Hi. I’m Rob.

I recently posted the following to my Twitter account:

I’m not going to blogher next month, but would like to have my products represented there. Interested? Wow me with your ideas.

I received about 10 responses from people that were interested in taking me up on the offer.  Rather than responding to each of you individually, I thought I’d post something here that goes into a bit more detail of what I had in mind.  That 140 character limit in Twitter can be a pain some times!

As many of you know, I’m the creator of some awesome baby gifts called That Baby DVD and CD.  They feature kid-friendly cover versions of songs written by artists like Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Natalie Merchant, and others.  In short, it’s kids’ music for people that don’t do kids’ music.

I haven’t been to BlogHer before, so I’d like your insight into how the mechanics of the show work.  Do people sell products there, or is it mostly giveaways?  If the former, is there a process by which people secure booths and show products?  What other forums are there for product companies?

My most successful marketing has come through the word of mouth recommendations of trusted and passionate bloggers like you.  My goal for BlogHer is to get the products into the hands of influential reviewers and retailers at the show.  I will measure success by coverage and new retail leads.

I’d like to find someone to represent my products with a balance of enthusiasm and business savvy.  The truth is, all bloggers aren’t created equal.  Though many of the attendees at BlogHer are passionate about the subjects on which they write, most of them have very small readerships.  I’d like to give away 50-100 DVD/CD sets to influential bloggers.  In addition, if there’s also an opportunity to sell the products, I’d sell additional sets to the BlogHer audience at deeply discounted rates.

I don’t want someone to just distribute my products, but someone who can be an effective advocate for them, securing coverage with bloggers and journalists, and starting some conversations with retailers that could lead to stocking at their stores.  I’ll expect a follow-up report at the end of the show, documenting who received the products and how I should follow-up with them.

Now, what would you expect in return?  Do you see a future representing my products at other events or building out a longer term (paid) rep relationship?  I’m wide open to your proposals, ideas, and insights based on your past attendance at BlogHer.  Why would you be the best person to represent my products there?

Please send your proposals to me at rob AT thatbabydvd DOT com by Friday, June 19.  I’ll decide quickly and we’ll get ready to rock the show!

Nielsen Online released an interesting report today called The PowerMom 50.  It was a list of the most influential mom bloggers and mom-focused online communities.  You can download a PowerPoint presentation of the list here.

As interesting as this report was, I found it lacking in interactivity.  The PowerPoint deck wasn’t really data–it was a picture of data.  It lacked hyperlinks to the blogs mentioned, and shockingly–in the year 2009–it didn’t contain the bloggers’ Twitter profiles.

Well fear not, dear reader.  I’ve gone and fixed that.  Starting with the list in the PowerPoint deck (which was actually closer to 100 sites), I created a spreadsheet and a PDF with links to each of the sites, their Google PageRank, a link to their Twitter profile, and their number of followers.  You’re welcome.

I’ve created several versions for your convenience: An Excel version here, a PDF here, and a Google Spreadsheet here. Enjoy!

As someone who markets awesome baby gifts to mom bloggers, I know the influence they have on today’s super-connected moms.  I’ve interacted with many on the list via Twitter, and some have written reviews of my products on their blogs.

The Power Mom 50 list is a helpful guide for any business who is interested in reaching out to moms.  However, some of these bloggers have no interest in doing product reviews. So, take some time to read their blogs and understand the topics on which they write.  Then, if your product is relevant to their business, they may be interested in what you’re pitching.

Was this helpful?  Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter, and share this article using the buttons below.

UPDATE, 5/10/2009: The @thatrobguy 50!

Thanks to everyone for the great response to my improvements to the data!  A few people have notified me of some errors in the data, and I’ve corrected them in the documents linked above.

Also, several have made comments along the lines of “hey, why isn’t so and so included on the list?”  Beats me.  I didn’t make the list (Nielson Online did).  I just put the data into a more useful format.

