Debuting on June 21, Disney-Pixar’s new film, Monsters University, takes everyone’s favorite pair, Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan, “Sulley,” back to their college days, where they learned that nothing scares up successful days more than a breakfast with milk. The Motherhood is excited to celebrate with a “Monsters Love Milk” Twitter party.

Not only are Mike and Sulley coming back to the big screen, they are also the featured duo in the latest “GOT MILK?” ad, encouraging kids and adults alike to SCARE up protein at breakfast with milk!

Join this scarily fun Twitter party, hosted by @theMotherhood, @CooperMunroe and @EmilyMcKhann, to learn about milk’s health benefits. We’d love to exchange ideas and recipes that help you and your little milk monsters earn an A in nutrition each day.

When: Friday, May 17, 12 p.m. ET

Where: Join the chat on Twitter—follow the #MonstersLoveMilk hashtag to follow the conversation. See this Twtvite for more info and to RSVP.

Hashtag: #MonstersLoveMilk

Prizes: We will give away 5 prize-filled “Monsters Love Milk” gift baskets from @MilkMustache and @DisneyLiving throughout the party.

Hosts: @theMotherhood, @CooperMunroe, @EmilyMcKhann

The roster also includes these awesome co-hosts:
Jen, The Suburban Mom - @SuburbanMomClub
Laurie, Guessing All The Way - @clueless_mama
Rob, Look What Mom Found…And Dad Too! - @anddadtoo

Other Info:
To learn more about the newest Milk Mustache celebrities, visit http://milk.am/muad.

Today I was honored to speak directly with Secretary of State John Kerry on Google+ Hangouts with the State Department to discuss critical foreign policy issues facing our country.

As moderator Andrea Mitchell of NBC and MSNBC noted in her introduction, Secretary Kerry recently gave a speech at the University of Virginia in which he outlined the importance of our engagement abroad to the American people.

The State Department invited five people, including me, to ask questions and hear from Secretary Kerry on this important issue. Our group took a deep dive into the impact of foreign policies on all Americans.

(My clip starts at the 18:44 minute mark.)

Beginning the conversation, Secretary Kerry noted that we run risks everywhere in the world, and “America can never cower. America can never hide from our responsibility to advance human rights, build relationships with other countries, and try to provide people the vision of what life can be like in a strong democracy.”

I asked the Secretary the following question:

We all know that people lead incredibly busy lives and have plenty to worry about here at home.  What are the three most pressing global issues that impact average American families – and why should moms and families care about them? 

The Secretary told us that, “overwhelmingly, there is this profound concern about children – about how those kids are going to be raised, what their opportunities are going to be, and most of all, will they be safe?”

He raised three particular areas of concern:

• Environment and Global Climate Change: “If we don’t respond to the challenge of global climate change, there will be wars over water and agricultural land and other things. That is a major challenge for the future.”

• Health and Education: “We’ve done a great job of trying to export healthcare around the world. The State Department is deeply involved in the PEPFAR program that tries to prevent AIDS from being transmitted from mother to child in other parts of the world. If the United States can continue to be a leader in that, we’ll be exporting our values in the best way possible and helping families to make good choices.”

• Security: “Making sure we don’t fight wars that aren’t necessary … or that we take actions to try to ensure our children grow up in a world that isn’t threatened by violence … I think every family in America cares about our security, and that is a frontline concern of the State Department and Defense Department and the President of the United States.”

Thank you Secretary Kerry and Andrea Mitchell for hosting ‘Hangout at State’, for speaking with me, and for wanting to talk with American moms about why the work of the State Department matters to all of us.

What do you think? Did the Secretary’s top three most-pressing issues for moms and families resonate with you?

At just two years young, Google+ is now the second-largest social network behind Facebook in terms of active users, according to Trendstream’s Global Web Index. While it has amassed more than 343 million active users, some still wonder how they can truly benefit from Google+. No matter what your level of social media experience or intended usage of Google+, the social network has a number of powerful tools that other social networks on the block lack.

Communities

The Communities feature on Google+ allows you to connect with other users that share your same interests. Within these communities, people can ask questions, comment, and share photos and info about topics that matter to them. There are countless communities organized around various subjects ranging from sports and fitness to knitting and Dr. Who. You can join a community and get in on the action, or you can create your own and invite friends. There are also private communities, which require moderator approval to access content and conversations.

