If you want to be a PR rock star I recommend reading all the great information I learned at this past PRville conference and also make sure you are at PRville 2010 next year

I was super nervous to go to this conference, between this being my first 3 day PR conference and between my plane ride to Jacksonville being my first flight, well needless to say I had to mentally prepare myself for this trip way in advance.  I can say that although I still have a reason to fear being thousands of feet in the air, I should have had no fears about going to this awesome event, everyone was great and I got to learn and absorb all the great information.

The event was so well put together thanks to Anne Duboius (@adubois08) and Bonnie Upright (@bonnieupright ).  I had a great time and learned so much, which I am now going to take the time to pass forward, to give back as Mike Cherenson said in his Thursday night speech.  So first I am going to put the top 10 tweets of the event, these are just some tweets that stood out to me, you can see all of the great tweets to get a peak into Prville using the #Prville Hashtag on twitter. Then I will do a small recap of each session I attended

I got to the Omni Hotel at about 2:00 PM on Thursday, and although I did have a small issue with the shuttle reservation I made, they promptly fixed the issues and not only was the Omni Hotel beautiful, their customer service was outstanding.  Just 3 things they did that stood out – My shoes where kind of thrown by the bed when I left on Friday morning and when I came back they were all neatly lined underneath the desk, I also came back to some makeup wipes in the bathroom, now that might of been because my makeup ended up on their towels, but I really tried to not get much on there.  Then right before I left they did something else that made them stand out.  My feet were killing me, I forgot my shoes, but I still wanted to walk the Riverwalk, so I attempted it in my sandals, yeah, not the best idea.  So I called down to the front desk to get help with my luggage, but was running late since this great woman, Diane I met at Prville was giving me a ride to the airport therefore leaving me 5 minutes to make it downstairs, so the lady at the front desk called me back to tell me the bell boy could not make it up in 5 minutes, so I told her I walk.  She said nope, don’t do that I will personally come up myself, within 2 minutes max she was there, that is stand out customer service, I will make a point to look for a the Omni Hotel wherever I go. Oh, and no – I did not get anything free or discounted for writing this review, I just thoroughly enjoyed the stay there, and you should try their sliders, so yummy!

So as soon as I registered, I get this awesome Goody Bag with a shot glass, compact mirror, note pads a disc that had all of sessions, speaker’’s bios, etc on it and much more.  PRville went Green this year, I loved it, because all those papers I would have lost by now, I still have the disc which includes some of the ppt’s that were used.

Then on Thursday night I got to head over to the Jacksonville Stadium which was very cool, we got to see their workout room, their locker room, we stood out on the field.  I did feel like I was betraying the Ravens a little bit, but I still had a good time.  Here are some pictures that were taken from Ljohnson9’s photo stream on Flickr, I am hoping she does not mind, but the ones I took on my phone pail in comparison.

This is me and some lovely ladies I met at Prville.  This is at the MPS Group Terrace Suite where we had a fablous Island Buffett and listened to the opening speech of Michael Cherenson, APR PRSA President, AKA @ @mcherenson

Some highlights from Michale’s (@mcherenson)

• Authenticity is more important now than it has ever been.
• He talked about an ad that was placed in the 1900’s for a PR firm and how on the ad it did not even have the last name, he spoke to how PR has evolved.
• Study that said that PR is more recession resistant than ever before.
• We enter PRSA to learn and grown, but we must go forward and serve, we must give back, we must plant a tree for the next PR generation.

Then on Friday morning I started the morning with a yummy breakfast that everyone at Prville could enjoy and got ready for the opening sessions “Managing the Media when there is no place to hide” In this session the Hudson Miracle was talked about, yeah, did I mention I just got on a plane the day before, seriously thought about taking a train home Listening to a survivor of the Hudson Plane Crash was a neat experience, it truly was a miracle.  Panel Speakers were Don Jones, Laura Brown, and Peter Knudson.

