The BritMums Blog

Twitter party March 10: your best #springclean tips!

Mark your calendars!

10 March 2011

13:00 - 14:00

The #springclean Twitter party - tweet your tips, get advice and maybe win a prize!

The daffodils are blooming, half term has arrived, the weather’s increasingly mild (where it’s not snowing, that is) - there’s no doubt that other sign of spring will soon be here: spring cleaning.

It’s not just Fifties housewives who enjoy sitting down in an orderly environment with a fresh frame of mind. There’s something refreshing about the whole family knuckling down and shaking off the cobwebs of winter.

And it’s not just about pulling on the Marigolds and wiping round all the way around the cooker. Besides that good old standby dust, you need to take precautions to avoid pests that even the cleanest households can suffer from - bedbugs, moths, rodents – all of which are on the increase in the UK.

What are your tips for getting organised and making a clean sweep in the house? Come share your tricks at our #springcleaning Twitter party on Thursday March 10 at 13:00. We want to know everything from your special tap-descaling tactics to what you use to keep the unwanted furry friends away!

Sponsoring our party is Rentokil Pest Control, a pest control global leader, operating in 50 international markets with 650 pest control technicians across the UK. They know how to get to rid of everything from fleas, wasps and bees to ants and (shudder) cockroaches.

Plus, there are prizes!

Tweet your tip with the #springcleaning hashtag and you are eligible to win:

* A Grand Prize of an intensive spring clean for your home by professional cleaners

* Second and third prizes of a basket of cleaning and pest control products - everything you need for a spic-and-span home - worth at least £50 each.

Read on for terms and conditions

Mark your diaries now and see you on Twitter on 10 March!

 

The CyberMummy 2011 schedule is live!

 
The CyberMummy 2011 schedule is live! Make sure you pop on over and check it out. There's a little something for everyone ... from theoretical session to ethics to hands-on how-to technical workshops. Oh, and did we mention that Sarah Brown is the keynote?! And Rachel Johnson? If you want to attend make sure you grab your delegate ticket now, as they will be sold out soon. And when they are gone, they are gone.

We are taking nominations for the crowd-sourced keynote. Please fill out this form with your suggestions (pls note that author of nomiated post must be attending the event).

 -Susanna

Guest post: How to increase your #Klout score in 11 easy steps

Want to work with brands? Then you need to raise your Klout score and get on our new British Mum Bloggers have Klout index. Liz Jarvis, who blogs at The Mum Blog, shares her top 11 tips for upping your online influence.

I was very excited to see BMB’s new British Mum Bloggers Have Klout index and not just because I’m on it *cough*.

In my day job, and as a blogger, I work with a lot of big brands who use social media campaigns. When they’re trying to decide which blogs to work with, they rely on different independently-sourced criteria to establish reach, including wikio, but Klout is becoming increasingly important as a measure of online influence, including Twitter and Facebook.

Share your half-term adventures!

It's is a time of gleeful abandon for the children and white-knuckle fear for parents. What could I be talking about? Why HALF-TERM of course! Whether you enjoyed yours last week or are knee-deep in it this week, we're all in the same boat. What WILL we do to fill all of the time? What if it rains? What if it doesn't rain? What if it's sunny? So many possibilities, such low tolerance! But as so many bloggers demonstrate, necessity is the mother of inventive half-term activities.

Guest post: English Mum's 10 tips for fabulous food blogging

English Mum has a gorgeous food-oriented blog where she writes everything from easy fresh baked bread and pies to farmhouse breakfasts that make your mouth water. She was also a Make a Difference Winner at the BMB’s Brilliance in Blogging Awards!

Here are her tips for writing about food, whether your favourite recipes or cooking with the kids, to get your readers – and other bloggers - eating up your content. Over to English Mum:

1.  Start with a bit of background. Has the recipe been in your family for years? Did you try it in a restaurant and then recreate it at home? Why do you love it? When do you make it? Is it easy or does it require a bit of work? The more information you give, the better.

5 essential Facebook tools for bloggers

Do you have a Facebook fan page? You should! Facebook fan pages are among the most effective ways of connecting with your audience, and of gaining new readers for your blog. Janis Curry, founder of Really Kid Friendly has put together these practical tips on how to use Facebook fan page tools for bloggers, brands and businesses.

