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A whopping 94% of moms rely on other moms during a purchasing decision. So, it comes as no surprise to learn that mom bloggers can have a powerful impact on your online marketing campaign.

Here’s some data from Mom Central Consulting to help let this idea sink in deep into your marketing grey matter:

• 96% of Moms value recommendations they find on Mom Blogs
• Over 78% of Mom Bloggers now review products and services
• More than 60% of Mom Bloggers consider making money important and want more connectivity with companies
• 37% of Mom Bloggers have been contacted as resources for the press

Woah! Did you see that last number? Kind of small considering how powerful moms are. There’s clearly an opportunity for you to go in there and snag some good mom blog coverage.

Need tips on how to approach bloggers? (Hint: It’s not like pitching a journalist)

• Send them a friendly, personalized email. Do not mass email.
• Ask permission to send them a sample of your product or free trial of your service. Do not send unsolicited!
• Offer them something to give away to their readers
• Be accessible to answer questions
• Be cordial even when you get a bad review. It’s ok to comment and defend your product (politely!). But it’s even better to take their criticism to heart and make your product or service better.

What are your tips for approaching mom bloggers? Any success stories? Share your success in the comments!

Related Reading:
Moms See Search as Task-Oriented; Websites as Entertainment
Women More Likely Than Men to Begin Real Estate Search Online
Yahoo Wants Women Now

Second Life, get a life. Google Lively is the new virtual world created by the world’s largest search engine.

Google Lively is billed as a “chat experience” using avatars. Google says, “You’re about to embark on a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space. Choose an avatar and use it to make friends and chat. Create rooms, decorate them to your liking, and make sure to invite your friends over.”

Here’s how it works:

Choose a Google Lively room

* From the Room List, click the title of the room you’d like to visit first.
* Use the tabs at the top of the page to sort rooms by most popular, most visitors, or newest.
* Once you’ve added friends or created a room, the My Rooms and Friends’ Rooms tabs will also be handy.

Choose your Google Lively avatar

1. Click My Avatar on the right sidebar.
2. Click the avatar you like and choose Select Avatar (your avatar changes instantly).
3. Once you’ve chosen the one you want, click the X to hide the menu.

Change your Google Lively avatar’s clothing

To change your outfit, check out the styles available in the wardrobe picker. Here’s how:

1. Click My Wardrobe on the right sidebar to open your wardrobe.
2. Browse or search the options in your wardrobe inventory and select items to wear. When you double-click an item, it’ll appear on your avatar instantly. You don’t have to close the window to find out if you like the look.

If you don’t like how something looks on your avatar, go back to your wardrobe, left-click on the item, and choose Remove Item.

If you want more wardrobe options, add new stuff to your inventory by o quickly change your entire outfit, click my avatar and choose I’m Feeling Lucky . You’ll see the new duds on your avatar instantly.

Create your own Google Lively room

1. Click new room and choose Create New Room to start the process.
2. Look over each tab and choose what you want your room to look like, the permissions you want to grant visitors, and whether you’d like to play music in your room.

Ex-Googler Kate Burns has been tapped by social networking site Bebo to head up their European operations, according to the Guardian. Burns previously was Google’s managing director for the UK. She also helped launch DoubleClick and AltaVista in the UK.

Bebo was recently acquired by AOL for $850 million. The site boasts 40 million members worldwide. AOL’s Platform-A recently announced a guaranteed CPM for Bebo developers. Platform-A was the largest ad network in March.

Also in March, Microsoft announced a data portability with 5 social networks, including Bebo. However, AOL joined Google’s OpenSocial initiative in May.

Google owns a 5% stake in AOL, and was recently given permission to unload the stock, though it has yet to do so.

Meanwhile, rumor of a possible Yahoo-AOL merger have reared its (ugly?) head again, but today reports are suggesting any deal would not be completed in July. Yahoo’s shareholder meeting is August 1.

Search Engine Strategies Toronto is coming up June 16-18, 2008. To give attendees a sneak preview of some of the trends in search engine marketing that will be discussed at the event, we’ve interviewed Ken Jurina, the President and CEO of Epiar.