Some Key Highlights:

• You do not want to say different things about the same accident, that could get you in trouble.  Via Laura Brown, Federal Aviation Administrator. (Try to speak in simple facts until you know what the full story is.)
• They thought the plane crashed, they did not know it was a forced landing in the Hudson.
• NTSA’s Peter Knudson first heard about the crash from Lisa Stark on ABC News. (My thoughts are that this is why every company should have twitter and a blog , to have a quick way to update consumers, clients, the general public on what is going on.)
• Someone else was twittering under the NTSA’s name, it was accurate but still not okay, they are looking into getting a legit twitter account.
• How do you control the crisis? You cannot control it, you can only respond.

AND my favorite quote from the session

Then I chose the workshop: “The camera is rolling, 20 skills to develop your teleconferencing/media skills.” by Steve Clements. I did pick up some from this, but I was hoping it would go over tips for giving clients presentations, and it was more so focused on speaking in front of the camera in all of its fashions. What I loved was that I got a takeaway from this session, I wish I got this for all sessions. Some great tips, and afterwards I realized I can put these tips to use in vlogging.

• Avoid staring at the camera the whole time, blink, look natural.
• Pretend the camera is a friend, this will make you a more natural speaker.
• If you use notes, print them in large font.
• Maintain and animated and pleasant facial expression, don’t let your face ‘go dead’

After this workshop we had a awesome lunch while we listened to Peter Shankman (@skydiver)  talk about social media

• The problem is, is that no one really knows what social media is?  Social Media is nothing but the ability to screw up to a much larger audience in a much shorter amount of time.
• Can’t make anything go viral, what you can do, is make something good, if you make it good, it will go viral.
• Ones that are the most creative win.
• Social Media is nothing more than trust, chance that someone will see it and pass it on to their friends.
• If you blog for your client, then be transparent about it.
• Reporters get 5000 e-mails a day so you better be brief and relevant, you have 2.7 seconds to make an impression.
• We talk to less than 3% of our network contacts so that means we are missing opportunities to connect with 97% of our network.
• You lost control of the conversation years ago, the best you can do now is to get involved in the conversation.
• If you have someone that is reluctant to embrace social media, run their contact by other social media mediums such as Facebook, show them how much of their network is already embracing social media.

Then I went to “PR and Passion Rule the Gator Nation” ran by: Joe Hice

• Have the same passion for your work that you want your customers to have for your product.
• People you develop that passion with will support you through the good and bad.
• Create an Emotional memory.
• Pepper everything you do with creativity, differentiate yourself or DIE.
• You cannot sell a product like everyone else, then your competition grows exponentionally.
• 100 million readers a week for Google & Yahoo vs. 7.4 million a week for ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

And my favorite workshop of the entire event was: “Strategic Corporate Communications and Execution”, this is my favorite because this is an area I need help with, I have lots of thoughts and ideas, and I can execute them, I just have a hard time with organizing them into a strategic plan that others can look at and see exactly what I am trying to convey.  This is why I love David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, it is so well written, and in a very organized manor. If you do not have his book I recommend getting it, it is a small and very worthwhile investment of $15.72

My takeaways from Sharon Wamble – King on Strategic Communications

• You have to drive value, not just make plans.
• When sitting down with your clients, ask questions so you two are learning together, don’t act like you know everything.
• Need to think about the sound strategy so you get results and not outcomes.
• Strategic thinking, that is just the thoughts, strategic planning comes afterwards with the organization of your thoughts.  If I have to execute on this, what are the levers I have to push?
• Have a business process that aligns, connects, and engages stakeholders to the business.
• Tools should be the last thing you talk about.

Then we were all Guitar Haro Rockstarts on Friday Night!

Then Saturday morning I sat in a very informative session on APR accreditation and taking your exam, which I am now looking into becoming a PRSA member, checked out my local chapter today, then I am going to start the process towards taking the APR exam.

Our last session was by Dayna Steele on ‘Finding Your Inner Rockstar”

• Got to let people know what it is that you need
• You have to say Thank You
• Give back to your community, show appreciation.

