While there’s no formal meeting this month due to crazy happenings in our work/lives, this Saturday several of us are still meeting up at 10am at the Bean Haus in Covington for coffee.   Because we don’t get to see each other very often, and because when we do there’s not a ton of time for catching up or chatting about social media and blogging in general, we thought it would be fun to get together just to get together.

Everyone is welcome to attend.  Just head on up stairs after you get yourself a beverage. I am sure we’ll be there until at least 11:30 chatting.

If you are coming, or think you might be able to stop by, let us know in the comments. It will help us make sure we grab enough spots upstairs.

The Bean Haus is located at 640 Main Street in Covington, KY.  If you need help finding it, you can call them at (859) 431-2326. {Thanks Carla!}

~ CWB

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We’ve all talked about how much the last presidential race was affected by social media. But, have you spent much time discussing how politics and social media are intersecting in our area? Do you want to?

Join us on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Cincinnati Public Library downtown (room 3A) for the next Cincinnati Women Bloggers meeting. It’s sure to be an interesting event, and we thought it would be timely with election day right around the corner. I’ll be adding additional information about our speakers soon. But, in the meantime, you can RSVP by commenting on this post. Hope to see you there!

Update: Meet Our Speakers

This week’s speakers will be Jane Prendergast of the Cincinnati Enquirer and Kathy Groob, who founded ElectWomen Magazine.

Jane Prendergast

Jane Prendergast has what she thinks is the best job at The Enquirer – covering the city of Cincinnati, its neighborhoods, its people. But right now, she’s mostly busy with its $51 million budget deficit and its politics. She has the distinction of breaking this summer’s Twittergate scandal, in which one councilwoman tweeted during a council meeting that another “does not know when to shut up.” She has worked at The Enquirer 20 years. She contributes to the paper’s politics blog, Politics Extra,  and on twitter @janeprendergast

Kathy Groob is the founder and facilitator of ElectWomen Magazine, a national media magazine site dedicated to providing resources to elect women to public office. ElectWomen Magazine is the first, independent,

Kathy Groob

comprehensive magazine-style website that offers women running for office a place to obtain resources, links to training, workshops, books and advice, statistics and even the ability to blog or e-mail questions. Groob has assembled a distinguished panel of contributors who provide articles and responses to reader questions. Kathy Groob is a 30-year businesswoman and entrepreneur and has served as an elected city official and ran for the Kentucky Senate in 2008. Her Senate campaign inspired hundreds of women to become involved and she created a bi-partisan network of campaign volunteers and supporters. She serves as a political consultant, is a leader in women’s organizations throughout her region and has been a mentor and advocate for women in the workplace throughout her career.

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Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday’s Cincinnati Women Bloggers meeting on ethical and legal blogging . We want to thank Bridge Worldwide for hosting and thank both Stacy Cole of Graydon Head Ritchey and Dennis Hetzel of the Cincinnati Enquirer/NKY.com for taking time to educate us  on this very important topic.

While the meeting was filled with lots of great information, following is a quick list of some of the things I took away from the meeting.  Feel free to add more in the comments.

• Information put up on public sites like Twitter, Facebook & Blogs is fair game. If it’s out in public it’s all good. In other words, you cannot claim right to privacy if an employer or potential employer finds questionable content that you’ve published.
• With regards to blog content, it’s OK to use excerpts and link back to original article, it’s not OK to cut-n-paste entire article, etc.
• Photo Rights – Simply saying where you grabbed the photo from is not enough. If the photo is copyrighted you need to get permission from the owner.
• You can be held liable if you intentionally use, link to, or promote pirated work on your blog.
• You can not be held liable for content others publish to your blog — ie. comments, unless you know they are false, slanderous, etc.
• Don’t embed videos on your site that you know (or suspect) are in violation of a copyright. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Disclose, Disclose, Disclose.  You’ll be in a much better position with your readers if you keep everything in the open when it comes to your blog (reviews, compensated trips, advertising, etc).
• Bloggers should have  “notice and take down” procedures for dealing with copyright infringement.
• The best blogs have personality. Readers want to have someone to connect with.
• What to be a trusted navigator? Be content and format agnostic.
• Things to think about — Who is your audience? What do you want your brand known for? Do you care about showing biases? Do you care about accuracy?

