Thanks to your support and guidance, TwitterMoms has grown from a fan site (making it easier for moms to find each other on Twitter) into a community dedicated to helping influential moms build their personal brands in social media.

We've grown from a one-mom operation into an organization with six full-time employees, a raft of community volunteers and contributors, and freelancers -- each dedicated to helping you make the most out of your online presence as an influential "social mom". We do this by offering networking, sponsorship opportunities, live and virtual events, advertising, engagement opportunities, and media opportunities.

The more we thought about it, the name "TwitterMoms" really didn't represent what this community had become.

Just as this thought crossed our minds, we got an e-mail from Twitter, Inc. It was late September, and it made my heart stop. After more than two years of operating a public fan site dedicated to nurturing, supporting and promoting Twitter to the "mom" community, they asked us to change the name of our web site for trademark reasons.

Twitter's request was entirely reasonable and understandable. We never hesitated to communicate our intention to comply with their wishes. The time for change had come.

So, we caught our breath and set out to find a great new domain name that more accurately described the community we serve and our mission. After considering dozens of options, we settled on SocialMoms.com. Our new brand will officially launch in early January. Be on the lookout for a slightly refreshed (and hopefully cleaner) look-and-feel to accompany our new name.

In looking back on 2010, we have a lot to be proud of that's worth sharing with you, the people we are here to serve:

• We worked with journalists, editors and producers to get our members featured or quoted in top-tier media outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NBC/iVillage, national syndicated talk shows and more -- by distributing targeted media opportunities to our moms through our RAMBO alerts. You won't find these opportunities anywhere else.
• We've invested heavily in the resources required to support a community of our size. We now have six full time employees dedicated to servicing you.
• Hundreds of moms who particiapted in our blogging programs collectively earned more than $160,000 in 2010, at an estimated hourly rate of $30-$100 per hour for writing great content for their readers.
• Because of your support, we were able to help direct tens of thousands of dollars to charitable causes in 2010.
• We paid many moms and content partners in our network premium CPMs for carrying our widgets on their high-traffic blogs and communities, earning them two to five times what they previously earned with Google Adsense. Please e-mail Sasha if you have a high traffic blog so we can work with you to monetize your traffic with our premium ad inventory.
• We launched the world's first "social seal of approval", paying members $75 per hour to put various products through their paces in exchange for their honest quantitative and qualitative feedback.
• We regularly invite members of our community to participate as Twitter party hostesses, to help them build their followings and get more exposure.
• Many of our moms developed relationships directly with the quality brands we presented to them, creating follow-on opportunities for growth.
• More than 30+ of our moms are now featured in our partner's mobile app, gaining friends, fans and followers -- all at zero cost to the moms participating. It's a benefit of being a member. We hope to substantially broaden this program in 2011.
• We say "no" to many of the requests we get from brands. Still, not everything we offer will appeal to everyone or reflect your personal brand. We understand this and that's why our programs are always opt-in: you choose what brands, programs, or causes you want to be associated with. You are in charge of your personal brand.

We thank you for being such an important a part of a great community. We hope you take advantage of all we have to offer in 2011. It's going to be our best year yet, and we want you to be a part of it! If you have ideas or suggestions on how we can improve the services we offer, please let us know by leaving a comment on this blog post.

On behalf of the entire team, we are grateful for your support and the opportunity to work for you every day. We are humbled and honored to help you grow your personal brands through social media. We look forward to a fun, productive year coming up in 2011 and beyond as "SocialMoms". Again, look for the official switch coming in January 2011.

Until then, happy holidays from all of us behind the scenes!

Sincerely,

Megan Calhoun, Sasha Afanasieff, Sally Saedi, Bridget Tran, Alysha Pascua, Mariell Ramani, Betty Chen, and Jim Calhoun