Posts Tagged "PR"

How to Host a Brilliant Blogger Event

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 10, 2010 in Blogger Love | 1 comment

Litte Miss & Mummy at a Blogger Event

As a “mummy blogger” with over a year of experience under my belt (gee, it seems longer!), I’ve had the pleasure of attending quite a few blogger events held by PR’s. When I first started blogging, the trend was more for PR’s to send out product, ask for our trial & review and then follow up with more press releases and emails. Now PR’s are becoming a bit more savvy. They’re organising blogger events to showcase their product/cause/service similar to a press event or launch for journalists. As a veteran of these events, I’d like to share my top tips for how to host a brilliant blogger event. I’m nice like that you know! PR’s, feel free to send payment for my words of wisdom!

1) Venue: Are there stairs to go up/down either entering bldg or to get to the room? If mums are arriving with children, many will have pushchairs. Position staff to assist with pushchair transitions and have a safe “pram park” for storing pushchairs and other gear. Have a look around the room from a child’s perspective. If need be, get down on your knees and crawl around. What hazards could there be? Are power points covered? Are there drapes or cords hanging down? What floor surface is available? You may want to consider purchasing interlocking foam floor squares to create a safe, soft children’s play area.

2) If you are welcoming children to the event (and you really should if you want to encourage blogger attendance) provide child friendly activites/toys/colouring supplies to keep children busy. Consider allocating a member of staff to watch over this area and give mums a chance to leave their children for a wee bit to get a coffee or network. Use your contacts to provide age appropriate toys and games for the children. This will require you to know how many children will be in attendance and how old they are.

3) Food- again, if children are present, having child-friendly food/snacks is highly advisable. Yoghurt, fruit cut into small pieces, packets of raisins, childrens biscuits/bars, small sandwiches w/o crusts + cheese/marmite/choc spread/ham are all reasonable choices. Consider drinks as well. Juice boxes, smoothies, water bottles, milk. Consider providing children’s cutlery & plates/cups. IKEA is a brilliant place for low-cost children’s feeding accessories. You may also want to make arrangements for high chairs or booster seats to allow for younger children/toddlers to sit safely and comfortably.

4) Mum Help: Babies & toddlers will need nappy changes and mums of young babies may need space to breastfeed and/or warm baby food/bottles. Consider providing a Changing/Feeding area during the event. Perhaps turning a corner of the room into it by partitioning it off or taking an unused toilet and embellishing it? Provide a changing table. If you are able to provide nappies and wipes, fantastic! This will require you to ask for nappy sizes but will be much appreciated. Provide a bottle warmer if possible and a comfy chair for breastfeeding mums. If you can’t provide bottle warmer, make available a jug w/ hot water or microwave from kitchen to help mums.

5) Nametags and intros. There will be staff that the mum bloggers won’t know. There will be other bloggers that don’t know each other (believe it or not, we don’t know EVERYONE!). Make sure that you take the time to do a brief intro of key people present at the start of the event and make the agenda clear so that all in attendance know what’s coming and when.

6) Goody bags- It’s nice to provide a little pressie to take away for bloggers who’ve made the effort to attend. It doesn’t have to be Oscar worthy but include press info, a few things for mum, a few things for child if you are able.

7) Follow Up- a quick thank you email is always great and appreciated. Also if you’ve asked for hashtag tweeting about the event or product, follow up and retweet efforts. This is achieved easily enough by creating a hashtag search on Twitter to be able to watch the play by play! Watch for posts after the event if that’s what’s required and make comments to support blogger efforts.

So there we have it. By no means a perfect list but I hope that it will help give PR’s and Brands a few key points to bear in mind when organising their next blogger event. Of course none of the above are ESSENTIAL but are very WELCOME and will go far to stand you in good stead with the bloggers you’re working with. Feel free to contact me directly if you have questions or just want to hire me as a consultant for your next event!

PR Wish List

Posted by cafebebemama on May 30, 2010 in Blogger Love, Motherhood | 23 comments

Dear Blogger...