However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t come up with our own list of influential mom bloggers and Twitterers.  So, I’m calling for nominations for the “ThatRobGuy 50: The most awesome mom blogs that Nielsen left out.”  Use the comments field of this post to nominate yourself or other mom bloggers that you think are the most influential.  The rules guidelines:

This list is not just about quality. It’s about influence.  When you nominate a blog, please include:

• The URL of the blog
• Its Google PageRank
• The Twitter account associated with the blog
• Current number of Twitter followers

I’ll compile the list and provide it in a format similar to what I created for Nielsen’s list.  I have comment moderation turned on for my blog to keep the spam under control, so your comment won’t appear immediately.  I’ll publish comments as long as they are relevant to the discussion.

If you have quick thoughts or questions for me, you can also find me on Twitter @thatrobguy.  If you’re not following me, you really should.  I’m hilarious.

Thanks for the great response to my last post, Twitter: Why I Bother.  It was great hearing from so many people that said “Oh, now I get it!”  I wanted to follow up with some additional tips on the terms and protocol that have evolved among Twitter users.

Where it’s @

The @ symbol plays an important role in navigating Twitter.  It’s used to direct a tweet at a particular user.  For example, If I tweet “@Bellysocking welcome to Twitter!” it’s directed at my friend Deborah, maker of great pregnancy and nursing accessories.

You can see tweets directed at you by looking at the right side of your Twitter home page, and respond accordingly by using the @ symbol right back at the person who sent it.

Retweeting: The Meritocracy of Good Ideas

A specific way that the @ symbol is used is to “Retweet.”  Retweeting is like tipping your hat to someone that tweeted something cool that you want to repeat.  You Retweet by simply typing RT (for Retweet), @ (the user’s Twitter handle), and the contents of the original tweet.

For example, if @droolbuster tweeted “check out this awesome music video: http://bit.ly/NdXd1” and it was indeed awesome, I could tweet: “RT @droolbuster check out this awesome music video: http://bit.ly/NdXd1” (the link in this example is itself an example of my all time favorite internet inside joke, The Rickroll)

The nice thing about retweets is that they expose your thoughts and finds to other people’s followers.  That encourages Twitter users to check out your profile, and if interested, follow you.  Thus, if you want to gain followers on Twitter, be interesting; be retweetworthy!

Hashtags

The sister of the @ symbol is the # – the hashtag.  The @ symbol is all about people; the # is all about topics.  Let’s say you’re going to the NAB trade show for the broadcast industry.  Everyone tweeting about the show can tag posts with #NAB, so other people can quickly find them.  Then, using the site Hashtags.org, you can see a realtime stream and traffic graph of those using the tag.  Another use of the hashtag is for themes that evolved in the twitterverse.  For example, #followfriday is a tag used to highlight interesting people to follow on Twitter.

URL Shortening

Long website addresses (aka URLs) can be a pain when working within Twitter’s 140 character limit.  To get around this problem, several services allow you to create compact URLs that simply redirect to the longer ones.

The one I like the best is called bit.ly.  It allows you to log in with your Twitter account, shorten a URL, then send a tweet directly from the bit.ly website.  Plus, it also tracks clicks that go through it, so you can quickly see the interest in a link you post.

Twitter clients

Most new users of Twitter will use the service on the Twitter.com website.  However, you may want to check out some of the standalone applications that allow you a bit more control over your Twitter experience.  The most popular is called Tweetdeck.  It allows you to group the people you follow into categories, view your @replies in a separate tab, and automatically shorten URLs.  I personally prefer a different program called Twhirl, but Tweetdeck is most popular these days.

Bringing It All Together: Your Homework Assignment

Let’s see what we have learned today: Go to Twitter (or your newly installed Twitter client)  and tweet the following:

RT @thatrobguy Attention Twitter newbies: confused by Twitter terminology? Read this: http://bit.ly/qcHaE

And, for extra credit, you can use the icons below to share this post with others through Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.  Class dismissed!

Twitter is everywhere these days.  The microblogging service that asks simply “what are you doing?” has exploded past the early adopter stage of hot new technologies.  It has reached that point in its hype cycle that Larry King and Oprah are talking about it.  Shaq and MC Hammer are twittering, as are Mr. and Mrs. Kutcher.