Ken will be one of the speakers at the “SEM Toolkit: Marketers Share” session, which will be held on Wednesday, June 18, from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m. And Epiar and Yahoo! Canada will be hosting The Official Search Engine Strategies Toronto After-Party on Tuesday, June 17.

But, we interviewed Ken primarily for his expert opinion. Scoring tickets to his party was only a secondary consideration. (As Maxwell Smart would say, “Would you believe I’m from New England, which still thinks the term ‘party’ means Boston Tea Party?”)

Seriously, as president and founder of Top Draw and Epiar, Ken has more than 15 years of expertise in traditional advertising and Internet marketing. And I’ve heard him speak at SES New York, Chicago, San Jose, and Toronto.

Q. Can you give me a brief overview of some of the trends the search marketing industry is seeing this year and what the next 5 to 10 years might look like?

A. The Microsoft bid for Yahoo! accompanied by the subsequent bid withdrawal, along with the much talked about Google-Yahoo! search advertising partnership have certainly resulted in much speculation regarding the future of search marketing as we know it. I also don’t think the deal is entirely off the table just yet.

Ask’s withdrawal from mainstream search as it abandoned its efforts to compete against the search giants in March has also affected the search landscape. Over the last 12 months Google’s search share has increased slightly, Yahoo! search share has remained stagnant in aggregate, and Microsoft’s share has fallen.

If we look at trends from the perspective of consumer behavior we continue to see increasing growth in the use of image and video search. Another consumer trend significantly affecting the search marketing space is the astronomical increase in the influence of social media marketing, in the form of consumer feedback and reviews, on brands, ecommerce conversions and tactical refinements of on-page content.

Google’s Universal Search results have been seen to have an impact on the traditional F-shaped heat maps generated by eye-tracking studies as eyes are now first drawn to image and video search results. The inclusion of the OneBox, as well as Sitelinks and ‘Search Within a Site’ search box features, are all affecting the usability of the results in the organic listings. User interaction is facilitated by these features and the probability is that the trend in click-throughs will skew towards increased searcher interaction with more ‘visible’, usable, graphic listings – assuming the relevancy factor is retained.

Google has also recently revised its display URL protocol in AdWords, and has been experimenting with the inclusion of video results in the paid search listings.

As to what the future holds, I think current behavioral trends and further improvements in the relevance and universal appeal of results provided by the search engines will continue unabated. However, based on the dramatic events in the industry in the last few months alone, at this stage I think it would be fool-hardy and irresponsible to attempt to predict anything more specific.

Q. How will marketers have to adjust their budgets to compensate for the upcoming changes?

A. Marketers should seriously consider budgeting for continued SEO initiatives, particularly regarding Internet market research on consumer search behavior. Assigning marketing dollars to image and video production and optimization is imperative, as is integrating with relevant social communities. Brands need to aggressively begin to empower brand proponents and embrace reputation management (RM) tools. RM has only recently gained the recognition it should have attained years ago. With the huge growth in both social influence and social media marketing, and the impact of reviews and consumer feedback on online purchase decisions, the need for brand transparency is becoming ever more important. Consequently, the need to facilitate consumer feedback and interaction is key to future success in the search and ecommerce space.

Q. How important is it to understand all the online touch-points of your visitors?

A. This answer is basically an addendum to the previous one. Understanding where and how your online market interacts online, what they do, and what they want, need and expect to achieve at each touch-point is imperative.

Meeting them on common ground in forums, on blogs, and in the social space is very important. Openly dealing with detractors and embracing and supporting evangelists is best done in this space.

Consumer exposure to your brand and online offering is unlikely to be limited to the information housed without your official web site. Review sites, feedback consumer forums and blogs are going to discuss businesses with or without official permission – freedom of expression online has reached previously unimagined new heights as regards the impact of this freedom on brand reputations. Proactively embracing the social space via RM tools and facilitating interaction on your own blog or site is no longer something to merely be considered, it has become a necessity. Advertising these social – touch-points via paid search is also something to be considered.

Q. When we talk about “tricks of the trade” used by search marketers, can you share a bit on what kind of “competitive intelligence” is required and what exactly is “exotic analytics?”

