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Stephanie Schwab

5 Ways to Measure Blogger Outreach ROI

by Stephanie Schwab · May 17, 2012

A friend of mine recently emailed me to say that she has a new client but they’re wary of doing a blogger outreach program, and do I have any metrics about outreach ROI, especially for driving sales?

I wrote back: You’re asking for the holy grail.

However, while linking ROI to blogger outreach is not simple, it’s also not impossible. Think about the decades (centuries?) of PR people who have gone before us. How did they determine ROI on media outreach when all they had was “impressions” (a very fuzzy number that was, and is: self-reported from print and broadcast media)?

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Are They Bloggers? Or Celebrities?

by Stephanie Schwab · April 20, 2012

The coolest thing has been happening lately, and it’s making me feel really special. Suddenly I know people who are in ads. And not just any ad – major, national brands. I feel like I’m brushing with celebrity – and yet, these people aren’t traditional celebrities, they’re bloggers. And they happen to be friends of mine.

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Rise of the Twitter Teenager

by Stephanie Schwab · March 28, 2012

As I was sitting at Jason Falls’ SxSW party on a rainy night in Austin, waiting for a friend, I checked Twitter. I was wondering what was trending from SxSW.

The #1 trending topic on Friday night was this: #GetAustin2Philly.

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The Decline of Blogs (and How PR Can Help Avoid It)

by Stephanie Schwab · March 9, 2012

I returned from the Blissdom blogger conference about 10 days ago and am off to Dad 2.0 Summit this week. There’s a lot of blogger love happening out there, and it’s wonderful to be in the middle of it, helping to connect brands and bloggers in creative and fruitful ways.

Lately, though, I’ve been coming home from parenting/lifestyle blogger conferences both inspired and dismayed. There are some really cool ways in which brands are engaging with these bloggers, and some of those efforts come through at blogger conferences. For example, at Blissdom, ConAgra launched their Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, encouraging bloggers to add the hashtag #childhunger to their tweets to donate one meal per tweet sent during the conference. The hashtag was flying and 20,000 meals were donated, with ConAgra matching to get to a total of 40,000 meals. Bloggers for a cause … I love it.

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Foursquare? Wherefore Art Thou, Foursquare?

by Stephanie Schwab · December 16, 2011

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve seen increasingly less activity on my Foursquare account lately, in my own stream and others’. While I do have a few new friends every so often, those whom I’ve followed for a long time (Foursquare early adopters, like myself) seem to not be checking in as much (and nor am I). The leaderboard has thinned and the checkins seem more and more mundane (Gym, Starbucks, office. Repeat.)

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Five Social Media Trends for 2012

by Stephanie Schwab · November 15, 2011

It’s that most wonderful time of the year … time to predict the future as we close out the year! I think my 2011 social media predictions were pretty solid, so I’m going to take another stab at it for 2012. Here are the five social media trends I think marketers need to be aware of in the next year as we grow and change along with technology and consumer demand.

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Next Crackdown on Bloggers: Sweepstakes & Contests

by Stephanie Schwab · October 12, 2011

I’ve been really angsty of late, worrying about things I shouldn’t worry about. That’s the life of a Jewish mother, I suppose. But it’s also the life of a social media marketer who is valiantly trying to stay on the right side of the law. The FTC law, that is.

No doubt most of you are aware that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regulates advertising and marketing practices here in the U.S. They’re the governmental group who has brought us the CAN-SPAM act (email marketing), COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and, more recently, their Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which helped to bring about a more open and transparent level of disclosure by bloggers about their relationships with brands, organizations and events.

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114 comments

Broadening Your Content Core

by Stephanie Schwab · September 16, 2011

A couple of weeks ago I had a great baseball experience. It was a beautiful Friday night in Gary, Ind., and I was watching the Gary SouthShore Railcats, an Independent Professional Baseball team (like the minor leagues, but not quite that official), and I was surrounded by my extended family, including my parents, cousins, siblings, and aunts and uncles, plus my husband and 3-year old son.  Our group was about 20 people ages 18 months to 70 years, with a mix of rabid baseball fans and people who just came for the family and the beautiful night.

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How Social Media Makes You A Better Writer

by Stephanie Schwab · August 25, 2011

I’ve always considered myself a good writer. I got straight-As in high school English and literature classes, and have been writing a lot in nearly every one of my jobs since college. I can write anything for business: proposals, status reports, white papers, strategy documents, and anything else you can throw at me. It comes pretty easily, when I’m motivated; even when I’m not, writing is never a chore. I think I’m pretty good with grammar and spelling, and I know the difference between Sentence case and Title Case, among other writing fine points that many, many of my colleagues (even superiors) don’t really understand.

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