I can’t tell you how excited I was to find questions from you, my dear loyal readers, in my inbox after the debut of this Chief Mom Officer column. More than a few of you asked:

“How do I market myself as a Chief Mom Officer?”

That is a great question and for many of you, it’s probably the first question you think of after deciding that this role is one that you would like to pursue. For those moms that have a strong background in business development, marketing, or social media, it’s a matter of networking with the people who you would like to work for AND the people who have CONTACTS in those companies you’d like to work for. LinkedIn is a great professional networking platform. I have been using LinkedIn for over five years now and I can’t even tell you how valuable a resource it has been for advancing my career. Come to think of it, it’s been a great tool helping my contacts advance their career as well. Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and join my Chief Mom Officer group.

Photo by Marjon

OK, so what if you don’t have marketing, business development, or social media experience? Well, it might take some time, but this is a skill set that can be learned. I’ll be frank though, you really need to be passionate about the market segment and you have to be willing to work hard. Most importantly, you need to be consistent. Consistent? With what? Demonstrating that you know how to create buzz and market a product, a service, and/or a brand. The best way to do this? Promote the heck out of the people and products you are most passionate about. Don’t force it. If you try to be an evangelist for something you feel “meh” about…you’re not going to come across as genuine.

In a nutshell, you can talk yourself blue in the face about what a great marketer you are, but until you starting showing off your skills, no one is going to start paying attention. Be passionate, be real, be authentic.

Have a question for me? Email me at makeme (at) chiefmomofficer (dot) org.

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Jessica Smith is the Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot and Founder of ChiefMomOfficer.org. Her personal blog is JessicaKnows.

photo by luis mimunoznajar

One of the reasons I have pursed working virtually and part-time from home is because I want to spend more quality time with my son. However, when I started blogging and networking with moms, it didn’t feel like work. I genuinely enjoy making the connections, supporting others’ ideas that I’m passionate about, and thinking creatively.

The fact that I get paid to do this is the icing on the cake.

You might remember my post about allies. I was having a phone conversation with one of the women I consider my ally, Arianne of To Think is To Create and we were talking about “paying our dues” while we toiled at cutting our teeth in the social media world. We had this blind faith for that old cliche -

Do what you love and the money will come.

That some way, some how if we kept at it and had an open mind, the right opportunity would come along. Now for some people, this happens sooner than for us. However, Arianne and I both agreed that - cliche alert -

Everything happens for a reason.

Arianne and I both made the decision to stay home to be moms, but we’ve found that blogging, creating buzz online, and working with companies to strengthen their brand among moms is what makes us tick. It’s something that’s just for us, as individuals. We’re wives, we’re moms…and she’s Arianne…and I’m Jessica. Doing what we love makes us feel whole. I think Arianne said it best when she gave me the following analogy:

“It’s like we’re living in a house that we always thought had only one floor. Then suddenly one day we find out the house goes 10 stories high and there are all these places we never realize existed, but were there all along. These places to discover and explore and love and pursue about ourself were always there, but we were just living in one tiny corner of the house, not realizing how much more we could have.”

When she said that to me, I asked her to please write that down for me so that I could share this pearl of wisdom with you. Marketing, business development, and foster community are what makes us tick. But to be a Chief Mom Officer, that doesn’t have to be what makes you tick. Come out of that tiny corner of your “house” and explore those passions you have, combine those with your talents and skill set, and find out who needs that to succeed. And please share your similar experiences here in the comments. It’s likely your story will inspire someone else.

Also, I want to extend a HUGE congratulations to Nichole Smith of The Guilty Parent. She was hired as Chief Mom Officer of BabySpot.com this week! Way to go Nikki!

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Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, Founder of ChiefMomOfficer.org, and the Celebrity Business blogger for Sparkplugging.com. You can also find her talking about all her latest projects, thoughts, and ideas at her personal blog Jessica Knows.

Image courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

Blog? Check. On Twitter? Check.  LinkedIn? Check.

You’ve worked so hard to put yourself out there, but companies aren’t knocking down your door.  Chances are they’d love to, but they don’t know how!

Huh?

Because of fears of privacy and personal security, a lot of bloggers don’t like to make their contact information readily available.  I totally get that.  In fact, for a long time, I didn’t provide a means of contacting me on my blog either.

Here’s the deal.  If no one can easily contact you, how do you expect to get offers to contribute to marketing campaigns, product reviews, or even…wait for it…employment? {gasp!}

Now I am certainly not recommending that you just broadcast your home phone number or explicitly put your email front in center so spammers can come scoop it up.  I am however, advising you to use a few free and totally useful tools that will allow those that you want to talk to, reach you.