When the media talks about Twitter, it’s usually done with a whiff of bemused condescension.  “Can you believe?” their coverage sneers, “that people are sitting on their computers all day talking about what they are doing?  ‘Hi everyone, I’m having a sandwich.  How ’bout you?’  These people have too much time on their hands.”

In reality, Twitter is much more interesting, fun, and consequential than that.  For me, it goes far beyond “sandwich blogging,” and that’s why I wrote this post.  To explain to you, dear reader, Why I Bother with Twitter.

Twitter 101

For the uninitiated, here’s how Twitter works: you set up a profile for yourself that contains a brief description of who you are, where you’re located, and your website.  You have a space of 140 characters in which to write anything you want (If you’re a Facebook user, it’s similar to status updates).  Once you write, or tweet–the verb-ified form of Twitter–people who have subscribed to or “followed” your status updates see what you wrote.  In turn, you can follow other people’s tweets as well.

I Will Follow

I subscribe to the updates of over a thousand people.  Among this crowd are bloggers, celebrities, fellow entrepreneurs, politicians, friends, and my mother.  I enjoy the constant din of conversation on topics both substantive and trivial; the cacophonous medley of information flowing through my feed.  But because I’ve chosen those I wish to follow, they’re usually kibbitzing on subjects of interest to me:

• Cool new baby gifts
• Neil Diamond twittering about his Seder
• The Seattle tech scene
• My friend Scott’s latest ruminations and ponderances

Interesting to you?  Maybe not.  But to me, it’s like a talk radio station created from little pieces of my world.

Do I read everything they write?  No.  The updates flow like a constant river of information.  If I miss something, it’s no big deal.  No individual tweet is essential, and that’s the beauty of it.  There is a marvelous serendipity to my river of tweets.

My legion of adoring fans

Just as I follow those who interest me, about a thousand other Twitter users have followed me.

Some of the people I follow are friends, but most are people I’ve never met.  They are folks that for whatever reason decided they are interested in what I have to say, and I appreciate the tiny slice of attention they’ve given me.

Having this audience is a dream come true for an ENFP like me.  It’s “hey everyone, listen to me!” 140 characters at a time. Occasionally I’ll have thoughts that just need to get out–and since the networks have yet to give me my own talk show, Twitter’s the next best thing.  Plus, blogging is deeper commitment; I’ve been noodling on this post for about a week.  With Twitter, I can just broadcast a thought out to the world and boom-it’s out there.

What do I tweet about?

• I’ll indulge in some sandwich blogging from time-to-time–usually about the music I’m listening to at the moment.
• An interesting link or news story I saw.
• Responding to tweets from those I follow.  For example, last week someone asked “where can I find good Wordpress themes?”  I was able to suggest woothemes, maker of the template I use for this blog.
• Conversely, I might have a quick question that can be answered by the Twitterverse.  For example, I asked tonight if anyone had seen a demo of a new After Effects plugin that was launched today at a trade show.
• My not-so-hidden agenda is to promote my AWESOME children’s DVDs and CDs.  Twitter is heavily used by influential moms that have strong followings through Twitter and their own blogs.  For example, if someone writes a great review of my products, I’ll promote that review through Twitter.  If you market to moms as I do, your audience is on Twitter, with or without you.
• I try to keep my own self-promotion to a reasonable level–many marketers make the mistake of overdoing it on Twitter.  I also try to keep things in karmic balance by highlighting other entrepreneurs doing cool stuff too.

Monitoring the Twitterverse

Even if you don’t set up a Twitter account for yourself, it’s fascinating to listen in to the conversations of the Twitterverse.  If you go to http://search.twitter.com, you can search for a particular term or phrase.  I am interested in knowing when someone’s discussing my products, so I set up a search for “That Baby DVD” and “OyBaby“  I take it a step further by subscribing to those search results with my RSS reader (you do remember what an RSS reader is, don’t you?).  You could do the same for your company, product, or hobby (remember to put phrases in “quotes like this” to search for the entire phrase).

Why do you bother?

So, that’s why I bother with Twitter.  How ’bout you?  Use the comments feature below to let me know what you get out of it.  And remember to follow my Twitter posts at http://twitter.com/thatrobguy.

Update: Just added a related post, Twitter 102: Twitter Terminology Explained