“Worrying is a waste of time!”
Jackie of Free is My Life said this was the best advice she’s ever received! Read on to find out what her advice is for new bloggers, as well as how she kicked off her summer and how many times a day she checks her email. Give her a shout out at @FreeIsMyLife!
Click this link to read all of the Influencer Spotlight posts here!
As we predicted earlier this year, wearable technology continues to be a hot item in 2015. As smart wearables continue to become more stylish, the creators are making other changes to their devices, specifically with women in mind.
In the past year, many voices have addressed the issue that wearable technology, especially health trackers, seemed to ignore the needs of women. They claimed that not only were the size and style of wearables not female-friendly, but also that the functionality of the devices excluded features useful to women. Take Apple’s HealthKit app, released in fall 2014, which included capabilities for tracking diet, activity, sleep and more. According to many of its users, it left one very important thing out: a female reproductive tracker.
This year, we can’t help but notice how wearable technology is responding and adjusting for women.
One example that has gained significant media attention is Bellabeat’s LEAF. Bellabeat is known for the SHELL, a device allowing pregnant moms to hear, record and share her baby’s heartbeat. The company introduced the LEAF earlier this month, and it sold out the first batch — 10,000 wearables within the first 48 hours! This stylish, smart jewelry can be worn as a necklace, bracelet or clip and tracks women’s stress, activity, sleep and reproductive health, and provides real-time feedback through its app.
Smart wearables for women are showing up in the form of clothing as well. Just take a look at the new Sensilk’s Fight Tech smart bra that measures women’s heart rate, respiratory rate and calories burned during a workout.
And finally, Apple will be adding women health features to the HealthKit App in the Fall 2015 iOS 9 update. We expect to see more changes like these this year!
Do you use wearable tech or smart jewelry? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
For the past six months, I’ve been eyeing my drawer full of old college t-shirts and considering whether it might be time to part with them. They’ve served me for years, mostly as pajamas or workout gear, and age has taken its toll.
But recently, Project Repat, a service that upcycles old t-shirts (or jerseys, sweatshirts and more) into keepsake blankets, approached The Motherhood about collaborating on a blog campaign – and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give my shirts new life.
I collected all the t-shirts I’ve had lying around my house for years, and I asked my parents to send me the shirts from high school that I’d never been able to part with. The oldest dates to 1999, and the newest joined my t-shirt collection just last year. My search yielded 19 total t-shirts.
At Project Repat, a lap blanket consists of 16 total panels for your t-shirt graphics (at a price of just $74.99), and a twin size blanket is 24 panels for $109.99, with increasing numbers of panels in additional full, queen and king sizes. My 19 t-shirts included 14 with graphics just on the front and five with graphics on both the front and back, which allowed for 24 total panels – so I opted for the twin size. For a nominal additional fee, I also decided to request 14×14 inch squares instead of the standard 12×12 inches, since several of my shirts featured large graphics.
Before sending in my shirts, I read the instructions provided by Project Repat on how to prepare them, cutting the ones with graphics on both sides apart along the seams. I also laid out a pattern for the blanket, took a picture and added the photo to the box of t-shirts I mailed in. (This step is optional – if you don’t provide a photo, Project Repat will create a pattern for you.)
Here is the blanket that was returned to me just a few weeks later, 24 t-shirt panels (with the bottom left corner folded up to show the black fleece backing). For size reference, this is a twin blanket with 14×14 inch panels laid out on a king bed:
This blanket represents many phases of my life, from my high school tennis team to college events, career initiatives and beyond – and I will treasure it forever. Creating a t-shirt blanket is a beautiful way to preserve memories, and it makes a great gift for a high school or college graduate in particular as they move into the next phase of their lives.
Project Repat offers the most affordable prices in the business for creating t-shirt keepsake blankets. Many of these services cost several hundred dollars, while Project Repat blankets begin at just $74.99. It is a great value and well worth it!
Top photo and “How It Works” graphic credit: ProjectRepat.com
As many in the PR and marketing fields will tell you, there’s no “typical day” in our industry. Despite the variation, there are some themes that punctuate a day in the life of The Motherhood: collaboration, communication and innovation. Here’s a look at what we do, as documented by Brittney Coburn.
6:30 a.m.: My work day begins when my iPhone alarm sounds. After taking a quick glance through email and sending responses to anything urgent, I turn on my morning show of choice to get a peek at the day’s headlines. Staying up-to-date on the news is important, particularly to assess any impact on our clients’ campaigns.
10 a.m.: Shortly after I arrive at the office, our team gathers for a weekly meeting so our Pittsburgh headquarters can regroup with our New York, Seattle and St. Louis branches.
Cooper shares the amazing news that the Pittsburgh Business Times has named The Motherhood to the 2015 Pittsburgh 100, a list of the fastest-growing, privately held firms in our region, so Sarah volunteers to write a post for our blog.
We open up our shared Google Doc and the account leads review the current status of each active and prospective program, noting important dates and any outstanding issues we need to address as a team. We identify a few campaigns for which we need to confirm a hashtag so our monitoring team can add it to our tracking tool, and I make a note to follow up with those clients.
Nicole gives an overview of our editorial calendar for the week. We’ve just published our June blogger spotlight and are working on a round-up of social media trends we’ve seen recently.
Before we wrap up the meeting, our team spends some time brainstorming creative executions and unique ways to analyze and apply social data for a proposal due the next day.
