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Event Spotlight: Alt Summit (January 18-21, 2012)

(Ed. Note: This is the second in a monthly series of posts we will be sharing about the events that we sell at Sway In Real Life.)

Altitude Design Summit (Alt) is a conference where design-minded folks — bloggers, lifestyle sites and the companies that want to connect with them — get together to network, discuss theory and love on all things design. Plus, there will be world-class skiing and a little film festival called Sundance. This is the only conference geared specifically to Design, Lifestyle and Shopping bloggers and 500 of these folks will be in attendance, ready to meet your brand.

Some of the unique and sponsor-friendly features of Alt Summit include Mini Parties and Dinner With. On the Friday night of the conference, Alt moves beyond booths and provides sponsors with a soiree.  Alt attendees will attend fourteen “around the world” style Mini Parties.Each participating sponsor gets a party room, and attendees visit each one to get an immersive taste of what you have to offer. For those sponsors who want to take Mini Parties a step further, we offer a special blogger matching program, where we connect you with an ambassador to help bring your room to life and introduce your brand to relevant attendees.

Dinner With is another unique feature of Alt Summit. At Dinner With, each brand gets to have an intimate dinner out-on-the-town with 10 self-selecting bloggers. It is true social media in action.

Alt Summit is an especially good fit for brands whose products have an aesthetic appeal, retail outlets and brands with a focus on fashion, style or beauty. We also have some amazing opportunities for food and transportation brands.

To chat more about Alt Summit or get a copy of our sales sheet, please contact us so we can get started!

 

 

Event Spotlight: Camp Mighty (November 10-12, 2011)

(Ed. Note: This is the first in a monthly series of posts we will be sharing about the events that we sell at Sway In Real Life.)

In years past, influential women in social and mainstream media have gathered at an annual retreat called Mighty Summit. Past attendees include executives from the Oprah Winfrey Show, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and dozens of top bloggers including a number of those who are represented by Sway Group. This year, Mighty Summit has been opened to a wider audience for the first time ever. At Camp Mighty, 150 influencers will gather together in Palm Springs to discuss how they can help each other with their life lists, how they can raise up the community as a whole, and how they can build relationships with each other and with select sponsors.

There are many elements that make Camp Mighty different from other conferences. Most notably, of course is its small and intimate size. Additionally, there is a very large focus on social good and self-improvement (sponsors have a unique opportunity at Camp to sponsor teams of bloggers that are working together to raise charitable funds).

Held at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, Camp Mighty will take place in an aesthetically pleasing setting that is tailor-made for photos (and these attendees just love taking photos). The sessions will focus on self and community, and the conversation will start before Camp is even in session, with chatter on a specially created Facebook group.

Camp Mighty is a great fit for a variety of sponsor types, and we can definitely be creative when putting together your sponsorship package, but it is an especially good fit for fitness products, food brands, brands with a creative and/or life skills bent, beauty products, technology, travel and financial services.

We are specifically looking for sponsors who want intense one-on-one time with established, high-influence bloggers, sponsors who want to promote philanthropic initiatives, and those who want to promote the betterment of self (empowerment).

To chat more about Camp Mighty or get a copy of our sales sheet, please contact us so we can get started!

 

Some Tips for Brands Who Want to Optimize Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are our bread and butter here at Sway Group, and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this. From a financial perspective, my feelings are positive. I love that my bloggers are making revenue, and I love that Sway Group is in the black. HOWEVER, I do think that the entire industry needs to proceed with caution when it comes to sponsored content. There are right ways to do it, and wrong ways to do it. My hope is that by making sponsored content as amazing as possible we can keep it around for a long time. If we don’t optimize this stuff, readers are going to revolt (imagine opening up your blog reader to find just ads – not good), and the blogosphere risks losing its relevancy and integrity. (Yes, i’m being dramatic, but you get my point.)

So, while we will continue to push our clients towards creative blogger work including spokesperson gigs and sponsored online video content, we will also do everything we can to elevate the sponsored posts we sell. To that end, we asked the bloggers on our Facebook page to offer up their tips on sponsored posts. Here’s what they had to say:

- Cat Davis of 3kidsandus suggests sharing a clear schedule and expectations. “Be specific about links [and] messaging, provide assets, contract and what the brand hopes to accomplish.”
(Ed. Note: This is so vital. We work with our brands to get this information up front and then send out ridiculously explicit guideline emails to our bloggers.)

- Ana Flores, Sway Group blogger and co-founder of Spanglish Baby wrote, “Know and understand my audience before you approach me. Once visit to my blog and you know what we would be excited about and what we would reject. Or be open to get creative with us because we’re really good at finding the right angle that will work with our niche.”
(Ed. Note: I love this tip. It’s really hard sometimes for brands and agencies to let bloggers run with something, but while it’s vital to provide clear guidelines, it’s also vital that one of those guidelines be to adapt the content to best meet the needs and expectations of the blog’s audience. Each blogger know her audience best. Trust this knowledge.)

- Niri Jaganath of Mommy Niri and Mommy Niri Cares wrote, “If you want me to promote something, be clear – don’t pretend you want a sponsored post on a theme and feel disappointed people did not sign up for your program.”
(Ed. Note: This is so tricky, but for brands who handle this well, it can have huge pay off. No one wants to read paid content that reads like paid content. Let’s say we’re talking about a tire company. A post about the mayhem that ensued following a flat tire, sponsored by Acme Tire Company  is WAY more compelling than a paid post expounding the benefits of tread depth. Right?)

