As some of you may know, I attended the Midwest Moms Media Brands & Bloggers Summit in Chicago this past Saturday.  It was tons of fun!  I absolutely loved getting to meet the awesome people behind some of the blogs I enjoy!

From left to right this is Xenia from Thanks, Mail Carrier, me, Kelly from Kelly’s Lucky You and Melissa from The Life of a Sippy Cup Mom.  I love these ladies!

I absolutely couldn’t wait to share some of the valuable information with all of you!  Today I’m going to do a quick recap of some of my favorite points.  There will also be a post coming later this week with some awesome tips about video blogging!  So make sure to stop back by!  Video blogging was discussed repeatedly at the conference, so it’s definitely an important topic.

One of the speakers that really sticks out in my mind is Connie Burke from GMC.  Connie talked a lot about building relationships with brands, not working with them once and never hearing from them again.  She said “this is not a one night stand.”  Connie also explained that she doesn’t pick bloggers to work with based solely on numbers, “it’s not a popularity contest.”  I wish that every PR person I work with felt the same way as Connie.  She asked us to raise our hands if we’ve ever worked with a brand and never heard from them again and so many of us in that room raised our hands.  I want to work with brands on an ongoing basis, and Connie believes in that too!  Her words were so refreshing to hear and it made me feel good knowing that there are people out there like her that are working with bloggers.

The beautiful GMC Acadia that Connie Burke brought to show us!

I also loved Meagan Francis from The Happiest Mom.  Meagan talked a lot about being responsible for our brand.  She said “I’m marketing, I’m editorial, I’m everything!”  It really made me think about all the different aspects of running a blog and reminded me that I’m in charge of all of it!  Meagan talked about staying true to yourself and your brand and said “I should totally care who’s in my sidebar.”  That’s the truth!  Every ad, post and link on our blog reflects who we are and we shouldn’t take that lightly.  Meagan also gave an awesome tip for finding brands’ PR contacts – look up their press releases, there’s usually a name at the bottom and an email address.  This is one thing I’ve never tried before but definitely will in the future!

Another great tip came from Stephanie Precourt from Adventures in Babywearing.  She said that it’s always a good idea to do a quick search for the name of the brand and “controversy” before deciding to work with them.  This helps you to make more educated decisions about who you decide to work with and makes sure you’re not going to attach your name to a brand that has a tainted reputation. 

Photo Credit: http://lahleyoo.zenfolio.com

Wendy Piersall was another member of the panel.  She recently wrote the book Mom Blogging for Dummies.  I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on this book!  I’m so excited :)  Wendy did a wonderful job of explaining the thought process of some brands that we might pitch.  She said “in their world dollars equal results.”  For example, a brand may be used to pitches that cost $200,000 so when they see a bloggers little $200 pitch they may be confused and wonder “what’s the catch?” or think it’s not worth their time.  Wendy told us to make sure to know our own worth and understand that our time is valuable!  Not that we can go out and pitch a company for $200,000, but just make sure to value yourself and your work. 

We also heard from Sarah Evans about the FTC disclosure policies and how they apply to bloggers.  She explained that the FTC isn’t out to catch every single little thing that we do wrong, but is more focused on catching bloggers who have deceptive practices.  One thing she pointed out that I definitely need to improve on, is the need for disclosures in tweets and Facebook updates.  The hashtag #spon will cover disclosures on Twitter (and I’m assuming the same abbreviation can be used in Facebook updates as well).  You can see her entire presentation on the FTC guidelines here. 

So that was my super quick recap.  I really wish I could’ve taken a video of the entire conference so I could remember every word!  Trying to take notes, tweet and listen at the same time isn’t always the easiest thing to do!  Of course, all of the speakers were awesome, not just the ones I chose to mention here.  I had a great time and am so happy to have my first blog conference under my belt! 

*My family and I stayed in Chicago compliments of the Best Western Plus River North Hotel.