Hangouts

Google+ Hangouts allow you to video chat with up to nine friends simultaneously from your computer or mobile device. If your friends and/or family are scattered throughout the country (or even the world), you can all jump on a Hangout and catch up. All you need is a camera-equipped device and an Internet connection.

Hangouts are also a great tool for business. Say, for example, your team is located in different offices or some folks are out on the road. You can easily have a virtual face-to-face meeting via a Google+ Hangout. There’s also no need to take meeting notes, because you can record the entire conversation and play it back later.

Want to have more than 10 people in a hangout? No problem! There are also “Hangouts on Air” that allow you to broadcast your Hangout live to an unlimited number of people through your Google+ account and your YouTube channel. You can even embed a link to your Hangout on Air so that it streams live on your website or blog. It’s like having your own live video show on the web!

Hangouts on Air are a free and easy way to reach your community via video as well as expand your viewers and reach. You can conduct cooking demonstrations, teach classes, discuss important topics, or even host a live concert from your living room. Google also automatically records these hangouts as YouTube videos for playback later.

Circles

Circles are a fantastic Google+ feature, with a focus on sharing info with select groups of people. Circles allow you to organize the interesting people you find on Google+ into groups such as “family,” “classmates,” “work colleagues,” or “mom blogger friends.” You can then opt to share posts with specific groups of people based on what you think might interest them. This ensures that the content you are sharing with your network is relevant to the people who are seeing it.

Photos

Google+ also has a wonderful section dedicated to viewing, organizing, and editing photo and video files. The feature allows you to upload photos and videos directly from your phone and tag your friends. If you’re feeling creative, you can also edit your pictures and add fun Instagram-esque special effects, decorations and text. Google+ also gives you complete control in sharing your photos. You can share your photos with specific people, circles (just family, for example), or anyone with an email address. You can even lock an album to prevent anyone from re-sharing the photos.

Are you a Google+ user? If so, what is your favorite Google+ feature? How have you used it for business or personal interests?

“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a while, but their hearts forever” – Unknown

In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked our community of moms, “What are your favorite Mother’s Day memories and traditions?”

The responses made us laugh and cry, but most of all they touched our hearts:

What are some of your favorite Mother’s Day memories and traditions? We’d love to hear!  Happy Mother’s Day!!

3 Things for Mom posted a sweet Mother’s Day video card including photos of site contributors and their moms (the second is of me and my mom).

And if you’d like, here’s my 3 Things for Mom post.  Read it to get a Truth, a Tip and a Find!

When our kids are very small, we teach them about right and wrong and looking both ways before crossing the street – but as they get older, we need to broach more difficult subjects, such as underage drinking.

Recently The Motherhood worked with The Century Council and Dr. Anthony E. Wolf, a child psychologist and best-selling author, to host a blog program and Twitter party to help kick-start an online conversation about underage drinking and how we can address this tough topic with our kids.

The facts that The Century Council shared about underage drinking were eye opening, to say the least. One example:

According to the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the rate of current alcohol consumption increases with increasing age, from 2% at age 12 to 21% at age 16, and 55% at age 20.

As parents, we can’t shield our kids from some of the things that go along with growing up, like feeling the need to fit in at school or being pressured to drink alcohol at a party.

We can, however, prepare them for these situations and give them guidance that can help them make the right decisions. The hard part is knowing when and how to approach the subject so that it becomes a healthy conversation – and not another one of “mom’s lectures.”

Here are some fantastic tips and ideas on how to talk to your kids about underage drinking from fellow moms and dads who have experienced it first hand:

1. Start talking to your kids early and keep it simple. 

2. Don’t give up, and stay calm. Your kids are hearing you.

3. Talk to your kids about underage drinking when and where they are comfortable.

4. Teach your kids how to say ‘NO’ with confidence.

5. Make sure your kids (and their friends) know that you are there for them no matter what. 

To recap those tips:

1. Start talking to your kids early and keep it simple. 

2. Don’t give up, and stay calm. Your kids are hearing you.

3. Talk to your kids about underage drinking when and where they are comfortable (such as in the car, when you can chat without eye contact).

4. Teach your kids how to say ‘NO’ with confidence.

5. Make sure your kids (and their friends) know that you are there for them no matter what.

We would love your input! If you have any of your own experiences, tips or thoughts to share, leave us a comment.

As part of our ongoing blog-brand campaign research, The Motherhood recently conducted a survey of bloggers in our network to gather their insights on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to blog giveaways.