Overall this was a great conference with great people and I plan on seeing everyone again in 2010.

Just over a week ago I was mentally preparing myself for not only my first plane ride ever, but for my first PR conference and my first conference by myself.  I am going to PRVille on June 18th in Jacksonville, FL.  Then last Monday I see @jessicaknows post that she is getting excited for Blogpotomac, so I Google ‘Blog Potomac’ to see what it is that I am missing.  I find it is a social media conference and it is in Virginia, there is a conference in my backyard, I did not think there was anything going on around here, so I click on the register button, and alas, they are sold out.

The next day I start seeing people offering up their tickets stating they cannot make it. I tried about three people and by the time I got to them the ticket was gone, I started feeling like I should have placed ‘blogpotomac’ in my ‘TweetBeep‘ so I did not miss another ticket, fortunately Maggie (@maggielmcg) sent me a DM me telling me I was in luck, and as corny as it may sound I cannot tell you how excited I was.

Then the excitement wore off, and the anxiety set in, I am a bit of introvert. Have you ever took one of those personality tests that your employer gives you, well I came out as a INTP, these are the analytical folks that live inside their own minds – that is me, yeah I know – public relations, what was I thinking, aren’t you suppose to be an extrovert in that field.  However, most of the facets of this industry I thoroughly enjoy and I enjoy change and growth so it is great to be in an industry that challenges who I am as a person, I will always have to push myself.

Needless to say I pulled it together, knowing this was an opportunity to get my feet wet before PRVille and stepped outside of my comfort zone. Guess what………

I was fine, I am alive, I networked with a few awesome tweeps, and I met Jessica Smith in person, learned a lot of great information and honestly built my confidence as things were said that I have always thought I knew but always questioned myself on just the same, that is another INTP trait by the way.

So the highlights of each speaker for me were:

The wording may be part in their wording and part in mine, if I am pretty certain, I heard exactly what they said then it is in quotes.

Shel Holtz – @shel – Spoke on Cultural Barriers to implementations of Social Media in Organizations

Cultural Barriers

1. Legal – the law is whatever your general council says it is. The lawyers have assumed importance beyond what they contribute to the organization.  A lot of people have been in agreement with everything that the lawyer says, and it is not always the best advice for an organization.  So to change the culture you are going to need to make sure you can demonstrate that the results that were generated by your council are better than the lawyers but that the risks are still minimized.
2. Loss of control - the culture of the organization wants to be in control of everything that is said; we do not have that control anyway, we never did have that control it was just hidden. Their operating under a fantasy that they have control just by issuing a press release, etc.
3. Responsibility: Wrong – Ownership and responsibility for the organization should go to the ones that are really good with face book and twitter.  This does not mean that you are really good at developing a communication model that identifies the right communities that you need to be engaged in to communicate the business goals of the organization.  If you don’t start with the business goals first then you could be engaging with the wrong people, start with business goals first.
4. Regulation is another issue, specifically to the Pharmaceutical and Financial industry, they do not want to violate any regulations. Very few blogs dealing with Investor Relations. If you are representing these companies and careful with what you say in all other dealings what makes them think that you are not going to use the same approach when having these conversations over the net. Communicators need to stress internally that the rules that apply everywhere else apply online as well.
5. Resources: Lack of resources to utilize these new tools, if we don’t set the base point and show how much time it takes to produce the communication then we are not going to be able to show them how much better it is using these new tools to engage socially. When Southwest launched their blog, just moderating the comments warranted two more employees, but the pay off just from seeing the tickets that were bought that came over from the blog to registration was all they needed
6. One Voice – right or wrong? there is something wrong with making sure all the employees know what the organizations story is from the Director’s point of view. Culture says we only speak through the voice of the Director. There is a failure to recognize that people are having conversations with or without you and we need to overcome those barriers.

Notes:

• We get so fascinated by all the tools that we forget that we need to first know the organizations goals and to set a strategy, need a metrical objectives to take back to the organization.
• Every employee is a frontline PR person and needs to be empowered as such.

