January 2011

Social Media Etiquette: Minding your PR (companies)

by Angel Nancy on January 26, 2011

This week we Angels introduce a new feature: listener email.  We’re answering listener questions about Social Media Etiquette in the age of gimme gimme.

First up, we tackle a question from Maria, @pluslily, who wants to know how to follow up with PR companies and develop continuing relationships with them.

Our next two question come from mom-preneur and real life friend to Rebecca, Julie.  She asks about naming names in blogs and about product placement. What should a mom-preneur expect?

After we’ve closed the virtual mail-bag, we’re on to our snarkiest recurring segment: What We’re Harping On.  Heidi lets loose (in the nicest possible way) on drunken bloggers at corporate events. Rebecca talks about invitations to events that aren’t what they seem. Amy, amazingly, has nothing mean to say, and Nancy just agrees with everybody else.

This week’s Golden Halos go to:

Jennifer Perrillo and what Amy calls “The best ever in the history of the world – and I’m not overstating” recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Fauxology – because Heidi, and the rest of us, appreciate her loyal listenership, and envy her design savvy.

The Innovative Educator.  A blog about – wait for it – innovation in education.  Because Rebecca admires her smart ideas on incorporating tech into the classroom.

UrbanQ: An app designed by a woman entrepreneur that recommends restaurants, kid events, shops, shows, you name it, and learns your preferences as it goes.

Here are some links to some of the other things we discuss:

Listener Julie’s business,  Hola Baby, makes adorable onesies which you can check out here.

Nancy gives @NYCPatty a shout out for being such a great fan (and Zumba doer).

For info on building relationships with brands, we recommend listening to Ben The PC Guy and Lisa Worthington from a little ole company called Microsoft.

We talk about our upcoming trip to Blissdom, Amy explains how  her husband became affectionately known as The Ass, Nancy tells us how Harry Connick Jr. is blood-related to her in some weird and distant way, and Heidi has an existential crisis of sorts…is she/was she/will she be at Blissdom?

Amy and Heidi both said that UrbanQ reminded them of Bizzy.

Plus: we reveal THE ONE THING NEVER TO SAY TO A ROOM FULL OF MOM BLOGGERS.

Have a comment?  Question? Rant? Rave?  Leave it below.  We love listener feedback!

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Links from Day 3 at CES

by Angel Amy on January 24, 2011

The Day 3 podcast from CES saw the complete disintegration of the Blogging Angels’ composure, as well as a link to a porn star. But we also found time to talk about some more great products.

One more thank you to Microsoft Windows for sponsoring the Blogging Angels’ trip to Las Vegas, and for providing us with four HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 phones to use while here.

Thanks to Blue Microphones for letting us use the not-yet-released Yeti Pro to record our CES podcasts.

A highlight of the Blogging Angels’ time at CES: we were interviewed by the awesome Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan).

The Angels with Chris Brogan, our honorary Bosley

And everyone but Amy attended an awesome Ladies Who Tech breakfast hosted by the Clever Girls Collective, which was the brainchild of @tech4moms and techmama, and was sponsored by Swagg. Yes, Amy regrets not going. And don’t worry, Nancy found her gift card!

By the way, @littletechgirl is an overachieving mom of TWO sets of twins. We just thought you should know that.

Amy gushed about the Makerbot. And was confused by the idea of a printer that prints itself.

Rebecca invoked the name of Robin Byrd, which takes a lot of explaining (unless you grew up watching NYC Public Access TV in the 70s and 80s).

Rebecca liked the Samsung Slider Series 7 tablet/laptop, almost as much as Heidi liked miming the motion the keyboard made. Then there was the Samsung 9 Series latops, made of ultra-thin aluminum.

And we talked about the Samsung TV, again. We can’t help it.

Yup, we're still talking about this TV

And we discussed MommyTech again. A lot.

Nancy thought that David Pogue gave some good business advice about real-time  sharing. However, the Angels in attendance wondered why he was giving a keynote at the MommyTech Summit when nothing he said had anything to do with moms. Or tech.  Also, he was sort of funny – but not nearly as funny as he thought he was.  Really.

And that’s it! Thanks for joining us at CES.

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Links from Day 2 at CES

by Angel Amy on January 23, 2011

The links from our Day 2 at CES podcast include dancing robot mops, a laptop that watches you while you watch it, and the most beautiful TV in the history of TVs. Read on and enjoy!

We had a very special guest with us for this podcast, mom blogger and Microsoft Windows employee Lisa Worthington (@WinMommyLisa).

Nancy was amazed (and a little horrified) by the ArtPro Nail Printer.

photo fingernail machine

We predict this will soon be featured on Jersey Shore

We will forever have the music from this “dancing mops” video in our heads. Thanks, Mint!

Nancy talked about Eye-Fi, which kind-of turns any old digital camera wireless, and about how much she loves sending her pictures from her HTC HD7 phone (given to The Angels by Microsoft to use at CES) to SkyDrive.