 1. Automatically post blog updates to your Fan Page wall

RSS Graffitiis a popular and easy to use application which allows you to automatically post your latest blog updates on your Facebook Fan Page wall. This is an excellent way of gaining new readers from outside the blogosphere and outside of Twitter. One of the best aspects of RSS Graffiti that you don’t see with similar applications is that you can update your wall with content from multiplesources for free. That means you can promote content from your partners or sponsors, your favourite blogs, or other RSS feeds that you feel will strike a chord with your audience.

Blogger of the Week and 10 other must-reads

First of all, her blog is primarily written from the perspective of her son, Little M! This is quite unique in the Mummy Blogging world but Little M seems to have achieved quite a following. He's reviewing products, reporting on his busy days and putting up with his Mami and Papi. Life is hectic in Mummy's Busy World.

Maria Jose Ovalle is the co-author of Mummy's Busy World along with her adorable 2-year-old, Little M. In addition to the day to day joys of being a mum, Maria works as a PR! She's been involved in some fun campaigns and has been able to utilise her Mummy Blogging contacts to make successful in-roads on social outreach for her clients. Mummy's Busy World has really enjoyed testing and reviewing products lately. You'll find some wonderful, honest reviews in addition to a fair few competitions as well. They've got it all on Mummy's Busy World.

British Mum Bloggers Have Klout February Index

If you want to work with brands you need to know about Klout. Why? Because more and more brands are using their data to measure online influence. 

Klout are a social media analytics company that measures online influence using Twitter and Facebook data. They incorporate all sorts of stats, such as follower and following counts, retweets, list memberships, and influence of retweeters and mentioners. This information is blended with Facebook data such as, comments, likes, and the number of friends in your network, to come up with a "Klout Score". For the time being, Klout does not include blog stats, but I would not be surprised if that changed soon.

British Mummy Bloggers has partnered with Klout to create this index of influential mum bloggers. We'll update the index monthly. Don't worry too much about the scores, they can vary wildly. Throughout the year I've been everything from a 16 to 65! Emphasis is based on the last 30 days of data. And the scores are now updated daily. One way to bump up your score is to add your Facebook account.

The British Mum Bloggers Have Klout Index February 2011

Rank	Twitter ID	Klout score
1	mediocre_mum	69
2	Livingwithkids	67
3	nickie72	65
4	cafebebe	64
5	susankmann	63
6	liveotherwise	62
7	porridgebrain	62
8	mumstheboss	62
9	cosmicgirlie	61
10	kateab	61
11	christinemosler	61
12	karamina	61
13	3bedroom	61
14	beckicklesie	60
15	PippaD	60
16	RedTedArt	60
17	amodernmother	60
18	mummytips	60
19	Caroljs	59
20	WhimsicalWife	58
21	swhittle	58
22	tara_cain	58
23	exmoorjane	58
24	MumsRock	57
25	vwallop	57
26	belgianwaffling	57
27	SingleMummyNet	56
28	lindasjones	56
29	verybusymama	56
30	vegemitevix	55
31	RosieScribble	55
32	Crystaljigsaw	55
33	Kahanka	55
34	that_kat	55
35	englishmum	54
36	LauraAWNTYM	54
37	violetposy	54
38	mum_themadhouse	54
39	and1moremeans5	53
40	jhowze	53
41	Cheshire_Claire	52
42	Erica	52
43	ellen27	52
44	peabee72	51
45	Suburbanmummyuk  Nataliya	51
46	VBinCatalunya	50
47	Melaina25	50
48	nataliemlue	49
49	kitschycoo	49
50	MTJAM	48

Want to be evaluated in our next index? Make sure you fill out this form. 

Congrats to all that made this month's index. Go ahead and grab the code and tell the world!

<a href="http://www.britishmummybloggers.co.uk" _mce_href="http://www.britishmummybloggers.co.uk" target="_blank"><img src="http://cafebebe.co.uk/wp-content/themes/vigilance/images/top-banner/2011/02/BMBKlout2.jpg" _mce_src="http://cafebebe.co.uk/wp-content/themes/vigilance/images/top-banner/2011/02/BMBKlout2.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

Here's a smaller version if you have a more petitie sidebar:

<a href="http://www.britishmummybloggers.co.uk" _mce_href="http://www.britishmummybloggers.co.uk" target="_blank"><img src=" http://cafebebe.co.uk/wp-content/themes/vigilance/images/top-banner/2011/02/BMBKlout2small.jpg" _mce_src=" http://cafebebe.co.uk/wp-content/themes/vigilance/images/top-banner/2011/02/BMBKlout2small.jpg" alt="" /> </a><a></a><a></a><a></a>

*These scores were recorded on 14 February 2011

-Susanna

Guest post: How to write reviews on your blog: a beginners guide

Helen writes reviews about everything from bathroom toy holders to coffee makers on her blog www.petitmom.co.uk and she also blogs at petiteladies.blogspot.com. Here, she shares her tips for getting in to the reviewing game.