Shireen Mitchelle – @digitalsista – Political Blogging

Talked about Social Media and how that played a role in the last election.  She went to both conventions, her goal was to cover both parties and to give a balanced approach and view on the running of the two women in particular at the time Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin

The most impressive thing was twitter, the debates the protest, most of everyone in the room at Blog Potomac followed the debates. She talked about the differences of each convention, when she was at the RNC – police where jumping out on people and you would not know they where they were coming from, they used the  hashtag as a way to let people know where the police where jumping out at.   The RNC did not embrace twitter and blogs where as the DNC embraced social media, she was allowed to bring her camera, her laptop, etc.  Social Media allowed everyone to see the real story, as the national news never projected the screen at the RNC, and what people on TV were seeing was something different than the people in the convention were seeing, it was not fair and balanced, so pictures were taken and put out on twitter.

Some of the Hashtags she uses are: (I did not catch all of them)

• Conservatives: #tcot
• Liberal: #rebelleft
• Libertarians: #tlot
• Progressives: #topprog or #p2

Now by women talking about issues that were important to them, you are now seeing more woman organizations getting on twitter than ever before.  By using the hashtags when you talk about these issues you can communicate across the different groups.

Scott Monty – @scottmonty – Social Media in Crisis

• Crisis in an opportunity to take a negative and turn it into a positive.
• Responding and being transparent and letting them know what is going on and inviting them into the process.
• Leveraging that community for the ones that want you to succeed, ask them for help, your community will have a far greater reach through the networks they know then you will on your own.
• Have a place where you can quickly post updates or comments, etc. (This is why I agree with those that say every company should have a blog)
• The notion that people are talking about your brand is key, everyone has a horror story with a vehicle. People have always talked about these, now these conversations are talking place online. People are going to go to other sites to find out about vehicles, want to give people the value to hear what Ford has to say but to also hear what other people have to say on their site.
• You don’t have to respond to every tweet or comment, let the community defend your brand and correct things that are wrong. You can only read so many blogs, comments, etc.
• The tools are irrelevant, they will always change, we are talking abut creating a culture of open communication and letting people talk about the company.
• If you can engage people that have spoken negatively about your company and if you can get them on your side then they will be your best brand advocates.
• People care about themselves, they care abut being part of a success, they care about being part of something bigger.
• Respond in context within the medium that was the starting point of the crisis and move on to other mediums from there.
• “Never going to win a battle in crisis communication by negating what the other person is saying”

Scott presented a mini version of Ford’s Code of Ethics for their communications,  loved these!

• I will tell the truth
• I will write deliberately and with accuracy
• I will try to be inclusive of all ideas and points of view
• I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly
• I will not delete posts
• I will not delete comments unless they are spam or profane
• I will disclose conflicts of interest.
• I will stay on topic

Liz Strauss – @lizstrauss - The Business Aspect of Blogging

Relationships: we have been doing this for years, before we had to get on a plane to maintain these relationships, now we have new social media tools to do this, should be able to do it a whole lot faster now but we have been doing it for years.

“The two things every company needs are: More products to buy, and more opportunities to buy them.”

“If you want to do social media well, don’t lead with the tools, lead with relationships, if you want to lead with relationships, start by knowing who you are, because knowing who you are is even more important than knowing what you do, cause knowing what you do is a subset of who you are, and when you know what you do, you know it really well…”

You will no longer be selling you will be talking about what you do, like you talk about it with your friends.

Aaron Brazell – @technosailor & Amber Naslund -  @ambercadabra Personal Branding

(Aaron also expands on his thoughts at Technosailor.com)

Amber: It is the idea that personal brands have become a shortcut for building a real relationship that is not cared for.  You are listing these bullet points about yourself and then others are just suppose to buy it.  Your personal brand is not your own, it is not what you say it is, it is what the community says it is.

Aaron – the fundamental flaw is the concept of a personal brand, a personal brand is more about ego.  A brand should be bigger than an individual person. Where do you position yourself, are you positioning yourself for yourself, or are you positing yourself for your company. Never allow your personal brand to eclipse the greater initiative, the greater goal of your company.

