When you become a Mom’s Choice Award® honoree, you join a network of people whose entrepreneurial success and passion run as deep as your own. You are an alumnus of a very special group whose achievements we will celebrate together, forever.

Although some of our honorees include bigger companies, most of our alumni represent smaller companies and enterprises. For some, this is their first foray into marketing and promoting their award-winning product. Marketing is  a new and confusing, but critical journey. We understand that!

One of the first things you received upon winning your Award was an Honoree Checklist designed to help you celebrate your achievement and grow your success. You’ll find everything you need from creating a press release to contacting your local media, and other promotional tools. Through the blog, we are going to complement that worksheet with a new column … the Mom’s Choice Awards®’ ABCs – Alumni BasiCs. In each issue, we’ll cover one topic that relates to building your promotional platform.

We’ve talked previously about how important it is to join and participate in social media platforms, so I won’t repeat that. But I do want to draw your attention to how valuable it is to read what other people are writing, whether it is something in your area of expertise, a competitor, or something that interests you.

Given the state of the industry, newspapers aren’t likely to “feed’ you the information you’re looking for with any consistency. There are a number of platforms that help you manage news feeds from multiple sources, or you can  subscribe to specific items and have them pulled into a reader.

One of the great benefits of online news is that there is lots to choose from … that’s the downside, too. It can get overwhelming fast. The best advice is start out small. Select no more than five news sources on topics that interest you, whether it’s something in your area of expertise, your competitors, or a topic that interests you. To help get you started, here are two of my go-to sources. Even if I don’t read anything else, if Mitali and Greg have something new, it goes to the top.

• Mitali’s Fire Escape is the blog of author Mitali Perkins. Like other writers, Mitali talks about her books and her writing process, but she does a whole lot more. She is a guru on multicultural books, is an avid social media user, and finds some of the greatest nuggets related to the industry. Best of all, she loves to share what she knows. For example, yesterday Mitali introduced me to KidsBuzz, created by promotional guru Deborah Sloan. How else would I have found this resource? I wouldn’t. I’m not an author – but you are – and through social media I can share something that’s valuable to you.
• Everyone who uses social media – either casually or as a power user should be reading The Happy Accident. Author, poet, librarian Greg Pincus offers wonderful, digestible nuggets of information about various social media platforms, keeps us up-to-date on changes (e.g., Facebook), and prompts great discussions about goals and practices.  

Part of reading is also participating in discussions. There are any number of ways to engage in a “conversation”  with others. The  old-fashioned ListServ, an eMail group of people with a common interest still work well; and you’ll find any number of groups on sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo. 

Do I really need to read this stuff? No, not if you don’t want to promote your product. Reading is learning, and learning is growing … whether it’s your promotional savvy, identifying new markets, or timing the release of your next product. Here are some other benefits …

• You may get a new marketing idea. Maybe you never thought about partnering with a cookie company to create a “bedtime snack and book” package. You just never know.
• You can see how other people use social media. What are the things you like about someone’s blog/Facebook page/etc. What don’t you like? Build your own platform with what you see are best practices.
• Meet people. They might be other experts in your field or someone that can offer you expertise you’re looking for. You may have information they’re looking for.

It wasn’t all that long ago when television, newspaper, and radio commercials recited a company’s website URL  as a way to grow their business. Now, having a website is built into the company’s foundation, and television/newspaper/radio ads reach smaller and smaller audiences. Today,  promoting your success requires that you understand and begin to use the platforms around you.

I would encourage you to join the alumni-only areas of the Mom’s Choice Awards group on LinkedIn. There is a general group open to all LinkedIn members, but there are educational and promotional subgroups just for you. We use those portals to share information that helps you market your award-winning product with articles that you might not otherwise find.

If you have a specific question, please leave it in the comments below.