Eye-Fi booth at CES

The Eye-Fi booth

Lisa and Rebecca talked about some of the great features of Windows Phone 7 phones, including your facebook pictures automatically appearing on your phone and being able to make “tiles” for individual people.

Heidi told us about a Toshiba laptop that uses its webcam to sense where your eyes are looking, so that you can watch 3D without glasses.

Heidi also brought up the 75 inch Samsung TV that we (and everyone else at CES) were drooling over.

It's thin, gorgeous and shiny - it is Vegas, after all!

Amy and Rebecca talked about Neer, which Amy desperately needs on Windows Phone 7.

Amy loved the Etch-A-Sketch iPad covers from Headcase.

We all talked about the unfortunately-named Mommy tech. And Amy hyped her post, Please PR Pros, treat me like a Mom Blogger.

And Lisa talked about how great it was bringing kids from Boys and Girls clubs through CES.

Lisa Worthington leads some kids from Boys and Girls Clubs of America around CES

Thanks again to Blue Microphones for letting us use the not-yet-released Yeti Pro to record our CES podcasts.

And of course, another huge thank you to Microsoft Windows, for sponsoring the Blogging Angels’ trip to Las Vegas, and for providing us with four HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 phones to use at CES.

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Links from Day 1 at CES

by Angel Amy on January 23, 2011

Our podcast from Day 1 of CES was chock full of great products and links, and here they are!

Nancy discovered Tech Support for Dummies, and we all immediately wanted to sign our parents up.

Nancy and Amy had to watch Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote address from a Las Vegas hotel bathroom (Heidi actually made it into the room), but you can watch it from the comfort of…someplace other than a bathroom.

Avatar Kinect will allow you to interact with a group of your friends on XBox Live using  your gaming avatar and the Kinect’s incredible ability to track your movements and facial expressions. Coming to Kinect this spring.

Microsoft Surface uses the new PixelSense technology to take touch screens to a whole new level: each pixel acts as a camera, so the screen can “see” exactly what you’re doing!

Acer showed off the Iconia, a dual-touch-screen notebook running Windows 7.

The Angels were all sporting their HTC HD7 phones (compliments of Microsoft Windows), running on the new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Heidi enjoyed Lenovo’s CES party, where she ran into @JenRab, @MoreThanMommy, the Lenovo LePad (yes, we’re still laughing at the name), and an incredible cake driven in all the way from Baltimore by Charm City Cakes.

Driven from Baltimore to Las Vegas by Charm City Cakes!

Of course we just HAD to mention the adult film expo down the street.

Heidi liked the new Sony Bloggie 3D, which will record and play back in 3D without glasses. Yay for no glasses!

Heidi also reported on a couple bits of Skype news: Skype’s acquisition of Qik, and their group video chat service which, at $8.99 for up to ten people, may make Amy switch over from the more expensive ooVoo.

Nancy was fascinated by the new Microsoft Touch Mouse that uses finger gestures instead of a wheel, which reminded Heidi of Nox Audio’s Admiral Touch noise canceling headphones, which have touchscreen gesture controls.

Rebecca and Nancy stopped by the PrimeSense booth to check out the technology behind Microsoft’s Kinect.

Amy had a Kinect revelation: you can use VideoKinect to talk to other people over Windows Live Messenger.

A huge explosion – either the volcano outside of the Mirage hotel or part of the pirate show at the Treasure Island hotel across the street – interrupted the podcast and sent the Angels into fits of laughter. Only in Vegas could something explode and you’d having trouble figuring out which sidewalk show it was from!

We all talked about the great features on our HTC HD7 phones, including the ability to automatically post pictures to skydrive. And Amy loves how quick the phone can go from asleep and locked to taking a picture, which allowed her to snap this before it pulled away:

Amy wants to know how this works. Are the girls actually IN the truck?

Nancy was fascinated by Splat ElectroClean, which reminded Amy of CyberClean.

Heidi loved the incredibly beautiful (and expensive) jewelry-like bluetooth accessories from Novero.

Thanks so much to Blue Microphones for letting us use the not-yet-released Yeti Pro to record our CES podcasts.

And of course, a huge thank you to Microsoft Windows, for sponsoring the Blogging Angels’ trip to Las Vegas, and for providing us with four HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 phones to use at CES.

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Talking Events, Money and Self-Censorship with Nicole Feliciano of Mom Trends.

by Angel Rebecca on January 20, 2011

L-R: Nancy, Rebecca, Nicole, Heidi, and Amy

This week the Blogging Angels were joined by our very first mom blogger/entrepreneur guest angel, Nicole Feliciano editor and owner of MomTrends.  We dished on PR and press events for bloggers, debated the role of bloggers vs. journalists, took on the ever complicated subject of compensation and discussed the future of sponsorship and ad models on blogs.   It’s a delicate and important talk you won’t want to miss.  And if there’s one takeaway from this week please let it be that you should NEVER work for a chance to win a giftcard.  NEVER.

This Week’s Golden Halos:

Heidi singled out Melissa Chapman aka @madijack for her insightful and honest article about religion.