Amber: you cannot separate a personal brand with your professional personality, it’s about knowing who you are and representing it across everything you do. Your company is paying you to do your job, your reputations are tied together because it is for both of your benefit, it’s not about you, its about the company, can it enhance that, if you can-  that means that you are being a good employee.

Aaron - It is okay to have a personal brand, but does not like the word personal brand because there is a cockiness about it that says it’s all about me vs. all about us. Your brand is controlled by your customers.

Amber – You can’t control what is put out there about you. Doesn’t matter what information you put out abut yourself, it matters what others say. We have a personal responsibility to know what is being said about us, should be doing vanity searches on Google to see what is being said about you.

Shashi Bellamkonda – @shashib – Network Solutions

A social media practitioner should be independent, free thinking, and always active.

Most people in management are resistant, but through effective communication change is still possible.

Customer Service is the most important; if you are good to your customers then they will spread the word about you.

Do not use tools just for the sake of using them, they should be a tool to communicate and engage with others.

Mahdi Gharavi did a excellent recap Here

I attended Chicks Who Chat on last Tuesday night at MOM TV (I think it was Tuesday, don’t quote me on the day) and the discussion was blogging, what made you want to start blogging and did you take a break and then come back, etc.  There were a few comments talking about the number of visitors not reflecting the number of comments, like there will be way more visitors than people who actually leave comments.

So let’s look at the obvious reasons why this might be:

1. Your post is not interesting, relevant or useful enough, and when I say this, I mean to your specific niche/audience, everyone has their own version of interesting.
2. They were directed to your site through a keyword, but your content was not what they were looking for. For this you can get an idea of what percentage to eliminate by looking at your bounce rate – those who are on and then off. I have heard that you do not want your bounce rate above 30%, but I am not in SEO, so not sure?
3. The title of the post was not interesting/captivating enough for them to click on the post to read it.

On the note of tips that can help your blog get shared see Chris Brogan’s post, it’s a really helpful post.

So, what if none of these fit you and you are still having people come to your blog and not leave comments, well I have good news for you! It’s most likely nothing you are doing wrong. I am not saying that there is not a strategic process that goes into place to figure out who your buyer persona is and how to reach them, how to engage with them, i.e. which technology to use, etc.  I am just addressing my observation of seeing bloggers who are good, they have good content for their niche and they will get anywhere from 7 to upwards in comments per post, but they still are focusing on the number of visitors and the percentage that is not commenting.

Some people just do not comment, or they do not comment unless they are extremely passionate about the particular topic.

I attended an Awareness/Forrester webinar not too long ago and I learned some interesting statistics:

• 18%  – publish a blog, write articles or stories and post them, upload video and music they created.
• 25% -  post ratings reviews, comment’s on blogs, contributes to online forums
• 12% -  uses RSS feeds (Really, I was shocked at this one), adds tags to web pages or photos, votes for websites online.
• 25% – maintain a profile on a social networking site.
• 48% – read blogs, watch video from other users, listen to podcasts, read online forums.
• 44% – do none of the above.

So there you have it, more than half of people in the online community are just reading, listening absorbing. After they do one of these, they are either coming back or they are not?  Comments, interaction is important, you want to engage with your readers, but engaging does not always mean your audience leaving comments.  If you are engaging them they will come back, and as far as looking at numbers – that is the one I would focus on, are my readers coming back? How many want to see more?

Although the ‘spectators‘ are not the ones that are commenting, this does not mean that they are not spreading the word some how, this does not mean that they are not creating buzz for you.

It’s also great practice to track your short URL to see how many clicks you are getting; it might give you an idea of how many are sharing your information.   Bit.ly is one you can use, there are also some other ranking/tracking tools you can gather from this Mashable article by Ben Parr.