Do you think you have a unique viewpoint and knowledge to write reviews, whether for products, services or entertainment? Have you seen other blogs and wondered how to start reviewing? Here are some tips and advice to help you begin.

Twitter
This was invaluable to me when I started out. You can find many companies on Twitter who are very friendly and some will even be more than happy to send you some of their products to review. If you want to ask over Twitter you should ask in a polite manner. Don’t just say “Got any stuff for me to review?” That makes you sound like a blagger, not a blogger. An example would be this tweet to Tommee Tippee, where I merely ask them if they were looking for reviews from mummy blogger (our kitchen is full of their products) and I got a response fairly quickly asking if we can speak over email.

How to raise your ranking on the Wikio parent blog index

Blog indexes are a great way to raise your profile. But if you are the newbie on the block, how do you raise your score on their popular Parent Blog Index? Paul Coggins, MD of Wikio, give us some suggestions.

What is Wikio?
Wikio is a news portal that lists recent, up-to-the-minute articles from media news sites and  blogs. But why do certain sources appear above others, even though their time of posting might be earlier? It's no ordinary timeline; it's because of Wikio's ranking algorithm.

Happy Blogging Valentine's Day

If you haven't already acquired enough sweeties, pink-frosted cupcakes and chocolates to send yourself into a coma, can you really say you're prepared for Valentine's Day?

 Then again, you may find it more satisfying spending the day setting fire to all the photos of your ex, or ignoring the day completely (hats off to your iron will if you can tune out all the frothy commercialism!).

Join the February #BMB Blog Hop!

Love is in the air! There's a touch of spring in the air as well. Some of us have even been lucky enough to witness the first signs of spring with snow drops and wee bits of green poking through the earth. It's such a welcome change to the dreary cold and blowing winds!

In honour of Spring knocking on the door and Valentine's Day, we here at the BMB Blog thought we'd open our doors to the February BMB Blog Hop.

You know the drill...add your blog url to the linky below and if you're feeling technical enough, add the code to keep the hopping going forward. Then come back and check out the new and not-so-new blogs on the block. You're sure to find some fabulous new reads. Share the love by commenting on other's blogs and tweeting about all the brilliant finds you make. 

-Karin

 

British mum bloggers post to help Baglady

Once again, BMB members have demonstrated what an amazing network this really is, this time joining together and using their voices to spread the word about sustainability for Baglady and, in turn,  for our children’s future.

Indeed, you may have already seen Baglady making her way around the Internet, thanks to the small group of bloggers who, in January, helped launch the environmental film-maker’s online pledge campaign.

Seven easy ways to improve your blog photography

Ever wonder how to make a blog look good enough to eat? Photography is a great way to inject some much needed energy into a site. Jay aka Mocha Beanie Mummy is a professional photographer in "real life". Here she gives us 7 suggestions for improving photography on your blog.

There are so many ways to do it, and how much effort you make dictates how fast you will improve. But if you’re not sure where to start, then hopefully this will give you a shove in the right direction!

1. Take part in blog memes for fun - it’s good practice whether it’s working on photos that have meaning to you, specific themes, areas you want to improve - it all helps. Put yourself out there! There’s a world of support at your fingertips. Why not come and try out Silent Sunday? One photo which you took in the last week and NO WORDS in the post - easy! Use the linky and the badge to be connected to plenty more blogs doing the same thing, peruse lots of photos at your pleasure.

Quick poll: what's your blogging platform?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Your 50 top tips for getting secret goodness into kids’ diets

  Ask a bunch of parents about how to get secret goodness into children’s meals and you get not only recipes and cooking tips. You also get down-to-earth strategies and philosophies that go way beyond the kitchen.

