May 2nd, 2012

Drool Baby Expo by Magic Beans

The Drool Baby Expo

I am really excited about sharing this post again because, well, it is about a super-awesome high-end baby expo here in Boston.

Not New York. Not LA. Here…in Beantown.

Aren’t you now excited too?

This extraordinary expo called Drool (awesomely clever name) is the brainchild of the locally amazing Magic Beans, in collaboration with Big City Moms. They wanted to create a baby expo to connect expecting and new Moms with the hottest brands. All in one space.

See the best new strollers, car seats, baby carriers, accessories, and safety items, and learn about cord blood banking, photographers, 3D ultrasound and more. Explore new products, win incredible prizes, and walk away with an amazing gift bag. Complimentary light refreshments, mini-pampering sessions, and drinks will be served. Plus, many of the brands will have show-only discounts to get you started on your nursery or add to your new baby stash of items.

Check out this YouTube video from last year to see the fabulousness in store for this year!

And it is not just for parents-to-be or new parents; grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends who are looking for the best products for babies should definitely go too.

So the details: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at the The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts (in Boston’s trendy South End) from 5:00pm-9pm. Valet Parking is $15, but there are facilities and street parking in the area. Tickets cost $35 per person with an amazing swag bag worth double the ticket price. For $20, you can get a basic ticket (but no swag bag though), but you get access to all the fun, show giveaways and discounts.

There is a ton of parking in the area and is right on several subway lines. So order your tickets soon before they’re gone! But (drum roll please), I am giving away a VIP ticket! (Thanks to Magic Beans!) So use the form to enter and don’t miss out on the awesomeness! Personally, as an expectant Mom, I can’t wait!

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February 18th, 2012

Your (Non) Private Life

9 April 2008 (tin foil hats)

This could be the hot new look for spring - tin foil.

Last night, when I was able to sit (finally) for two seconds and turn on the news (first time all week), I kinda wish I didn’t turn on the TV or ever use the computer in my life.

Oh, and wish I hadn’t laughed at the science nerds that used to wear tin foil on their head. (They were definitely onto something.)

Turns out that Google, after being questioned by reporters, admitted to spying on Safari users (aka Mac users) despite the fact that those Mac users had set up the privacy protections on their computers. Google used a certain code to ‘unlock’ Apple’s privacy locks and thus get access to all of your web surfing history. Google assured the reporters that they were not collecting personally identifiable information.

So, raise your hand if you believe that.

This of course, comes on the heels of the news regarding Facebook profile pictures being on porn sites, and I am sure on various other sites we don’t even know about yet. (I was afraid to Google the terms Facebook and porn knowing that Google now monitors my searching…….wait, did I hear a knock on the door?)

Think that is it? Oh no, my dear blogger reader friends who apparently have someone looking over their shoulder RIGHT NOW!!

Did I scare you??

It gets worse.

Do you shop at Target? They know when you are pregnant even before you tell your Mom or best friend. Or, in one unfortunate teenager’s case, before her Dad knew. {Awkward.}

Oh yes. You can read the full article here. (Makes the name ‘Target’ rather fitting, doesn’t it?)

Now, while Target clamped down on answering anymore of the reporters questions, I’m sure Target is not the only major retailer. Doesn’t matter if you don’t use a credit card when you shop either. Remember those phone numbers everyone asks you for? You know, so you can get coupons…that you never actually get?

Break out that tinfoil and start getting crafty. I’m off to create a Pinterest TinFoil Fashion Board.

 

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Image Credit: Wonderferret via Flickr Creative Commons.

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October 27th, 2011

Making Your Blog Social

Tips and Strategies for Promoting your Content.

As I mentioned in my recap of the Wordcamp Conference in Boston, I sat in on a session where the focus was on making your blog functional (see my post here) and on a session where the focus was making your blog social. Not Buddypress kind of social, but a discussion about content marketing. Being social (i.e., marketing your content) increases your web presence and sharing your blog posts grows your market; whether your goal is to sell your stuff, create a community, increase awareness of a cause or get more followers. It hopefully improves your social experience and the social experience of those who are on your site. It basically was a reminder that if you blog, you probably should Tweet and post on Facebook push your content, because if SEO is important for those that do a Bing or Google search for a topic and land on your blog, you need to be proactive too, if you have one of the above goals.

Some ways to do this are to create blogs that also have video content on YouTube or photographs on Flickr or Slideshare. Then you use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to spread the information you created. With that one blog post, you have broadcasted in 5 social mediums. If time is a factor, there are a variety of plugins that can automatically do that for you via your WordPress blog, like Network Publisher.

Another way to promote your content is to have a subscriber list, but make sure to note it is free. Remember, not everyone understands that that your “Subscribe to my Blog” is a free thing. Especially since a lot of websites are beginning to charge people. Also be upfront with the information about your subscription list: How often will you be emailing them? Will you sell their information?