Over the years, we’ve worked with dozens of companies to bring giveaways to bloggers’ communities of friends, family members and fans. Prize items have ranged from full-value product coupons and gift cards to gift baskets, service memberships, autographed items and hotel stays.

Using survey feedback from nearly 400 bloggers in April 2013, we’ve compiled a brief list of blog giveaway best practices.

1) Go the personal route.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons user umjanedoan

The general consensus among survey respondents was that using personal anecdotes and original photos (as opposed to canned messaging and stock photos) makes their blog posts and giveaways appear “more genuine and less sponsored” – qualities blog readers appreciate.

Eighty-five percent of survey respondents said their giveaways get a better response when they use personal photos, and a whopping 94.5 percent said they get a better response when they include a personal anecdote.

Using anecdotes “makes the story seem real for my readers and reminds them that I’m actually the one who wrote it, instead of just a press release,” one person pointed out.

Another noted that “personal photos are much more likely to get pinned and otherwise shared” – thereby spreading the word of the giveaway. Even if the photos aren’t beautiful, “my readers want to know it something I really use, so they respond better to a mediocre photo in my home than a professional one from a brand.”

Bottom line: “Posts always get a better response when I’m personal. The views, shares, and comments are always higher when I’m personal with my readers.”

2) Don’t offer a giveaway just to offer a giveaway.

That is, make sure it’s a relevant part of a campaign, not a random afterthought.

While 92.9 percent of survey respondents told us they like hosting giveaways, many of them included a caveat similar to this one: “If it’s a good giveaway and I feel my readers would like it, then I’ll do it. But I don’t like to do it, JUST to do a giveaway.”

Another blogger noted, “I only like giveaways on a select basis and very, very seldom. I do not like to have people following my site just for free stuff.”

With that in mind, make sure your giveaway serves a purpose, has meaning, and is beneficial for both the blog and its readers. In other words, follow our next bit of advice…

3) Make the prize worth their while.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons user Robbie1

That doesn’t just mean a high-value prize, although more than one-third of survey respondents (34.6%) said they require a prize value of at least $50 – and ten percent require a value of at least $100.

It also means the requirements for entry should correspond with the prize value.

“The more hoops you make people jump through, the less they want to enter,” pointed out one respondent.

And don’t forget to follow the rules. “Legally the only requirement is to leave a blog comment,” said one person – but you can use a service like Rafflecopter for extra entries such as tweeting about the giveaway or following the brand sponsor on their Pinterest page.

Of course, discussing entries begs the question – which prizes are most likely to engage readers and encourage them to enter a giveaway?

4) When in doubt, go with gift cards. (Or gift baskets).

Overwhelmingly, bloggers tell us that readers respond well to gift card giveaways.

When asked which prizes make the best giveaways (allowing more than one choice), 75.5 percent said gift cards, 43.5 percent said product gift baskets, and coupons – the third most popular response – got only 3.9 percent of the vote.

“I think gift cards are really popular. People like being able to make choices that accommodate their personal family. I also find expensive family wants/needs are popular as well,” one person replied.

Getting into specifics, “VISA, Amazon, Target and Walmart” gift cards are particularly desirable “since almost everyone can use them. People like gift baskets too.”

5) Be cautious with coupon giveaways.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons user jyjtjrshraee

The low survey approval rating for coupon giveaways (3.9%) is reflective of the group’s additional feedback on the topic.

One blogger is okay with giving away coupons only “if you can give a big bundle of them away to one winner” to increase the overall value of the prize, while another doesn’t “see much response anywhere for coupons.”

On top of the value considerations, others pointed out that “coupons are tough because the winner has to be in an area where they can redeem them.”

Overall?

Word cloud generated from survey results at wordle.net.

Thoughtful giveaways can increase traffic to a particular post and drive blog loyalty and brand engagement among readers. You can increase eyeballs and interest by offering a campaign-relevant prize of high value and encouraging blog posts that are “more than a product pitch or press release.”

If you are a journalist or blogger with an interest in writing about global health issues, keep reading for more on an amazing opportunity with the International Reporting Project (IRP).

What: The IRP is looking for journalists, bloggers, and photographers who are interested in a global health reporting trip to the small African country of Zambia. Participants will visit both urban and rural areas of Zambia to learn and report on the effects of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in the country. They also will be taking a close look at the use of technology in healthcare and its role in combating these diseases – along with social and environmental factors that contribute to the spread of disease.