At our  Twitter party Thursday, sponsored by Kingsmill to announce their new Seeded range, the tweets were flying thick and fast. The hashtag #secretgoodness trended in the UK!

Some bloggers even used the party as inspiration for posts as well. Angels&Urchins wrote about foodie strategies she uses.  Mummysquared has a great picture of her little one trying loads of food. (Awww.) If you wrote about it, let us know!

Register for Kingsmill news and offers, and see food writer Jo Pratt's recipe for a Chicken Delight sandwich.

What the OFT ruling means for bloggers and Tweeters

Update: This post and what the OFT's ruling means for blogs has generated a lot of debate! It's obvious that the issue of how to handle commercial relationships and transparency is one that engenders a lot of opinions (and emotions) in bloggers.

Our idea of creating badges/icons/visual elements that immediately convey has drawn praise and criticism, which you can see in the attached comments. The idea is that it's a way for bloggers - in individual posts - to include an easily recognisable element that tells the reader exactly what kind of commercial connections that post has.

Our idea was to create simple, easy-to-grab elements that don't mess with the overall design and feel of a blog - "badge" is probably the wrong word since it connotes a big box that goes in the right-hand column rather than a smaller logo in the text. But it would get the point across and meet the OFT's guidelines.

It wouldn't be the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval or be policed. The point is for blogger themselves to divulge the origins of their posts, and for readers not to have to read through several paragraphs before they know the bloggers' relationship with the company or product they're writing about.

It's a work in progress. What's inspiring is the depth of feeling and thought that everyone is giving this issue, by considering how it reflects on them, on their peers and on blogs in general.

This discussion is just part of a larger conversation and will continue to grow and change. If you haven't already, jump in and tell us what you think!

***

In December we blogged about the ruling from the OFT regarding consumer protection laws. The OFT is enforcing these laws with bloggers, to ensure that any content promoting a product or service where the content has been paid for is clearly marked.

Now, in a new Q&A on its site, the OFT says it will NOT be monitoring the Internet and going after individual bloggers. (It considered the action with Handpicked Media appropriate because Handpicked is a blogging network.) This is not a witch hunt. But it will be taking appropriate and proportionate action to ensure the laws are followed.

Blogger of the Week and 10 Must-Tweets

Another week, another brilliant blogger to draw your attention to. This blogger is a London based Magazine Features Writer in her OFFICIAL capacity who combines her talent in writing Children's Product reviews, running a busy household and being an outstanding Mummy to an energetic toddler and delightful new tiddler! She's wondering if there are more hours in the day and I'm wondering how she manages to do it all and still look so fab. This week's Blogger of the Week...Mummy's Little Monkey author Jacqui or @Jax2000 as many of you know her.

Who's meeting with BMB bloggers: the CEO of Disney!

 
If I was any doubt of the growing influence of British mum bloggers (which – let’s face it – I wasn’t) then a recent trip to America left no room for doubt.

Along with Lulu of Family Affairs and Other Matters,  Jenography was part of a UK media contingent attending the launch of the Disney Dream cruise ship. Our group also included journalists writing for the Independent, News of the World, The Telegraph and cruise experts shooting video and writing for sites.

The entire cruise was packed with media from North America, photographers, videographers and broadcasters, and we kept running into celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and John Stamos (sooo much dishier in real life than he looks on TV). There were tours of the fancy restaurants and gee-whiz techno advances on board. (You can see our individual blogging coverage via the links below.)  (Update: I was remiss in not mentioning the host of bloggers Disney has previously worked with, who helped forged the great working relationship between the company and British bloggers. They were also avid supporters of this trip. See links below!)

How to hack your Facebook Profile

Want to customise your Facebook profile and make it look fantastic? CyberMummy partner Sian To is a closet geek and Facebook whiz that revels in figuring out just this kind of thing! Here's her step-by-step guide.

 

I have to admit I hated the new Facebook profile and it's taken me ages to get used to it but then I hated it last time they changed it too. Which means I'm either stuck in my ways or that I've been on Facebook for way too long.

Then I came across a French artist called Alexandre Oudin who started the craze for customising your profile page to make it look like one large single image. Have a look at his Facebook profile to see what I mean. 

I love it and have spent this afternoon tinkering around to try to re-create the effect. After loads of errors I worked it out - and being the nice blogger that I am, here is my step by step guide on how to hack your profile page too!