Lastly, have buttons at the beginning or end of your post to make it easy for your readers to share your post. Plug-ins or tools like the Facebook Share, Tweetmeme, Twitter Retweet, Sexy Bookmarks, Add to Any, Socialize, Facebook Like, to make sharing your blog post super easy. Just don’t make it too busy or have too many buttons. That may actually hurt your goal. Pick one or two plug-ins, or one or two buttons where you most want to have your content shared. And as always, back up your blog before you install any new plug-ins. While these are some examples, they may not work for all. Always review to determine what plug-in is right for your blog, both in the social sense as discussed here, but in a technical sense too!

So what do you think? Do you currently use any of these plug-ins? Do you have a plug-in you love that is not list here?

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October 27th, 2011

Making Your Blog Functional

This icon, known as the "feed icon" ...

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Top Tips for Blogging on WordPress

As mentioned in my recap of the Wordcamp Conference in Boston, I sat in on a session where the focus was on making your blog social (see my post here) and then I sat on a panel about making your blog functional. Not regarding post content, but about the functionality when people come to your blog page. For some, these may be basic blogging concepts, but overall, there were some key takeaways that should resonate with all of us.

First, have a redirect plug-in on your blog to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This will make sure your blog is running in tip top shape.

Second, have a broken link checker. Nothing is more frustrating to a reader than to click on a link and it doesn’t work. So install a plug-in that checks for broken links. Those plug-ins will enable you to either update the link or delete the link making it up to date. It is also a great way to be reminded of old posts. There have been times where, instead of updating the link, I take the post down since it is no longer relevant and may be even more frustrating for a visitor to see irrelevant content let alone an irrelevant post. (See what happened to me.)

Third, make sure your website is mobile friendly! Forty percent of American adults use their cell phones to surf the Web (according to a 2010 study from Pew Research Center in Washington) and inability to get content easily (and quickly) ranks as top reasons why people will leave your site. So they may leave for other reasons, but don’t let mobile-unfriendliness be one of them. Not when there are plenty of WordPress plug-ins, like WP Touch.

Fourth, make sure your blog is ‘reader friendly’. Set it up in feedburner so a variety of platforms can understand it. If you have a button linking people to your RSS feed, if they’re using an RSS feed reader which auto-discovers your feed (i.e. they just enter in your blog’s address and the software does the hunting for the RSS feed URL) then they’re not going to be using Feedburner, but your blog’s own feed so they won’t be a part of your Feedburner stats. Or, if people type in your blog’s feed URL or find it via Google, they’ll end up not being a part of your Feedburner stats too. So it is important to have a feedburner plug-in that will give you an accurate count.

The last concept I heard during this panel was to install the “What Would Seth Godin Do” plug-in so you can customize the experience for a visitor based on whether they were a first time visitor or a repeating customer. It would track cookies on your site so that you could ask new visitors to subscribe to your blog and it would disappear after a time. You could also create custom messages for returning visitors like “Thanks for being a loyal fan.” It reminds me a lot of the Facebook Page Landing Pages where you can create “Like Pages” for new visitors to get them to like your Facebook Page, but I am not sure how I feel about it for a blog. So I am curious to what others think?

All in all, while you want to have great posts, you want to add these elements to make them findable, usable and functional. Any other concepts to share?

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October 27th, 2011

WordCamp Boston

The logo of the blogging software WordPress.

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What I did on my summer vacation.

So this one time, at WordCamp….

I went to camp this summer; minus the mosquitoes and smores. (Bummer on the latter.) WordCamp was an informal day and a half Boston conference in July that focused on everything WordPress. Casual users (aka: me) to core developers got together to participate, share ideas, and get to know each other over a common platform: WordPress. There were some great sponsors too, like Zemanta, !Oomph, VaultPress, ISITE Design, and .tv.

There were five main tracks: (1) How To, (2) Development, (3) Education, (4) Strategy, and (5) Advanced Development. The How to Session focused, for example, on how to use WordPress as a Blogging platform. The Education track contained sessions on how to use mobile WordPress on campus. Development and Advanced Development were for folks who create WordPress plug-ins and themes. The Strategy sessions were for businesses interested in figuring out why blogs are the core to any social media strategy.

I stuck with the How to segment. Though some of the things I already new or had taught myself, it was great to learn about new plug-ins, be reminded why I use a certain plug-in in the first place, and overall get a refresher on things like SEO. The crowd in these sessions was a mixed bag of social media experience. Some did not know what was SEO (Search Engine Optimization: How to get your stuff found on the web) and others chatted about Child Themes and .php files like it was the daily weather forecast.

All in all, there were some great takeaways to share if your are a WordPress user. The first post will be about Tips and Strategies to Promote your Content. The second post will be about Top Tips for Blogging in WordPress. Like me, you may have this plug-in or already know this tip, but hopefully there are some that are new for you. Even if you are not a WordPress user, there may be some concepts to look into on your own Blogging platform.

Overall, here is one item that I loved about WordCamp.


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