BlogPaws Archives - American Sweepstakes

This contest from Honest Kitchen is looking for honest pets

I have two dogs, and two cats, I’ve spoken at or attended most all of the BlogPaws Social Media Conferences and one of my daughters is in veterinary school. Therefore, those that know me and/or follow this blog are aware that I’m a big pet lover. So I came across this pet-related promotion this week that I thought I’d share. I’m going to work on entering for the fun of it.

The promotion is from pet food company, The Honest Kitchen, who is looking for the year’s “most honest pets.” Their Honest Pet Contest is inviting people to upload a photo of their pet with a confession caption from now till September 14. Participant’s can enter on their promotional website, honestpetcalendar.com , on Twitter or Instagram using the #HonestPetsContest hashtag or on Facebook by uploading it to the promotional comment on the Honest Kitchen’s Facebook page.

There are no limit to the amount of entries, so there will most likely be many. I’ve posted a couple of my favorite entries. The public is invited to vote for their favorite on the website and can only vote on a submission once during the entire contest.

At the end of the contest five finalists will be selected as “Fan Favorites” based on which entries received the most votes. Out of the five finalists, the Sponsor will select one Grand Prize winner who will receive a pet friendly weekend getaway and be featured in The Honest Kitchen’s 2016 Pet Calendar. All five (5) finalists will receive Honest Kitchen products.

This Grand Prize winner will be based upon the quality of the content submitted and how well it fits the brand. The Grand Prize winner’s trip package to a getaway pet resort for two people and their pet includes round trip airfare to San Diego (including a pet fee) along with 3 day/2 night hotel accommodations at the superior, pet-friendly US Grant Hotel, up to $600 in spending cash and drinks with The Honest Kitchen team at Mission Brewery in downtown San Diego and an a tour of the Honest Kitchen office. The Grand Prize if valued at $3,500.

Also each entrant will receive free food samples and coupons from the Honest Kitchen, so even more reasons to enter. Plus I just learned that today, August 26, is National Dog Day! So treat your dog(s) to something special today. They bring so much love and joy into our lives!

BlogPaws 2015 Conference Recap from Nashville

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

Headed down to Nashville to speak at the annual Blog Paws Social Media Conference

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.

BlogPaws 2015 Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging and Social Media Awards Finalists Announced

In our profession we’ve all attended a few conferences, some good, some just okay. But have you ever been to one where there are dogs and cats (and a few ferrets) attending with you? That’s my favorite part of the BlogPaws Pet Blogging and Social Media Conference. I have written about BlogPaws several times here and the BlogPaws 2015 Conference is now just a little over two months away!

This year it’s heading south to Nashville, Tennessee, for the first time. The conference is scheduled for May 28-30 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. This will be my fifth time speaking at the conference. I’ve only missed one, which was last year’s conference in Lake Las Vegas. My friends and fellow blogging colleagues, Yvonne DiVita and her partner, Tom Collins, introduced BlogPaws at the start of 2010 and held the first conference in Columbus, OH. Since then they’ve been very busy turning it into the premier online pet community and a leading go-to-resource.

Attendees are usually comprised of a large group of pet bloggers, online pet enthusiasts and marketers of pet brands. The conference sessions range from tips on creating great content, to SEO and WordPress web advice, to the business of blogging, to managing fund raising events such as “Twitter-pawties,” to running contest apps on Facebook and other social media platforms including Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and more. My session will cover the Key Legal Developments Affecting Sweepstakes, Contests and Social Media. While a majority of the attendees publish about — or in some cases AS their pets — the topics apply broadly to anyone who wants to learn more about effective use of social media.

The BlogPaws team just revealed their finalists for their 2015 Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging and Social Media Awards. They received over 1,000 nominations this year in 12 different categories. I had the honor of being one of the judges this year in which I reviewed the entries in the Cause Category. It was such a hard category to judge. Each of of the websites nominated is doing a great service to help these animals find “forever homes” and to bring awareness to issues, such as how to raise a deaf dog in your home, Deaf Dogs Rock, and the life of some “Big Cats” at the Conservation Club.

The winners will be awarded at the BlogPaws 2015 Conference at a Red Carpet, media-covered ceremony that will take place on Saturday evening, May 30th. You can check out all the finalists here. You can also take a look at this video below shot at the 2014 Red Carpet awards. There is still plenty of time to register. If you’re interested in attending please contact me and I can offer you a special speaker discount. Would love to see you all in Nashville!