Also to give you a little demographics on the spectators so you can see how they fit into who your audience: (Via Forrester)

• 70% – Under 25
• 67% – 25-34 (Single, no kids)
• 62% - 25 -34 (Married, no kids)
• 66% – 25-34 (with kids)

As long as you are blogging about what is relevant to your audience and they are coming back for more and passing on your posts, creating buzz, etc. then to me the comment part is not on the top of the priority list.  Everyone loves getting comments, it is what helps us grow and lets us know that what we are writing is something of use.  I just wouldn’t want some of the people that I have heard have concerns try to fix something that is not broken.

What do you think is more important, comments, others creating buzz, or readers that cannot get enough and come back again and again?

Want to now how Uncle Ben’s is my LifeSaver? Read on….

This may not be the norm for a productivity/organizational tip, but it has been a lifesaver for me. My husband was laid off for a while so as a mother that works from home I forgot how hard it can be to balance taking care of my son and working. Not to mention before my husband got laid off my son could not crawl or walk, so it was much easier. Now my husband has been back to work for a month, and although I am getting back in the grove when it comes to work and chasing my son around, I am still missing that necessity – FOOD.

About two months ago I won three bags of ‘Uncle Bens Ready Rice’ and well – lets say I do not enter the kitchen much, so my husband made the other two bags, and although they tasted yummy, back then I never experienced the best part of ‘Uncle Bens Ready Rice’ and that is making it.

This past Monday I was in the kitchen making Jackson lunch, he is fussing at me because I am not moving fast enough and I am scouring the cabinets for something quick to make, and there is nothing.  Some days I can just go without eating lunch, well today was not one of those days. Thankfully I came across the bag of ‘Uncle Bens Ready Rice’ I can’t tell you how good the words ‘ 90 seconds’ looked.

Of course I added some butter, because I am incapable of being healthy it seems.

As odd as it is, this is my productivity tip ‘Uncle Bens Ready Rice’ I know it bought me a number of things, bought me 30 more minutes in the day, bought me less of a headache from my 16 month old screaming for his mom to come feed him, bought me a happier day as I was not grumpy due to lack of nutrition.

What is your Productivity Tip? What helps you get through the day?

“Social Media and What Gives” was the topic of this past Spin Cycle with @ExtraordMommy

Two days later I find myself still thinking about this topic.  I know what gives for me, my kids, my husband, my me time, well wait a minute – I guess social media has become my ‘me’ time. I really hate admitting that I spend less time with my kids because I am on the internet, because reading my own words make me cringe, but it’s the truth.

When I first found twitter and used it for a few weeks, my mind was strictly on work, another way to network.  In the first month I was addicted to twitter, there were so many great minds to pick, so many great articles being posted.  Then I am not even sure how it happened, but twitter switched from only being a tool I could use while at work to becoming part of my social life.  People share their lives, their goals, their tragedies online and you grow to develop friendships with them, you feel a connection that you never thought would be possible just from communicating online.  I have learnt so much on a professional level and on a personal level from being on twitter, but it is amazing how time consuming social media in general can be.  There are tweets, and then the tweets link to an article or blog posts, then posts lead to engagement and so on it goes.

I have tried to pull myself away from the computer time and time again, and there are weekends where I succeed, there are weekends when I spend time with my family and barely touch the computer and there are times where it is the opposite.  However, I think I might have found a way to help me get more ‘me time’ and more time with my kids…

There are two things I am addicted to – Work and the Internet. I have an obsessive personality; it is one of those things I try to balance or curve often.  So I thought what if I take what I know I am already obsessed with and try to translate that into a way to spend more time with my family.  I know that probably sounds backwards huh. But I think it will work.  About 6 months ago I came across a forum/networking site called Baltimore Mommies:

I signed up, and like I have done with quite a few memberships or networking sites, I never went back.  So after taking a second look I thought that this may be a good way to network with other moms in the area, which will lead to more activities I can do with my kids and also for play dates where they can play with other kids.  They also have GNO, and although I love the #GNO that I join on Tuesday nights, I do feel at times that I need a GNO where I actually see other people.  My close friends although I love them much, for the most part are far away or single. They have bowling, scavenger hunts, library trips, orioles games and all kinds of fun stuff I can do with the kids that will not cost me tons of money.