Do any one (or a few!) of the following:

• Add a Google Talk chatback badge, that way visitors to your site can see when you’re available and instant message with you immediately.  This has been an awesome addition to my blog and my ability to connect with those that want to talk RIGHT NOW.
• Sign up for a Grand Central account. With Grand Central you can have a phone number that rings to your home or cell phone without giving the caller your actual number.  Invites may still be needed, and I have a few left.  If you’d like one, please leave a comment saying so - first come first serve.
• Include an email contact form in a conspicuous place on your blog.  I like and use this one.
• Better yet, dedicate a page on your blog or website with ways visitors can contact you.  After I added a contact page to my site, it was amazing how much more people reached out to me.

The fact of the matter is that readers, potential clients, and companies you’d like to partner with can’t propose their ideas or invite you to work on projects with them if they can’t get in touch with you.  So do yourself, and them, a favor and make it as easy as possible.

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Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, Founder of ChiefMomOfficer.org, and the Celebrity Business blogger for Sparkplugging.com.  You can also find her talking about all her latest projects, thoughts, and ideas at her personal blog Jessica Knows.

Photo by Mareen Fischinger

As a Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, part of my job is to establish and develop strategic partnerships with companies and organizations.  The ideal outcome of these partnerships are win-win situations that will not only provide cross-marketing opportunities, but relationships where there’s accountability, trust, and mutual enthusiasm for shared visions and successes.

You’re Building a Brand

So how does that affect you?  Most likely, if you are reading this column, you are building a brand for yourself. Whether it’s the cool invention that will make all your friends swoon, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” or it’s your blog about the myriad of ways to use nutritional yeast, the idea of partnerships is not limited to companies.  The “one-woman show” that most of us operate help us leverage our relationships with other like-minded and entrepreneurial women.

Partnerships don’t necessarily have to be formal.  No paperwork is required unless there are contractual obligations or money involved.  However, I highly recommend reaching out to a few other women you trust and admire (and that you feel pretty confident that the feeling is mutual) and letting them know, verbally, that you’d like to align yourself with them.

Find Your Partners

What to look for in an ally?

• Shared vision
• Mutual respect
• Similar work ethic
• Same level of commitment for success
• Genuinely liking the woman

What do you do once you’ve got some allies? (You lucky girl, you!)

• Try to communicate by phone at least once a week
• Check in with each other and see what the other needs
• Boost the others’ morale BEFORE they really require it
• Celebrate their success even if you’re not having the greatest day yourself
• Look for opportunities, networking and otherwise, not just for yourself but for your allies too.

At Blog World Expo this past weekend I had the honor and privilege of meeting, in person, a lot of the people I consider my allies…those who I think of as a partnership on both a personal and professional level.  One being Colleen Padilla, of Classy Mommy, pictured with me here at a party at the Revolution lounge in Las Vegas. (More photos, videos of Blog World Expo 2008 can be found on the Sparkplugging Media page)

Okay - so who’s going to be your partners?  How are you going to approach them?
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Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, Founder of ChiefMomOfficer.org, and the Celebrity Business blogger for Sparkplugging.com.  You can also find her talking about all her latest projects, thoughts, and ideas at her personal blog Jessica Knows.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to find questions from you, my dear loyal readers, in my inbox after last week’s debut of the Chief Mom Officer column.  More than a few of you asked:

“How do I market myself as a Chief Mom Officer?”

That is a great question and for many of you, it’s probably the first question you think of after deciding that this role is one that you would like to pursue.  For those moms that have a strong background in business development, marketing, or social media, it’s a matter of networking with the people who you would like to work for AND the people who have CONTACTS in those companies you’d like to work for.  LinkedIn is a great professional networking platform. I have been using LinkedIn for over five years now and I can’t even tell you how valuable a resource it has been for advancing my career.  Come to think of it, it’s been a great tool helping my contacts advance their career as well.  Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and join my Chief Mom Officer group.

Photo by Marjon

OK, so what if you don’t have marketing, business development, or social media experience?  Well, it might take some time, but this is a skill set that can be learned.  I’ll be frank though, you really need to be passionate about the market segment and you have to be willing to work hard.  Most importantly, you need to be consistent.  Consistent?  With what?  Demonstrating that you know how to create buzz and market a product, a service, and/or a brand. The best way to do this?  Promote the heck out of the people and products you are most passionate about.  Don’t force it.  If you try to be an evangelist for something you feel “meh” about…you’re not going to come across as genuine.

In a nutshell, you can talk yourself blue in the face about what a great marketer you are, but until you starting showing off your skills, no one is going to start paying attention.  Be passionate, be real, be authentic.

Have a question for me?  Email me at makeme (at) chiefmomofficer (dot) org.

Jessica Smith is the Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot and Founder of ChiefMomOfficer.org.  Her personal blog is JessicaKnows.