11 a.m.: After a quick coffee refill, I review my incoming emails and flag a few of the most time-sensitive ones. Over the next hour, I answer a client’s question about moving blog coverage up a week to coincide with their media day, send a few reminders to bloggers whose posts are due the next day and field a new business inquiry. Erin, Serena and I instant message to bounce ideas off each other.
I shared a new business proposal for a program last week and just receive word that it’s come through! The turnaround time is quick, so I finalize a timeline, add the new project to Basecamp (our project management software) and populate it with some assignments so we can get started right away. After a quick call with my client to confirm the specific criteria for the bloggers they’d like to work with, I talk with Kayla so she can begin compiling some recommendations for the brand to review. Kayla’s knowledge of our blogger network is nearly as reliable as the information in our proprietary database, so she spouts off the names of a dozen influencers she thinks would fit our client’s criteria perfectly.
Noon: It’s easy to get lost in email, but I spend a few minutes over lunch catching up on some industry news and taking a scroll through Twitter and Facebook. I spot a few interesting trends, which I route to the team. I also swing by Cooper’s office to talk through the results of a recent program in advance of a meeting the following week. So much of our work is easily done over email and phone, but we love the chance to meet with our partners in person!
1 p.m.: It’s party time! On Twitter, that is. Our team produces Twitter parties like a well-oiled machine, having executed several hundred over the past few years. I pull up the hashtag feed on TweetDeck, check in with our blogger co-hosts, monitor the trending topics list, chime in on the online conversation and send an email to my client to let them know the party is off to an amazing start. Nicole handles The Motherhood’s social media accounts and she and I chat between our offices, noting that the hashtag feed is moving particularly quickly, and the hour is up before we know it. Nicole pulls some preliminary results from our tracking software and I shoot it off to our client, along with the trivia winners’ info so they can mail their prizes.
2:15 p.m.: More email! I respond to client and blogger questions about product images, disclosures, what constitutes an “impression,” guidelines for featuring a blogger’s content on a brand’s social media channels and if we can identify a very specific kind of blogger who lives in a particular geographic area (answer: yes!). A client is assembling a deck to help sell in a 2016 social media program, so we share some stats we have on hand about the power of moms who blog. Coverage is rolling in for the second phase of a multi-month ambassador campaign, so I review the blog post links and send them off to our client.
3 p.m.: With my iPhone in hand, I retreat to our conference room and switch gears for a meeting with our art director. We’re launching a new Twitter party series and we brainstorm a branding concept unique to the program, followed by discussions about some important internal projects. There are lots of exciting things in the works for The Motherhood and I leave the meeting energized for what’s to come.
4:30 p.m.: The final few brand assets I was waiting on have just come through, so I put together an email to a blog team that provides all of the background information they need to create a sponsored post. I take a look at Basecamp to see what I have coming up tomorrow and add a few additional to-dos that popped up today.
5 p.m.(ish): I do some time entry, get my desk organized and the official work day comes to a close.
The Motherhood is so proud to announce that we have been named to the 2015 Pittsburgh 100 List of Fastest-Growing Companies by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The list ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the region, with a rapid growth rate of 30 percent or more between 2012 and 2014.
In August, The Motherhood will be recognized at a ceremony to celebrate this success, along with other Pittsburgh-area honorees. The recognition comes on the heels of another achievement by The Motherhood team: In March, Co-Founder Cooper Munroe was named a 2015 BusinessWomen First Winner by the Pittsburgh Business Times, which honors the top female executives who are leading the way for other professional women while making a difference in the western Pennsylvania business community.
We’ll blog about the ceremony in August, so stay tuned for more exciting news from one of Pittsburgh’s fastest-growing companies!
Image courtesy of the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Enjoying summertime while wrangling the kids and ensuring the whole family is totally taken care of can be a real balancing act.
For an ongoing campaign with LISTERINE®, we invited a talented group of mom bloggers to share their advice on keeping their families totally taken care of, from teeth to toes, all summer long. We compiled five top tips for a great summer to help you enjoy the season:
1) Be Prepared. Mellisa of Mom Luck advises, “Pack a small bag with all your summer essentials, such as sunscreen, snacks, bottled water, BAND-AIDs for boo-boos and a bottle of LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE to help keep your mouth clean and refreshed.”
2) Remember Good Oral Hygiene. Notes Sara of Saving for Someday, “Don’t forget that good oral hygiene is especially important in the summer when the kids are snacking and maybe heading off to bed with a different routine. Walgreens has you totally taken care of on this with a range of wellness products.”
3) Protect Your Skin. As Felicita of Casa Moncada points out, “It’s fun to be outside in the pool, going to the beach, or doing any other outdoor activity but we must take care of our skin. Using sunscreen is essential when going outside even if it’s just for a little while… Be sure to re-apply every few hours and more if you are in the water.”
4) Maintain a Routine. With no school and many hours of daylight, “it can often be easy to let kids slide into later and later bedtimes,” Xenia of Thanks, Mail Carrier, says. Often, the result is “the following day ends up being stressful and exhausting for everyone. Instead, sticking to a consistent schedule (at least for the majority of the summer) and a regular daily and weekly routine can lead to a smoother, happier time for the entire family.”
5) Have Fun! The most important thing to remember this summer is to “enjoy yourself and really embrace life, and while you do it, make sure you are not letting your well-being slip,” advises Ellen of That Chic Mom.
To learn more about keeping your family totally taken care of all summer long, and to share your own tips, tricks and wellness ideas, join a #LISTERINEMom Twitter party – we’ll be sharing the date, time and details soon. Hope to see you there!