Recently I received a pitch from a PR that started “Hi Alison…”  Hmmm.  What’s wrong with that greeting?  The “Hi” was a very nice, personal touch but something about the “Alison” made me very reluctant to continue reading.  For starters, my name is KARIN.  Now, trying to give the PR the benefit of the doubt, I have just checked my “About” page and “Contact Us” page on my site.  The first line on the “About” page includes my name (Karin…in case you forgot) and on my “Contact Us” page this is what the final paragraph says (of 2 mind you):

Just so you know…Café Bébé is comprised of Mummy (Karin-age late 30’s), Hubby (Mark-age early 40’s) and Little Miss (on her way to 2 years old). If you are wanting to appeal to me, try to get this information correct.

That’s fairly clear, I would say!  Now the rest of the pitch from this PR went on to ask me if I was interested in promoting an app for a product which I don’t own but she wouldn’t have known that so I continue to give her the benefit of the doubt.  I was very appreciative of this PR’s email and I did send her an email back thanking her for her interest in Cafe Bebe but correcting her on my name and letting her know that as I don’t own the particular piece of technology to trial the app she was promoting I couldn’t really promote it on my blog.  I was very nice considering that the email started out “Hi Alison”.

What I would like to know, from my fellow bloggers, is…what would you like to hear from a PR when they contact you?  We have to keep in mind that these PR’s have hundreds of bloggers/media/etc that they are contacting every day to promote their clients.  They don’t have the time to read, in full, all of our blogs.  They are trying to get information and pitches out there and I would guess that for every 100 emails they send out only a very small percentage are replied to.  There are now thousands of bloggers for the PR’s to approach…there just isn’t time in the day.

So, what would you, as a parent blogger, like to hear from a PR?  Do you expect to get a “freebie”?  Will you write a post just because you’re asked to promote something?  How many pitches do you get in a week and how many of those pitches are totally inappropriate?  What, in a pitch, makes you sit up and take notice?  How would you LIKE to be approached, in an ideal blogging world?  Just for fun, maybe you can share one of the BEST pitches you ever received (what made it best?) and one of the WORST pitches you ever received.

Now, lets see about the PR’s!  Those PR’s who are bloggers and might be reading this…what do you look for in a blog/blogger?  What makes you sit up and take notice?  What do you HATE to hear from bloggers?  What would make your life easier in regards to pitching to a blogger?

Over to you…let it all hang out!

Adopt a Mummy Blogger

Posted by cafebebemama on Mar 22, 2010 in Blogger Love, Vlog Posts | 3 comments

Cafe Bebe Mama courtesy of @mummytips

The UK Parent Blogging community has a very exciting event on the horizon- CyberMummy is coming on 3 July, 2010! Taking place at the Ibis London Earls Court, CyberMummy will be bringing together the UK’s best and brightest parent bloggers for an educational and networking conference. The one day event will have amazing speakers on a variety of technical subjects as well as bloggers who will be sharing their own expertise. It’s going to be THE place to be for UK Parent Bloggers…who wouldn’t want to go?

Well, I’d like to go! I’d like to learn and network and share. However, as a Mummy Blogger who is also a Stay-At-Home-Mum in a one-income family, the conference fee is a bit steep for our family budget. The ticket for CyberMummy is a mere £80 which is quite a good rate for an all-day conference. £80 is a good week’s grocery shop for my family. It’s not fair to take £80 away from my amazing Little Miss and wonderful hubby even if it means that Mummy gets a day away to learn and schmooze.

I thought that I would let the legions of PR’s and companies who are beating down the door at Cafe Bebe get the chance to SPONSOR me to attend CyberMummy. The PR/Company would pay for my £80 CyberMummy ticket and if they’re feeling really gracious, consider reimbursing me for any train travel to London and back. In return, PR’s/Companies will get the following from me:

• A mention and logo placement in any posts about CyberMummy including any live blogging/tweeting on the day of the Conference.
• The chance to meet me, the 67th ranked parent blog in the Tots 100 Index, at the conference (provided you spend the £250 ticket fee for PR’s…you can write that off on your expense account…it’s no biggie is it??) and have a chat about your clients/programmes/services/products which might be of interest to me at Cafe Bebe.
• An opportunity to run a small advert/banner on my blog from April 15 to August 31
• A blogger with integrity and a fairly decent following.