A. RM tools allow you to see what’s being said about you and your competition in the online space. Internet market research allows you to see how your consumers are behaving online and what terms they are utilizing when searching for your offering.

By understanding what your online market is really looking for – not what you think or want them to look for – can provide competitive intelligence on brand awareness and market share. It can also identify new product or service opportunities, consumer feedback and trending data, and a host of other factors that will allow you to refine your online offering.

As for “exotic analytics”, different web analytics software packages offer different levels of service and different features. Some are highly advanced for sure – trying to predict visitor behavior based on trending for example. However, a wealth of information is available through the basic measurement standards if it is analyzed properly and thoroughly.

Q. What excites you about Search Engine Strategies Toronto? What do you look forward to most?

A. The Epiar / Yahoo! Canada Party on Tuesday June 17 of course! There will be more details to follow closer to the event but you can expect it will be a party to remember like we are known for.

Q. Are there any advantages to being a Search Marketer based in Canada rather than any other place in the world?

A. Numerous advantages:
• 85% of Canadians have high-speed Internet access (one of the top ten levels of broad band penetration in the world);
• 94% of online Canadians interacted with Google and Microsoft sites in February;
• Canadian online business reaped $62.7B in 2007, an increase of 26% year over year, but the proportion of private sector companies who sold goods and services online remained relatively stable at 8%.

The market is big, it’s relatively untapped, and the returns are obvious. The future of search in Canada is promising. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that online ad spend will grow faster in Canada than anywhere else in the world over the next 5 years for two primary reasons:
1. high broadband penetration
2. lower online market saturation

It’s great to be Canadian, eh!

Google FriendConnect friended Facebook. It looked as if Facebook (stocked with former Google executives) might become BFFs (best friends forever).

Then Facebook blocked Google FriendConnect.

The message is clear:

Dear Google,
Facebook is just not that into you.

Facebook says Google has forced them to break off their FriendConnect relationship. Apparently, Google has invaded the privacy of Facebook users without their permission.

Facebook hasn’t turned a cold shoulder or abandoned the search giant. The social network has “reached out” to Google to find a way to make it work.

We view this trial separation leading to divorce, not an open marriage.

Here’s what Facebook had to say in their developers’ blog, under “Thoughts on Privacy.” Read, “I want to be alone.”

Now that Google has launched Friend Connect, we’ve had a chance to evaluate the technology.

We’ve found that it redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.

Just as we’ve been forced to do for other applications that redistribute data in a way users might not expect or understand, we’ve had to suspend Friend Connect’s access to Facebook user information until it comes into compliance.

We’ve reached out to Google several times about this issue, and hope to work with them to enable users to share their data exactly when and where they choose.

What this means to you: the search engines are becoming more like car dealerships where certain models can be sold under the same roof. Facebook and Google will form their alliances and consumers will lose out.

The full text of the Facebook “Dear Google” blog post is after the jump.

Click to read the rest of this post…

IAC, parent company of Ask.com, is planning to launch several new niche sites that incorporate search and social media. First up is RushmoreDrive.com, which has already launched and is targeted at the African-American community.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Green.com will be developed into a virtual world for children and “tweens” that will focus on environmental issues and encouraging good deeds. FiLife, currently a personal finance blog, will revamped as part of a partnership with News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

Past IAC sites have been hit or miss. Pronto.com saw 9.1 million visitors in February 2008, up from 816,000 in February 2007. But comedy news site 23/6 saw numbers drop month-over-month from January to February 2008, with 52,000 and 36,000 respectively according to comScore. IAC disputed the numbers, claiming the site saw 685,000 visitors in March.

Meanwhile, Ask.com recently announced cuts to its workforce, eliminating 40 workers, which amounts to 40% of total employees.

Launching new sites isn’t the only change IAC is seeing. Recently, a Delaware court granted permission to pursue a breakup of the company, which will spin off 4 of its largest businesses into public companies.

The Sacramento Public Library Authority Board upheld the action of the city’s libraries filtering access to the internet on library computers, despite challenges from the ACLU, the Sacramento News and review reported.

While there are those that see this as censorship - electronic book burning if you will - many people within the community see it as protecting family values. Both sides have validity and combined they reflect part of the difficulties of what can be accessed on the web.