When: July 14-24, 2013

(more…)

Here’s a question with an answer that surprised me:  What’s the number one reason people support charities or causes?  According to Robert Reich who runs the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, the #1 reason people contribute to or get involved in charities and causes is because someone they know asked them to.

We’ve all been there, right?  A friend asks us to support a cause she cares about, and simply because she makes the request, we want to help.  We show up, share ideas and resources, make contributions and even get our families and kids involved.   We see this behavior all around us.  It’s part of our social fabric, our social currency.

But does this give and take translate online?   Do online appeals work in the same way that our ‘real life’ social currency does?

Just last month, the Georgetown University Center for Social Impact released a study on “digital persuasion” – “how social media is being used to influence perceptions, actions and support for causes.”  The study demonstrated a big departure:  In years past, face-to-face communication was the primary mode of ‘cause information exchange’.

Now, survey respondents named social media as their top source of information about the causes they support.

The study found that more than half (55 percent) of digitally active, cause-savvy American adults were likely to do far more than simply “like” a cause.  Engaging with causes via social media prompted them to:

-       Donate money (68 percent)

-       Volunteer (53 percent)

-       Donate personal items or food (52 percent)

-       Attend or participate in an event (43 percent)

According to Georgetown, “Eighty-two percent agree that social media is effective in getting more people to talk about causes or issues.”

The numbers for bloggers and highly engaged social media moms are even higher. According to several studies, almost 90% of bloggers have used their online platforms to promote or advocate for a cause they believe in.

In The Motherhood Annual Social Good Survey of Mom Bloggers, we found that women like knowing:

-        About the causes their friends support

-       That their time spent online, blogging and posting can lead to good things

-       The power of collective action

All of which is to say that social media for social good is a huge movement that is changing the way charities, giving and volunteerism are working.

The Motherhood has worked on many, many online social good campaigns over the years.  Based on this experience, following are “9 Ways to Use Social Media to Support Your Causes and Charities”:

1.  Make a Specific Ask That Is Doable, Effective and Measurable.  Too often, we get appeals from friends asking us to support their causes, but we’re not quite sure how we can help or if our involvement or contribution will make any difference.

So, first off, when you invite people to get involved in your cause or charity, be sure you can answer the question, “What can I do to help?” One idea is to create a milestone for your campaign (e.g., “if 100 people agree to do X, some great good will happen as a result”).  Make sure your request is easily doable and that it will result in measurable impact.

The Motherhood worked with the UN Foundation and Shot@Life to help create “Blogust” – a blog relay last August.  Every day for the 31 days of the month, a different blogger posted about Shot@Life and the importance of vaccines around the world.  For every comment to the posts, $20 went to Shot@Life to vaccinate a child.  One comment = one life saved.  More than 11,000 comments came in and we hit the program goal of $200,000 raised for Shot@Life.

We gave the community a specific, doable, measurable goal – and the community exceeded it.  Said another way, we might not be able to vaccinate all the kids in the world in a month, but we sure can hit the target of 10,000 comments and save 10,000 kids’ lives.

2.  Share Your Story. Women know instinctually that we connect with each other around our shared stories.  When we hear or read about a friend going through a hard time, our heart goes out to them and we want to help – much more so than if we read the statistics on how many people suffer from that particular problem.

We’ve seen this time and again – storytelling is the best way to get people involved in the charities and causes you believe in.  Share why it matters to you. Share individual stories of impact.  Share stories to demonstrate why the need is so great.  That’s what the 31 fabulous bloggers of Blogust did and their stories were gorgeous … and the response was huge.

3.    Invite your friends and give them a role.  When the ONE Campaign invited Cooper and me to travel with them and 8 bloggers to Kenya, we helped create a project with ONE to spread the word and engage moms in the U.S.  We gave our group the name “ONE Moms” and invited almost 40 U.S.-based online communities of moms – think Cool Mom Picks, Spanglish Baby, Boston Mamas, Parent Hacks and MomsRising – to get involved as “ONE Mom Partners”.

The ONE Mom Partners received a menu of ways they could choose to join in – from cross-posting blog posts, to interviewing a ONE expert or joining a conference call with the CDC in Kenya, and more – and they created magic on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter before the trip and as they interacted with and shared our posts and tweets from Kenya.  Thanks in part to their great efforts, when the ONE Moms returned from Kenya, ABC News named us “Person of the Week” and covered our story on Good Morning America.