One final comment that I would like to share following years of putting these programs together is that biggest key is to keep it simple. I see so many sponsored post programs that have a ridiculous amount of elements to track (comment here, link there, post this, post that, tweet three times, spin around, etc. etc.). If bloggers have to create a checklist to make sure they have fulfilled their obligations, your program is too complicated. And if your program is too complicated, your ROI will suffer.

Anyone else have tips to add? What did I miss?

Tumblr Pisses Off Fashion Bloggers (And Mom Bloggers Relate!)

When I was forwarded the link to this story covering the latest controversy about Tumblr, I couldn’t help but be appalled. I wasn’t appalled by the fact that Tumblr was charging fashion brands for sponsored coverage by bloggers. I think that’s a fine idea, quite frankly. While many brands will get coverage anyway by virtue of the journalists and bloggers already writing about the shows, it never hurts to insure coverage with sponsored posts.

No, what I was appalled by was the fact that these monetary benefits weren’t trickling down to the bloggers.  As I sat and thought about it some more, I realized that my issue with this situation was born out of familiarity. Sadly,  I recognize it all too well.

Read my full post on MomCrunch to find out why…

Congratulations to Katie Allison Granju: A Working Mother “Most Powerful Mom in Social Media”

Just a short post to send our huge congratulations to Sway Group blogger (and consulting agent!), Katie Allison Granju of Mamapundit.com. Yesterday, Working Mother published their list of the 15 most powerful moms in social media, and it was a tremendous joy to see Katie’s face among the crew!

We couldn’t be more proud. Go Katie!

Beware of Social Media Ambulance Chasers

One of the more infuriating aspects of the social media space these days is the prevalence of ambulance chasing. We all know about ambulance chasing in the legal space. An accident occurs, and the lawyers practically run after the ambulance to get first dibs on the inevitable lawsuit. Sadly, the very same practice now happens in social media. Check out my post on Babble’s Mom Crunch to learn more.

Tips on Writing Effective Sponsored Posts (from the Tip Junkie herself!)

Laurie Turk from Tip Junkie

Laurie Turk from Tip Junkie

I had the extreme good fortune of being introduced to Laurie Turk from Tip Junkie at the evo Conference in Park City, Utah last July. Laurie comes across as sweet and unassuming, but if you talk to her at any length, you’ll learn that this is all a ruse! Yes, she is definitely sweet, but this woman is a business DYNAMO. I learn something new about the business of blogging every time Laurie and I chat.

Laurie just signed with Sway Group this week (yay!), and we completed our first project together yesterday. I was totally blown away by her performance (both in quality and in links/engagement), so I asked her to share some of her sponsored post tips with the MomCrunch readers.

Check them out here.

 

Why We Don’t Endorse Individual Conference Sponsorships

I have a post up on Mom Crunch today about the practice of sponsoring individual bloggers for conferences:

As a blogger, you have the ability to be a lot of things. You are a writer, for sure. But you can also be a media entity, a spokesperson, or a consultant. What you should never be, though, is a walking billboard.

Read more on MomCrunch!

Looking Forward to BlogHer! (Warning: Major Reminiscing Ahead)

With Chris from Notes from the Trenches and Mir from Woulda Coulda Shoulda at my very first BlogHer, in 2006

(Edited to add: We were bumped from the cabanas at the Marriott and will now be joining forces with Babble at the cabanas of the Hyatt, just next door. Please come find us at the 3rd floor, adults-only pool. We’ll be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11am – 7pm.)

This will be my sixth BlogHer, and man how things have changed. I know it is so cliche to lament the “good ‘ol days,” but it’s hard to not feel just a little bit wistful when I think back to that first BlogHer.

In 2006, I had been blogging for less than a year. I had never met a blogger in real life. I was still living in Toledo, and social media was still Web 2.0. I attended a panel that conference about the validity of corporate blogging. That discussion actually generated debate (meaning some thought that corporate blogging wasn’t valid). I remember attending a breakout session (sitting on the grass near the pool) about video blogging. It seemed so technically advanced.

Mostly, though, what I remember about BlogHer 2006 are all of the amazing women I met. I’m still friends (and colleagues) with most of them. Because the conference was so small, it was easy to just sit by the pool and get to know each other. There wasn’t a giant expo hall. The sponsors were set up on tables in a tent, and they were only around during breaks.

In many ways, I am glad that the blogosphere has evolved. If the industry hadn’t grown as explosively as it has (which is what has caused/allowed BlogHer to become so big), I probably wouldn’t have started Sway Group. That said, it is hard to show up at a conference with over 3,000 attendees and not feel overwhelmed.

So, here is what we are doing. Sway Group has reserved a cabana poolside at the Marriott on Friday and Saturday. Please come say hi and relax for awhile. We’d love to get to know you and party like its 2006. Who’s in?

Sway Group Press Roundup 6/20 – 7/20

Our first month in existence has been an amazing one! Thank you to everyone for all of the support. Here are links to some of the amazing articles that have been written about Sway Group to date:

MamaPundit, 6/19 Meet the Ari Gold of Mommy Bloggers

AdAge, 6/20 Mommy Bloggers Have Their Own Talent Agency, Sway Group

A Blog Job, 6/23 Sway Group Connects Bloggers and Brands

Claire Diaz Ortiz, 6/24 Why Blogger Agents Will Change the Future of Blogging: How Danielle Wiley of Sway Group Has Turned Blogging on its Head

Loralee’s Looney Tunes, 7/13 Making Money Blogging. When and How Should Bloggers Be Compensated

 

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