The anti-censorship group say the filters stop access to legitimate health and sexuality information, while their opponents see the filters as protectors of children. The libraries do allow the filters to be turned off for adults and children with written permission from their families.

One member of the council summed up the anti-web position.

“It would probably break every rule in the book, but I’d say go and unplug every computer in every library,” SN&R quoted.

Graduation is on the horizon, and Facebook is making the most of its college-heavy demographic by teaming up with CareerBuilder. The partnership will primarily target college grads in an attempt to assist them during their job search. Recruiters have traditionally experience difficulty in reaching this particular market, despite the various channels for job listings available.

Users will be able to place a CareerBuilder app on their profile page. If successful, this could be a great first step in Facebook building trust with users again. Last year, the social network blew it when its Beacon platform accessed user preferences for advertising - without user permission. The CareerBuilder app will require user permission first.

There’s unused “white space” lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort, Google is asking the FCC to auction the unused airwaves. The search giant hopes to use any airwaves it wins to establish faster internet access that has a wider reach.

Expanding Wifi will have major implications for mobile search. If the FCC goes along with the request, and if Google wins airwaves, then devices supporting the technology will be out as early as next year. Should all of this happen, get ready for mobile monetization.

Google has some obstacles in convincing the FCC of its plan. The government agency has concerns about the use of this “white space” interrupting existing TV signals. But Google doesn’t want to touch all of the signals, and recommends that some be left alone.

The other FCC concern has to do with the devices. Microsoft had an embarrassing flop when its prototype broke during FCC testing. Google again, has done its homework, backing a Motorola plan that would require a device to receive permission from a local transmitter before using one of these wave lengths.

This effort comes less than a week after Verizon and AT&T were the big winners in the 700 megahertz spectrum auction. But Google didn’t bear a complete loss. They were able to get a requirement for one part of the spectrum to open its network to any devices and internet services.

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has introduced a bill aimed at regulating the way search engines collect private data of its users. Similarly, in Connecticut, the General Law Committee of the State Assembly has a bill that seeks to tighten data collection rules on companies that serve ads on sites they do not own.

State laws attempting to restrict data collection are nothing new. Both Alaska and Utah have laws on the books preventing adware from serving up targeted ads based on the behavior of searches, specifically on trademarked keywords. And California State Senator Liz Figueroa tried to stop Google from placing targeted ads in Gmail based on email content.

Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law, said that states don’t really have the authority to pass these laws because they involve interstate commerce. Instead, the federal government should have jurisdiction over these matters.

“My experience is that state legislators usually ignore any dormant commerce clause defects in their laws and let the courts strike down the laws; after all, I’m guessing no politician was ever voted out for passing a law that courts later declared unconstitutional.”

Privacy expert Alan Chapell, of Chapell & Associates, said that state bills that are passed still have an effect on consumers nationwide. He cited California SB 1386, which requires companies to inform California citizens when a data security breach has occurred. Chapell points out that if citizens of another state find out about a breach affecting California citizens, they’re naturally going to worry about their own data.

But the kind of data search engines collect is not necessarily personal information such as addresses and telephone numbers. Search engines are primarily interested in what people are searching for, and providing them with ads and search results according to historical searches. Because consumers and even politicians don’t truly understand how search engines work, many of these state bills are “attempts by lawmakers to get their name in the news,” according to Chapell.

Assemblyman Brodsky is up for re-election this year. Meanwhile, companies are lobbying Brodsky to preserve their best interests.

According to the New York Times, Microsoft supports - and seeks to expand - the New York bill, drafted by State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. The bill would force search engines to get permission from users before displaying ads targeted towards their search behavior.

Microsoft’s intentions seem all too clear, with recent declarations by Steve Ballmer to catch Google in the search game. Yahoo sees things differently, and sent lobbyists to meet with Brodsky, apparently to express their opposition. There are obvious implications for how this will affect any merger of the two.

The software giant’s ambition fails to address the question at the root of internet privacy battles: “Who owns the data?” While there are no clear answers, one thing is certain. Many a politician and businessman will attempt to climb their career ladders waging a battle in these murky waters.