It’s hard for me to believe that BlogHer was just a week ago. I have had a million thoughts racing through my head following the meeting, most of which I have posted about over at my personal blog Pop Discourse. I still have one more post forthcoming re: BlogHer programming; meanwhile, my fingers are worn to the nub so I will simply redirect you to plenty of engaging reading per my posts on the age of mommy blogger discontent, marketing to women of color, why I’ll be heading to BlogHer NYC in 2010, and ideas for how bloggers and sponsors can co-exist in harmony.It’s hard for me to believe that BlogHer was just a week ago. I have had a million thoughts racing through my head following the meeting, most of which I have posted about over at my personal blog Pop Discourse. I still have one more post forthcoming re: BlogHer programming; meanwhile, my fingers are worn to the nub so I will simply redirect you to plenty of engaging reading per my posts on the age of mommy blogger discontent, marketing to women of color, why I’ll be heading to BlogHer NYC in 2010, and ideas for how bloggers and sponsors can co-exist in harmony.
I’m thrilled to soon be on my way to Chicago for BlogHer, where I hope folks will cast away the social baggage in favor of engaging in a lot of awesome programming and rocking some really spectacular parties. If you’re heading to the meeting, I hope to meet you there! Feel free to @ me on Twitter or drop me an e-mail during the event if you’d like to connect.
I'm a tad remiss in reporting, but wanted to share some recent kind media mentions. A couple of weeks ago I was quoted in Joanna Weiss’s Boston Globe feature on imperfect parenting confessionals. And last week I was included in FOX25 Boston’s special report on mom bloggers. Given the brouhaha that has erupted amidst the blogging community re: product reviews, I was particularly pleased that my comments on ethics and transparency made the cut.
In response to an invitation to submit an idea for an episode of The Juice, last week I wrote about a topic I care deeply about: nurturing relationships and the value of doing good things for people. And I’m honored to report that The Juice selected my post as the winning entry of their Trop 50 Juice Contest. As a result, I’ll head to San Francisco to film a webisode with host and BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins, featuring the tips I wrote about, plus some additional useful ideas and resources on the topic.
I’ll let you know when the webisode is live; meanwhile, I’m flattered that my post was selected from what no doubt was a pool of thoughtful and insightful entries, and am happy to have the opportunity to spread the good karmic word!
One thing readers periodically have asked me for is discussion forum and social networking capability on this site. But as much as I’ve always loved the idea, it’s something that simply has been out of my time and technological reach given that I run Boston Mamas on my own and wear several other professional hats. So, I’m thrilled to announce that I have partnered with the cool folks over at Momlogic to create a Boston Mamas community page where you can connect with other moms, query for advice, and talk amongst yourselves, as it were. So come over and join us (and feel free to friend me). I look forward to chatting with you there!As I mentioned in March, ever since experiencing BlogHer Boston, I’ve been super excited to attend the big BlogHer meeting in Chicago this summer. And I’m enormously grateful to have not one (Boston-based firm 360 Public Relations, which I announced in March), but two companies sponsoring my trip. Thank you, Stonyfield Farm, for acting as my secondary sponsor for BlogHer Chicago! Please read on to learn about Stonyfield's impressive environmental initiatives, and a yummy but lesser known organic product they offer.BlogHer Boston was such an amazingly fun ride that there was no question that I wanted to get myself to the big BlogHer meeting this summer. And I’m so very grateful and thrilled to announce that the Boston-based PR firm 360 Public Relations is sponsoring my trip to Chicago. Thank you, 360PR! Read on to learn more about 360PR and a cool (paid!) opportunity they offer for moms across the country.
I’m honored to share the link for my UNICEF guest blog post, in which I describe how my interactions with UNICEF and Pampers turned me from skeptic to believer. It certainly is ironic that the in-person interactions made such an impact on someone who lives and breathes online media, and I can only hope that my reports do justice to the events and thus possibly inspire action for others. It truly is a privilege to share my story alongside the other amazing reports on UNICEF’s Field Notes blog.