I am not one of those creative moms that can think of neat, crafty ideas to do with my kids, so to have others make plans where I and my kids can go and interact is perfect.  Also, my kids are 16 months, 6 years’ old, and 10 years old.  They are never on the same page with what they want to do and what they consider to be a good time.

I am super excited that I have now just become active in this group.  I am supposed to go meet a group of mothers tonight, which should be interesting.  This is new to me, as I have never just gone and met a group of women that I did not know. I will tell you how it goes!

What gives for you for you?  Have you joined a network like Baltimore Mommies before?  What was your experience?  I am a tad nervous so any tips, stories would help.

I attended #GNO on Tuesday night hosted by MomitForward. They always have great twitter parties, but this past Tuesday’s discussion was even more so of a interest to me, as it applies to a transition I am making shortly.  I am starting my first hosted blog, actually two blogs, one being a non-profit and one being a place where I will give PR tips/tools/software comparisons, and work at home tips as well.  With the non-profit I really did not plan on doing giveaways or reviews, although that may change if they are applicable to my non-profit.  However I have used some great tools/products that have been a god sent to me as a mom of a 16 month old that works from home.  So now with so much of the focus being on the transparency of blogs, and what is or is not allowed, I am really not sure as a fairly new blogger that I should be touching something that seems to have so much drama and controversy around it.  Not that I have any problem with disclosure because that makes sense to me, I am just not sure how in depth the rules and regulations are going to be and that would be another added facet, something else I would have to learn when it comes to the blogging world.  With that said I think I will wind up doing giveaways anyway.

I learned a lot from Tuesday nights #GNO and then was able to learn even more on Spin Cycle which also covered blogger transparency hosted by @extraordmommy. I do recommend that you check out the Spin Cycle on Wednesday nights at 9 PM EST.  I feel it is much more interactive then a twitter party, although I love the twitter parties, by the time I leave them, my head is spinning and I wake up with a headache even when there is no wine involved. I have their button and a screen shot below so you can get a feel for how the interaction is done.

What you will see when you join Spin Cycle

Click on this Button to Check out Spin Cycle

What is this FTC stuff all about anyway: I am sure everyone knows what the issue is by now, but to my surprise upon doing some digging I found that this has been in the works since 2006.  Maybe it is the pessimist in me or the realist as I prefer to say, but I thought it was journalist’s that were threatened that bloggers were becoming so popular and that they had complained, but I am not sure about that anymore as I connected the feeling threatened with the economy and I do not think things were even starting to get bad back in 2006. The grasp I have on this is that the FTC is questioning the ethics of receiving payments (what is a payment? That is not known yet) without disclosure that in some cases this can violate consumer-protection laws on deception. This is per Ron Coleman from his 2006 Article “Blogger Transparency Mandated by FTC” Another issue I just learned about is that ‘Google’ has already began tightening restrictions on blogs that link to the sponsor’s site and that bloggers are suppose to insert some type of a software code to negate the value of those links. I do not know all the details on this, but this does not seem right.  I do not think I understand fully either, is negating those sponsor links going to take your blog down further in Google; I get the disclosure piece, this part not so much.

What is the Consensus: As far as I can see the consensus from most bloggers is that they do not mind disclosing if they were given money or a free product, but that their personal blog and giveaways should be on one blog and not separate.  I am all for disclosure, I think being upfront and honest is a must, do I think that it is a little unjust that some outside of the blogger category can get away with this, but yet we are being put in the spotlight, yes I do!  With that said if you want me to review your product, and I do not already own it, well then the only way I am reviewing it, is if you send it to me for free.  To me it is a given that you would be sent a product for free to try it out and give your review or to hold a giveaway. I think the odds of this statement being true are very low “The FTC says it wants to protect consumers, who may take a blogger’s opinion at face value without knowing it was influenced by an advertiser.” From Douglas MacMillan at Business Week in New York on his recent article “Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts” This is why – when I go onto a post that talks about a giveaway or a review there are usually hundreds of comments, and usually always through those comments or through others on twitter I hear about others who have personally used the product, I am sure this does not apply to every product, but there are quite a few were I saw a second personal encounter right in front of my eyes, so it is not like this is one person and they are the only ones that are allowed to speak on this product with no outside interaction, does that make sense? Or no?

