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Stephanie Schwab

Kids Are The Future of Social Media

by Stephanie Schwab · August 1, 2012

I’ve seen the future of social media and her name is Hannah.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to host the first-ever conference for tween and teen bloggers and their families, the Digital Family Summit.  However immodest this may seem, I truly feel this event was a watershed moment in social media.  It was clear from listening to and meeting the 125 kids in attendance that content creation permeates every fiber of their being.

My conference co-organizer, Jennie Baird, said this in our conference program:

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What’s The Difference Between Buying Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers?

by Stephanie Schwab · May 31, 2012

Last week I had far more conversations than normal about buying Twitter followers. I don’t know what it was, maybe the stars were out of alignment, but everyone wanted to talk about whether or not you should buy Twitter followers, how you can buy them, and what it means if you do buy them.

Examples: One friend has a client who worked with some hacker to get thousands of new followers. I read a blog post about a PR pro who bought followers, and then had them taken away by Twitter when he admitted it publicly. And then, while I was researching a potential client, I realized that one of their executives had bought most, if not all, of their 37,000 followers.

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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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About Stephanie Schwab

Stephanie Schwab

Stephanie Schwab is the Principal of Crackerjack Marketing, a digital marketing agency specializing in social media planning and execution. Stephanie is also the founder of the Digital Family Summit, the first-of-its-kind conference for tween bloggers and content creators and their families. Throughout her 20-year career, she has developed and led marketing and social media programs for top brands and has presented on social media and e-commerce topics at numerous conferences and corporate events. Stephanie writes about social media at CrackerjackMarketing.com and Tweets @stephanies.

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