One of the first social media virtual "parties", The Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5MinutesForMom.com, is in now hitting its sixth year and is set to run April 13 through April 20, 2012.
The week-long online event brings together thousands of bloggers and social media enthusiasts from all over the world.
This year, the celebrations will include a Twitter Party on Monday, April 16 with the hashtag #UBP12 and a Spreecast Web Show on Thursday April 19.
Janice Croze, co-founder of 5MinutesForMom.com, created the Ultimate Blog Party in 2007 in the early stages of the Mommy Blogging phenomenon.
Janice says, "I had this crazy idea to start something I called a 'blog party' where Mom Bloggers would link up and 'party' together in a blog carnival style, visiting each others sites and getting to know one another. I don't know if any other sites had called anything a blog party before, but the name 'Ultimate Blog Party' fit my vision of a virtual gathering of bloggers to get to know each other and celebrate their passion for sharing stories."
Almost 1000 bloggers joined in 2007 and the annual Ultimate Blog Party was born.
Since then, the Ultimate Blog Party has grown every year, and just last year, it reached numbers close to 3,000. This year it's expected to stay on trend and continue growing.
Whether a blogger trying to grow their online community or having only just started a Facebook account, anyone can participate in the party.
Participants can click around on the sidelines and read other partygoers posts, follow the #UBP12 hashtag stream on Twitter and get a feel for what's happening. Or they can jump in, write a "party-post" introducing themselves on their own blog and link up on the main UBP party post at https://www.5MinutesForMom.com/ubp then blog hop around and leave comments on other blogs as they make friends.
As an added bonus for the virtual partygoers, there are tons of prizes that are randomly awarded to participants at the end of the week.
One mom blogger, Jennifer Sikora, commented on her own Ultimate Blog Party experience:
"When I joined the Ultimate Blog Party in 2008, it helped me find an audience and narrow my focus to the food blogging niche. Since then I have gained rank on Google and my audience continues to grow. I get emails daily thanking me for my blog and the information that I share with my readers. If it wasn't for the Ultimate Blog Party helping me get the name of my website out there, I might never have discovered my love of being a food blogger."
SOURCE: PRWEB https://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9268829.htm