Bloggers and the Media

Bloggers are increasingly getting mainstream media attention. This can be positive, which can result in wonderful, wide-scale exposure and traffic boosts for bloggers. It is also frequently negative, casting bloggers in a harsh light (sometimes as swag whores or company shills). It takes media savvy to properly handle an interview and look good in the final piece.

This panel would cover:

methods for doing your own PR to get positive coverage
• what journalists seek in a potential story
tips for handling an interview when the media contacts you about a controversial topic
how to avoid misunderstandings and errors (and what to do when they happen)
how you can apply journalism standards and ethics to your own blog
how to position yourself as an expert source for the media
• a handout listing the journalists on Twitter who actually follow people back and interact

The panel would include three women who each bring knowledge from both the journalism and blogger perspectives. Kelby Carr was a newspaper reporter for 15 years before becoming a publisher of social networks and social mom blogs like Type-A Mom, Foodie Mama and Investigative Mommy Blogger who has been interviewed by US News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AOL and NBC News Greenville. Danielle Smith is an award winning Anchor and Reporter who has turned her attention to blogging and vlogging at  ExtraordinaryMommy.com, doing online TV and podcasting and has appeared on The CBS Early Show, Fox News and CNN. Voted one of Babble's Top 50 Bloggers in 2009, journalist and author Rachel Sarah has been on both sides: the fair, accurate reporter as well as the subject in the New York Times and The Today Show via www.singlemomseeking.com/blog.