You will NOT get the following from me if you should choose to sponsor me:

• A blogger who will sell her soul for anything offered. I have standards and will not support JUST anything or anyone.
• I WILL NOT WEAR A T-SHIRT SAYING “SPONSORED BY…”! I may not have an exceptional fashion sense but come on…no way!
• A blogger who automatically says yes to every press release or product review. If it fits with me, my family and my readers I’ll consider your “pitch” but I guarantee that I won’t say “HOW HIGH” if you ask me to “JUMP”.
• You won’t get the UK’s top blogger or even one with 10,000 hits a day. You will get a blogger who is an active Twitter-er (I am a PERSONA, so says Klout), a very active writer (averaging 5.4 posts per week) and a very hard worker.

I’ve carried on too long now…let me speak for myself! If you like what you read and you enjoy my vlog post which follows and would like to sponsor me to attend CyberMummy 2010 in London on 3 July, get in contact with me through the Contact Us page on the top of the homepage OR leave me a comment. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your time & generosity!

The Weird and Wonderful World of Blogging

Posted by cafebebemama on Feb 25, 2010 in Blogger Love, Motherhood | 18 comments

Midlands Bloggers at the Pampers/UNICEF event, 2009

I have come to realise that I am throughly entrenched in the weird and wonderful world of blogging.  Sometimes I wonder if that is a good thing?  When I began blogging in May of 2009, I never would have imagined what it could have done for me or how it would have changed me.  I’ve found myself; found my voice; found new strength thanks to blogging.  I’m a more confident person now but I still have a weakness…a tender heart.  I take knocks and it seems that quite a few others do as well.  Some react well, bounce back stronger and shake it off.  Others don’t.  Some bloggers have hung up their blogging boots as it just wasn’t worth it.  The word bullying is one that’s dropped in the press these days here in the UK and I wonder, sometimes, if it’s happening here in the blogosphere.

Many bloggers stay well out of it, write, read, enjoy and don’t get sucked in.  Some bloggers seem to be at the centre of every hullabaloo in the Parent Blogging community.  Some bloggers fan the flames and some light the fires.  Why?  Why do we do this to each other?  The UK Parent Blogging community is small but growing and we need to support each other and be proud of each other’s achievements.

It’s hard, I think, when there are incentives involved.  Those of us who are more competitive and are making part-time employment out of our blogs and our writing are understandably ambitious.  But what does that ambition get you?  Not so very long ago, I was motivated by PR requests and a “just ask” philosophy.  I received things in exchange for mention and/or review on my site.  I now see that those choices may not have been correct.  I never wanted to be seen as a “swag hag”.  I wanted to be recognised for my writing and maybe become a “top blogger“.  Not for the  acquisition of THINGS but for the sense of accomplishment and for the knowledge that people enjoyed what I wrote and wanted to tune in for more.  I have changed my tune a bit and focused on my writing and found a new energy for my writing.

Suddenly I have a slightly different feeling about blogging.  I appreciate interest from PR’s but I am not desperate to snap up everything on offer.  I see opportunities for WRITING and not for GETTING.  I want to be respected so I’m trying not to get bogged down in the mud with the games that are played.  It’s a bit like secondary school sometimes!  But what I don’t see are the Daddy Bloggers getting sucked in.  The Mummy Bloggers seem to be the ones throwing teddies and smearing each other.  Is it our hormones?  Our female nature to lash out?  Our Maternal Instinct kicking in?  I think the Daddy Bloggers are far wiser in this case…just blog…don’t slog!

I’ve really been welcomed into the UK Parent Blogging community.  I’ve met new friends who I think I may know better than some of my real life friends.  I know if I have a “wobble”, I can turn to one of them for support and a virtual shoulder.  I love this weird and wonderful world of blogging.  I’d just like for us all to just get along.  The Bloggers who have taken me under their wings and have given me professional advice know who they are and the list is longer every day.  I would like to say, to all of you, thank you for the love and for the warm welcome.  I hope we can all just take a step back, realise that there are far worse things going on in homes all over the world and share the love again.