4.  Choose the social media platform that’s right for the project.  Facebook is the most active and successful social media platform for charities and causes, but it’s not right for everything.  For example, in our work with the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, one of the goals was to ask moms to contact their Congressmen and Senators and thank them for their support.  Well, it is notoriously, hard to get moms to pick up the phone and call their mayors, governors or representatives (for reasons we completely understand).

For this project, our approach was to create a Twitter chat and ask moms to send a message to their representatives via Twitter – a much easier ask than picking up the phone.  The Twitter chat generated many millions of impressions and was the right venue for the conversation.

5.  Use the web for what it does well – crowd-source information that’s useful for everyone

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and we are working with The Century Council to encourage parents to talk to their kids about underage drinking.  On April 17 at 1 pm ET, The Motherhood and Women Online are hosting an hour-long Twitter party, with 10 fabulous bloggers as co-hosts, for moms and dads to share how they approach the topic of underage drinking with their kids.  Through the collective wisdom of the group, we will all come away with insights and new approaches – and will support a very important cause for parents of teens and tweens.  Please join us!

6.  Go for media coverage.  However big or small your campaign, be sure to let your local papers, radio outlets and TV stations know about it.  You really never know when your project might be exactly what a reporter is looking for.  We’re living in a transmedia world – online and mainstream media working together create the greatest impact.

7.  Celebrate the Win and Say Thank You.  There is nothing more powerful than saying ‘thank you’ and then giving everyone a huge collective hug for their hard work and accomplishments on your project. This sounds so very obvious, but it is amazing how often this step is left off.  Give your family, friends, neighbors and online community a reason to be proud of their contribution – and something positive to share with their family around the dinner table that night.

8.  Plan for Giving Tuesday in November 2103.   The UN Foundation, Mashable and 92^nd Street Y launched the first Giving Tuesday this past November and it was a raging success.  More than 2,500 charities participated in the first Giving Tuesday and $10 million was donated online that day, a 113% increase compared to the same date the year before.

The second Giving Tuesday will take place on December 3, 2013, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and given the huge response to #GivingTuesday last year, your charity or cause will want to be a part of it.

9. Follow the People Doing Great Things.  We’re all creating history here – social media for social good is still very, very new, and every day new ways to use online platforms are being created and discovered.  Our advice – tap the insights and expertise of the women doing fabulous things in the space.  We hope you’ll keep checking in with The Motherhood – we post about social media and social good all the time (here’s our recent post on the fantastic Merck for Mothers campaign – a great Facebook model to consider).  And be sure to follow great innovators, among them:  Chrysula Winegar at When You Wake Up a Mother; Morra Aarons-Mele at Women Online and The Mission List; Jennifer James at The Mom Bloggers Club and Mom Bloggers for Social Good; Catherine Connors and her team at Babble; Jennifer Burden at World Mom Blogs; Jyl Johnson Pattee at Mom It Forward; the team at MomsRising; and Amy Graff at BabyCenter. (Please share in the comments the names of others we should all be following!)  In September, follow and participate in the Social Good Summit to get the latest from around the globe.

The Nine

1. Make a specific ask that is doable, effective and measurable
2. Share your story
3. Invite your friends and give them a role
4. Choose the social media platform that’s right for your project
5. Use the web for what it does well – crowd-source information that’s useful for everyone
6. Go for media coverage
7. Celebrate the win and say thank you
8. Plan for Giving Tuesday 2013
9. Follow the people doing great things

Lastly, thanks to Holly Rosen Fink who invited me to speak at WestchesterIRL, the impetus for this post.

Whether you’ve suffered a loss or made your way along the difficult road to recovery, chances are your life has been touched by cancer.

For the past 100 years, the American Cancer Society has been part of that journey – advocating to effect change, fundraising to help scientists work to find a cure, encouraging people to make healthy lifestyle changes and do everything in their own power to stay cancer-free.

This year, The Motherhood is helping honor the American Cancer Society’s 100 years of remarkable progress.

The Motherhood is working with the American Cancer Society to organize and host a blog program and Twitter party. All thoughts in this post are our own.

On May 22, 2013, the organization celebrates its centennial birthday, and we will be holding a Twitter party to help them “make noise” online with the hashtag #FinishtheFight – because although they have accomplished much, there is more to do.

Join us in this “Moment Against Silence Day” online assault on cancer, visit the American Cancer Society’s website to pledge to help them finish the fight, and head over to Facebook, where their Life List app will go live in late April. You can share your accomplishments, aspirations and hope for the future of cancer with your friends and followers.

Our hope for the future: Celebrating the anniversary of the day cancer’s finished.