I said this at #GNO and at Spin Cycle, someone should do an eBook on everything blogging, on the ethics, on how you should do your press kit, to how to provide good content.  I believe there is a huge audience for this, unfortunately I just do not know enough about it to write an eBook on the subject.  However through GNO and Spin Cycle I have learned some great tips that I have below

This is a post that I recommend reading, although if I was an advertiser I would honestly be interested in seeing stats, as I want to see the whole picture and I would feel stats is a part of that, but you can almost always bet where there is good content their will be visitors, where you are being true to you and giving your audience useful or entertaining information your audience will come back again and again. I am going to aim for the useful part, as I can admit on an entertaining level my writing pails in comparison to others.

From @AlliWorthington blog post at Mrs. Fussypants

“It’s not your traffic, it’s your VOICE

I took a clip from her post that I found to be very dead on.

I am a believer in being persistent and proactive and to go after what you want. I have sought out work with a company that was not hiring before and they made a position for me, I have moved up at my last company 5 times within 4 years. I am not a bold person, well not if you do not know me anyway.  So if I did not stick my neck out there I would still be working at Glamour Shots as a Customer Service Rep. I think at first companies may not come to you, so if this is something you are serious and passionate about then you need to go to them.

There were some different opinions at this past Tuesday’s GNO on this exact topic.  Please keep in mind these are in 140 characters and one piece of hours of conversation so there could be more or the comment could be what it is, for instant @jessicaknows was talking about consulting and blogging, not sure which one she was referring to in her comment below.

If you do not feel comfortable approaching companies you could always write reviews on products you already have thereby allowing you to get noticed. As @classymommy noted as well, after you review a product you already have, let the company know you did a review on them.

A good Question that I invite anyone that may know to answer. I did taxes for a little but for not too long, but I believe gifts of a certain value have to be disclosed, but I am not sure if this is correct or what the value is, if you receive money I am pretty sure you do have to disclose that.

Some other excellent tips

Info on how to build a killer press kit sent by @gwenbell -

The last bit of link love I am giving for this post is: Gwen Bell Interviews Stephanie Precourt About Blogging for Money

My last thoughts:

Where I stand at this moment is:

• Disclosure is a must

• Do not say Yes to every opportunity that comes along, make sure it goes with your brand, think if your readers would be interested.

• Do not focus on traffic, focus on your voice.

• Support other bloggers, the blogger community is huge and we could be so powerful if we only all supported each other, I have seen us do it time and time again.  Since this has come to light, I see bloggers get snippy with other bloggers and attack each other.  With that said, someone told me a while back, you can not read emotions in writing, and when you condense it down to 140 characters it makes it even harder, so I am sure the things I could have seen could just be mis-communications.

• If I do get to the point of doing reviews or giveaways I will give my feedback on a product whether it is good or bad, I would never trash a company or be rude, but I would give my honest feedback.  Although I am new at this, I feel we have a obligation to our readers to give them the full picture, the things we don’t care for and the reasons why and the things we love.

• What would have been different for me if I did not attend GNO and Spin Cycle: Before last week I would have not really had a hold on what was going on or how to go about addressing it when I move over to my new home, and also I very much think I would have been a YES woman and go against everything I know, and would have chosen to say YES vs. just focusing on providing good content.

So what do you think on blogger transparency, should you have to disclose if you get a product for free, does it make a difference, or does it really boil down to how much you trust the blogs you follow, what do you think?

When bloggers first start out what should be our rule of thumb, should we reach out to companies, or just keep writing good content and entice them that way to come to us, would love to here everyone’s opinion.