2015 BlogPaws Conference Archives - American Sweepstakes

Just back from Nashville and the 7th BlogPaws Conference which was again another great event. I got to present on Saturday, day 2 of the conference, on Key Legal Developments in Sweepstakes, Contests and Social Media. Even though I was one of the break-out sessions scheduled after lunch, we had a good turn-out with some great questions from the audience (along with a couple of shout-outs from a few dogs!). I will be uploading the presentation to our LinkedIn profile here www.linkedin.com/company/american-sweepstakes-&-promotion-company if interested.

For those that are not familiar, the Blog Paws Conference is catered to pet bloggers to help them grow and learn social media skills. But it is also a great event for anyone interested in building their brand online. It’s the only conference were you’ll find some attendees wearing cat ears along with those that have brought their dogs and cats and this year, ducks, pigs, ferrets and even a rat! So I wanted to share here a few of the highlights and photos of the conference.

One of the speakers I was really looking forward to was Peter Shankman, a PR and social media marketing consultant, speaker, author and founder of Help a Reporter Out, who took the stage as Friday morning’s keynote speaker. He was very engaging and had us all laughing pretty hard. This was the third time I heard him speak and was glad to that he is still saying that one of the key rules today in the world of media and marketing is “Transparency”. I’ve been repeating that rule in many of my own presentations ever since. Peter used the new Periscope app to live tweet part of his presentation on Twitter, so I decided to do it as well. It was one of my first times using this new app. I was able to upload here it to YouTube. So take a look, this excerpt quite funny.

The BlogPaws team is still tallying some of the final numbers they were able to donate to various local shelters, but they stated last night in a Twitter Chat (#BlogPawsChat) that approximately $18k in cash, 27k+ lbs of food and over $5k in product was donated from #BlogPaws 2015! Next year’s conference was announced to be held in Phoenix, June 23-25. You can click on the image to register.

Please enjoy some of the photos I took of a few of this year’s pet attendees! Hope to be back next year!

www.linkedin.com/company/american-sweepstakes-&-promotion-companywww.linkedin.com/com

pany/american-sweepstakes-&-promotion-company

I’m headed down to Nashville, TN, on Thursday of this week to attend the world’s most unique social media conference, BlogPaws. Anyone who’s been following my blog knows that I’m a huge fan on this annual conference. This will be my fifth time attending. I’ve only missed one so far which was last year in Lake Las Vegas. I have been asked to speak again at this year’s conference which I am looking forward to.

This three-day, pet-friendly event is taking place May 28-30 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. My favorite part of the BlogPaws Pet Blogging and Social Media Conference each year is seeing all the pets, some celebrities with their own blogs and shows. In a recent press release by the BlogPaws team they listed what this year’s pet attendance looks like:

Over 100 dogs
11 cats — plus a variety of service cats and adoptables
2 celebrity mini pet pigs
3 ferrets
1 hamster
1 possible capybara
1 diapered duck
2 rats
3 ducklings — Huey, Dewey, Louie!!!

Two of my good friends and fellow blogging colleagues, Yvonne DiVita and her partner, Tom Collins, were co-founders who introduced BlogPaws in 2009 and held the first conference in Columbus, OH, in 2010. In less than six years, BlogPaws has become the go-to resource for pet bloggers and social media enthusiasts looking to build their online presence to enhance their social networks and support animal shelters and rescues around the world. Brands also consider BlogPaws the go-to resource when looking for social media attention and contacts.

Many pet bloggers, as well as the teams that run the online websites for animal shelters and the brands themselves, regularly run sweepstakes, giveaways and contests. So my conference session titled “Key Legal Developments Affecting Sweepstakes, Contests, Disclosure & Digital/Social Media” will address a broad array of legal regulations and guidelines facing us all today. Being able to effectively engage with customers and key audiences is a top objective today. However, there are many risks that need to be considered when doing this.

I’ll first review what is an “Illegal Lottery” and explain what ‘NO PURCHASE NECESSARY’ really means. I’ll define “consideration”, which here refers to the entrant’s time, effort or money. Besides making a purchase or payment it also means requiring a considerable amount of time, like filling out an in-depth survey, making multiple store visits or requiring too many social media tasks. Is sending a text message “Consideration”? Does posting a photo of a food item that you just took a bite of “Consideration”? Is watching a video to find the answers “Consideration”? It’s a very fine line and some have a higher risk then others.

The conference is capped at 500 attendees and this year they recently announced that it has again sold-out. There will be over 40 different sessions offered including advanced SEO Techniques, WordPress Tips, How to Build your Brand, Creating Engaging Content, Getting Noticed by the Media, Utilizing Video, Facebook and Twitter Tips, Making Money Online, Effective Fundraising and many more. Mary Engle from the FTC will be back to review more details on the FTC Guidelines for bloggers. Friday morning’s keynote speaker that I’m really looking forward to seeing again is Peter Shankman whose talk it titled “Ain’t No Loyalist Like A Zombie Loyalist”. I saw Peter Shankman years ago when I was first starting out in the new world of social media and he said something that I still use today as the #1 guideline we all need to follow…Transparency.

I will be posting my presentation online after the conference, so you’ll be able to find it here on and on our Linked In Company Page as well as my Personal Page . Or, just email us and we can send you a copy. I’m also really looking forward to visiting the city of Nashville for the first time. Hopefully I’ll get to enjoy some live music, taste some good southern cooking and experience what makes this city so special. Any tips please pass along.