Amy threw out some extra pointy Devil horns to the NYC Dept. of Education for trying to shoehorn a charter school into Amy’s kids’ public school.  Forget Waiting For Superman – her school has super parents who aren’t going to take this lying down.

Nancy highlighted Gazelle.com which will take and pay you for your old electronics and recycle them in an environmentally friendly way.

Rebecca wants everyone to read Dan Zarrella’s eye-opening article and analysis on ProBlogger about when the best times and days are to blog, Facebook, tweet.

Nicole gave a sparkly kudos to Clever Girls Collective for valuing bloggers time and work and making brands do the same.  The Angels agree!

Here are links to other things we discuss this week:

Lifetime Fitness worked with Nicole and understood and met her needs in order for her to attend and experience their newest club in Long Island.

360 Public Relations and Devries PR are two firms that Heidi admires for their respectful handling of mombloggers and their acknowledgement that our time is valuable.

Olay worked wonderfully well with Nicole sponsoring a creative and out of the box sponsored campaign.  As did Yoga Stuff Plus.

And a shout out to Norma Rosenfield and her incredibly spot on and well planned Disney events for Disney Consumer Products.

For mom bloggers looking to join a collective like Clever Girls here are some more great organizations that treat bloggers right (and pay them!)

The Motherhood

Role Mommy

Mom Bloggers Club

Babycenter

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Day 3: trends, Vegas moments, and the future of women at CES

by Blogging Angels on January 9, 2011

The Angels & More Fab Women Tech Bloggers

UPDATE: Looking for the links from this podcast? Look no further than our Day 3 link round-up.

We’re packing up our blistered feet and heading home. But first, one last podcast from CES, with some more cool products, some trend talk, and some favorite Vegas moments.

Thanks again to our fantastic sponsor, Microsoft Windows, and especially Lisa Worthington.  We had an amazing (and exhausting) time here in Las Vegas, got to see lots of cool new tech products, show off our Windows Phone 7 phones, and meet up with lots of great women, and even a few men. :-)   Microsoft gets honorary Angel wings for supporting women bloggers.

A special thank you also to Blue Microphones for letting us record on their brand-new, not-yet-released Yeti Pro mic.  It’s a powerful omni-directional mic that saved us from lugging four separate mics and a giant mixing board across the country.

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Day 2 at CES: We’ve forgotten what fresh air smells like

by Blogging Angels on January 8, 2011

UPDATE: You can find links to all of the products we talk about on our Day 2 link recap.

Day 2 at CES was a blast. Three of us spent some time hanging out at the Windows table in the Mommy Tech area, and got blasted every ten minutes with the music for the dancing Mint floor cleaners at the next table.

After being taken out to an amazing dinner by Lisa Worthington, our “Sponsor Angel” from Microsoft Windows, we all sat down in Nancy’s hotel room and managed to record a podcast without completely losing it like we had the night before. It helped that no volcanoes went off.

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The Blogging Angels do CES: Day 1 Recap

by Blogging Angels on January 7, 2011

UPDATE: Looking for all of the links we talk about in this podcast? You can find them here.

We came, we saw…we recorded while exhausted and totally punchy.  Here’s The Blogging Angels‘ Day 1 recap of notable things we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show, minus our usual links and other helpful things – we’re just too busy running around the Las Vegas Convention Center!  So we’ll be posting a wrap-up soon with all of the useful stuff we’ve been spoiling you with.  Until then, take a listen.  We saw some seriously cool stuff.

And we would of course like to thank our awesome sponsor, Microsoft, for bringing us here to CES.  If you’re here in Vegas, various Blogging Angels will be volunteering at the Windows kiosk in the North Hall throughout Friday and Saturday, so stop by and say hi!

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We’re off to CES!

by Blogging Angels on January 4, 2011

Are you wondering where your weekly Tuesday dose of Angel podcast went?
Well, worry no more! The Blogging Angels aren’t slacking off — we’re flying off to Las Vegas!

The kind folks at Microsoft Windows 7 are sponsoring all four angels for a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show, otherwise known as CES, the largest tech show on the planet, or the biggest geek-fest of all time. (It’s also known as the trade show held at the same time as the Adult Film Star trade show down the hall. Really. Not kidding.)

So we’re packing up pocket protectors and pasties, and heading to Las Vegas.

But what happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas: We’ll be posting and tweeting and blogging and vlogging and all around keeping you up to date on what’s happening at CES, in the Mommy Tech booths, and yes, what’s with those adult film stars. We’ve all got loaner Windows 7 Phones (thanks Windows Phone 7 people!) to make keeping in touch with pictures and tweets even easier.  Plus, we’re even doing a stint as “booth babes,” (minus the revealing outfits) at the Microsoft Windows booth during Mommy Tech on Friday and Saturday. So if you’re at CES, stop by and say hello IRL.

So listen up! Check back often. Follow us on Twitter. Send us comments! We’ll talk and post about this trip so much you’ll feel like you’re there. Minus the fresh-air deprivation and the strange sense that time has no meaning.

Wish us luck!  (At the trade show.  Not the casinos.  I mean, well, maybe at the slot machines…..)

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