something “Pro Bono”, you aren’t working for free, you are simply waiving your usual fee. I can hear some of you mumbling, “That’s just semantics Miss Lori.” That may be true, but they are very important semantics, because they speak to your self worth. And let’s be clear, they are not only speaking to you, but to the professional World you are trying to work in. What you think of yourself has a huge effect on what the World thinks of you. If you want the World to take you seriously, to see you as a professional, then act like one. You’ve heard the term “dress for success”? That’s what this is. You are dressing for success.
Now a couple of weeks ago I started by talking about how you should be B.I.G. with brands when you meet them in person. Then earlier this week I talked about the pages you should have on your blogsite. Now we are going to talk about RATES. [Read more...]
This week I had the great pleasure of speaking on a a panel about brands and bloggers at the second annual Social Media Master’s Summit conducted by Windy City Social. The panel included Kim Moldofsky of Mom Impact, Danielle Smith of ExtraordinaryMommy.com and Esther Crawford of ShePosts.com. We were brought togetehr to offer our expertise to an audience filled with bloggers who want to work with brands and th brands who want to work with bloggers. We covered a lot of ground during our one hour panel. coming away form the presentation it became clear to me that there are still many bloggers out there who don’t know how to set up their blogs to be a magnet for opportunity. So I have compiled a list of the top five pages that I believe a blogger needs to have on their site to attract opportunity and be information ready for the future. [Read more...]
I just got back from Blogher, the premier blogging conference that was held in New York City. I had such a lovely time talking to women and men about the American Heart Association BetterU program at the Go Red For Women booth on the expo floor. As the Summer Ambassador for the program, my pitch was simple: Get better so you don’t die. That’s what it breaks down to for me. And week 11 is a big piece of that surviving puzzle for me, because week 11 is all about cigarette smoke. (Or evil in a cloud as I refer to it.) I have never smoked and I never will, because if I were to do so I most assuredly would stop breathing. No, I’m not just being dramatic. I have always had trouble with cigarette smoke. Being around it makes my lungs tight. Too much exposure makes me profoundly ill. [Read more...]
I just returned from Blogher and boy are my arms tired! (Hee! Hee! that was for Liz Strauss! 
SMILE!) Actually they are from all of the stretches I was doing at the Go Red For Women Better U Program booth. But that’s another post for later. What I want to talk about here is why I am ENERGIZED. I’m energized because on the expo floor at Blogher I had some really thoughtful, productive conversations with brand representatives from P & G, Pepsico, Nintendo, Johnson and Johnson, Nickelodeon, and 1800Flowers to name a few. Almost all of the representatives were new to me, and only a handful had first hand knowledge of my work on PBS and with Miss Lori’s CAMPUS. So I was going in COLD, as we say in sales. Yes, sales, because that is what I was doing, selling myself. (Wait, that didn’t come out right.) I was selling my BRAND. (That’s better.)
When I visit booths on the expo floor I am shopping for a connection and then I am selling my expertise. I’m not there to grab as much swag as I can, (says the girl with the 48lb suitcase.) No, I am there to do business. Network. Connect. How do I do this? Well there’s a long answer to that short question, which I am going to delve into in a series of posts here over the next few weeks. But for our purposes today I want to talk about one idea. That is to be “B.I.G.” on the expo floor. “What do you mean Miss Lori. I have to wear high heeled shoes?” No, (although I won’t lie to you being tall has it’s advantages in a crowd), you need a “B.I.G.” presence and approach. I will spell it out for you. [Read more...]
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