Want more from the meeting? Check out the Twitter stream (#CWB) and find photos on the Cincinnati Women Bloggers Facebook Fan page.

UPDATE: If you’d like to review the presentation made by Stacy Cole, you can view it on the Graydon Head Ritchey web site — HERE.

We  want to thank Cincinnati Women Blogger’s member Amy of Amy in Ohio who suggested and arranged for Stacy and Dennis to present.  If you have an idea for a topic or know a speaker we should connect with, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Cincinnatiwomenbloggers(@)gmail.com.

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Taking a break this week from Friday Favorites Link up.  Feel free to search the blog and check out Link Ups from the past few weeks.  Lots of great content being shared!

See you all Saturday at Bridge Worldwide (Hint, Hint) http://bit.ly/2q0XVx

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Just a quick reminder that Cincinnati Women Bloggers meets this Saturday, 10am at the Cincinnati Ballet.  You can get more info and RVSP, here.

We’ll be talking about BlogHer, as well as what you’re interested in learning about over the course of the upcoming months. After our meeting we’ll tour the Ballet!

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If you weren’t able to join us Saturday, attendees at CWB’s April meeting were treated to a presentation on developing rich content and finding your blogging voice by local bloggers Michelle of Write Technology and Julie of WineMeDineMe (in Cincinnati).

During the meeting, which was sponsored by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Michelle and Julie shared numerous tips and insights to help bloggers find, or further develop their blogging voice.  

Tips included:

• Skim headlines related to your blog topic/niche to find news stories to share with your readers.
• Set up Google Alerts for phrases or topics you cover.
• Stay true to your voice. If you aren’t passionate about it, it will be hard to write about.
• Expose your blog to new audiences, invite other bloggers to guest post on your blog. This is a great tool if you are wanting to provide content on your blog when out of town, under the weather or you just need a break.
• Consistency is important. Michelle and Julie recommended blogging at least 3 times a week the first 6 months.
• If you are approached by companies to write about their products or services, it’s OK. Just be sure to disclose the relationship.
• If you find you need a break, let your readers know. They’ll understand. Don’t just disappear.
• Julie and Michelle recommended posting to your blog in the morning.  Many individuals catch up on their blog reading during  their lunch hour.
• Platforms like Blogger and Wordpress are great blogging resources and they are free.
• If you find yourself dealing with a comment Troll, ignore them.  No need to encourage bad behavior.
• Your writing should reflect who you are. Be conversational. Engage with your readers.
• It’s a good idea to include photos with posts. It breaks up the page and grabs your readers attention. Images also help tell the story.
• Use spellcheck and then re-read post for errors.
• Photo rights: Always get permission before using photos found online. Flickr is a great resource for Creative Commons photos.

In addition to their tips, Michelle and Julie shared with us the Church of England’s 10 Commandments of Blogging. Apparently, our blogging breatheren in England could not “keep it clean” so to speak so the Church stepped in to regulate their online behavior.

Ten commandments for bloggers:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person’s content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger
10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to highlight our attendees who had blogs. If you attended and aren’t included below, please shoot me an email (Shannanb(at)gmail.com) and I’ll get it added.

• Jeanne – Race to the Middle &  NewMediacy
• Verria – Good Health Coach
• Teresa - Real Living
• Jane – Work and Joy
• Shannan – Mommy Bits
• Debba – Girlfriendology
• Amybeth – Research Goddess
• Heather – Little Miss Know it All
• Christina – Nearly the Bionic Woman
• Jenny - Recycled Bin
• Sandy – You Had Me At Arf
• Fabien – Sentient Cincinnati
• Erin Marie - Don’t Call Me Mrs.
• Jami – Living Cincinnati & Encore Cincinnati
• Michelle – My Wine Education & Write Technology
• Julie – WineMe, DineMe (In Cincinnati)

A big thank you to Chris Graves and the Cincinnati Enquirer for sponsoring our meeting and to Julie and Michelle for presenting.   Stay tuned for details on our next meeting on Saturday, May 30; location TBD.

Shannan
www.mommybits.net

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