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone for their support following last week’s unfortunate dealings with Boston.com online marketing. The subsequent comments, tweets, and posts truly reflected the passion that readers and bloggers have for transparency, as well as the beauty and power of social media. I just wish I could thank everyone individually; please accept my virtual hugs and handshakes!
When I first launched Boston Mamas in July 2006, as far as I could tell (or as far as Google could tell me), I was the only kid on this particular niche block. That has changed in the last couple of years, however, with a number of national-with-niche-offshoot sites cropping up, as well as Boston.com’s BoMoms launch in May 2008.
My passion for recycling no doubt is at least partly attributable to growing up on hand me downs (as the sixth of seven kids), and I’m thrilled to announce that Boston Mamas now offers a free way for you to recycle your kiddie and parenting gear. Check out our new classifieds section powered by Hand Me Downs (a national mom classifieds website), and enjoy acquiring and purging via this prettily designed service! Also, for those of you who dig celebrity things, the central site recently launched their first celebrity auction, in which Gwen Stefani has donated goods to be auctioned off for charity.
This past Thursday (when I was absent from posting…) I had the honor of attending a media event in New York, during which Jodi Allen (VP of North America Baby Care, P & G), Caryl Stern (President and CEO, US Fund for UNICEF), and Salma Hayek (actress and Pampers/UNICEF campaign spokesperson) announced the relaunch of the “1 Pack = 1 Vaccine” campaign to eradicate maternal and neonatal tetanus. Read on to learn more about the campaign and press conference; in my next post I’ll share the transcript from my small group interview with Salma Hayek.
To be perfectly honest, I’m struggling a bit to get back into the swing of things after two weeks of weird schedules, too many cookies, and holiday chaos (despite my best attempts to keep the holidays stress-free). Inspired by some year in review type posts by some of my blog peeps (thanks Musings of a Housewife and Motherhood Uncensored!), on this day back to business I was inspired to peruse the Boston Mamas archives and look back on 2008 and forward to 2009. I am grateful to all of you for tuning in and wish you a Happy New Year!
After 10 years of academic conferences, it’s probably no surprise that this past weekend’s BlogHer Boston conference felt revolutionary. Fun, energizing, and replete with interesting content, people, good food, and an affirming obsession with Twitter (I'm @bostonmamas...), I highly recommend that anyone interested or experienced in blogging attend this conference in the future. Here’s my wrap up of the event:
I didn’t manage to post about this before I headed out for vacation the other week, but I was honored to be interviewed recently about all things Boston Mamas and Posh Peacock by Heather Kempskie at Wicked Local Parents. In the interview post, you can also see one of my new headshots there, courtesy of the super talented Kristin Chalmers.
Dear Readers: In my quest for better balance, I have decided to take my first Internet vacation ever. My person, family, and sore eyeballs and forearms need the R & R, and I’ll be back posting lots of fabulous content next week. Meanwhile, if you need your Boston Mamas fix, scroll down to peruse our archived topics in the left column. There are almost 1200 back posts to amuse you. Have a great week!
After 3 years of resisting periodic friendly nudges from friends and family (primarily because I couldn't bear the idea of tracking yet another username and password), I finally joined Facebook. If you’re already part of the (addictive) FB craze, please consider visiting the Boston Mamas page and becoming a fan. The page imports this blog’s content so you can get your friend and fan fixes all in one place.
I’m thrilled to announce a new component to the site: Boston Mamas Rock! We’ll be featuring interviews with fabulous local mamas, whether they be entrepreneurs, avid volunteers, stay at home moms who take care of a crazy number of kids, moms who have closet talents (e.g., community theatre, juggling, what have you…), authors, media professionals, politicians, professors, etc. Basically, folks with an interesting story to tell! So go ahead and nominate yourself or someone else! And I’m pleased to introduce our first featured mama: Susan Callahan, a “cookiepreneur” from Westford.