Marketing Roadmaps

BlogHer

The one about BlogHer

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Except I’m not going to dwell on the social side of the conference. Others have already done a brilliant job with this topic, including:

My personal plan for navigating the social side of BlogHer is simple: have no expectations, enjoy the moment, smile and try to listen more than I speak.

And sunscreen.

No, my post is about the BlogHer Conference. You remember — that thing sandwiched in between the parties and swag bags and bowling and private events and makeovers and such?

BlogHer is a damn brilliant blogging conference.

Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to.

Friday at 1:15 – Brands and Bloggers. It’s a great panel, and Jory DesJardins is always an excellent moderator. Plus, FTC regulations,  boycotts, lions, tigers and bears. Oh my!

Friday at 2:45 – Blog to Book. What can I say. I will finish this book someday.

Friday at 4:45 – Community Keynote. It was the best session last year. Full stop.

Saturday at 10:45 – Travel Bloggers as Boundary Breaking Evangelists. I’ve just started a family travel blog and will also be attending the Travel Blog Exchange meeting on Sunday.

Saturday at 1:30 – Women Writing In The Age Of Britney: Pop Culture & Gossip & Feministy Stuff, Oh My. The ladies of MamaPop.

And of course in the cleanup slot of Saturday at 3:00 pm, we have the panel I am moderating, Enough About You…Who’s Reading You? so I am definitely planning to show up for that one.

My fellow panelists are Laura Roeder, Twanna Hines and Ree Drummond, and we’ll be talking with you about the relationship of a blogger with her readers. Do our readers impact how we blog or what we say, or not? Does the author have a responsibility to her readers?

We’re on opposite the Room of Your Own, Dying is Easy, ROTFLMAO Comedy is Hard: It’s two, two, two comedy panels in one! with, among others, Deb on the Rocks and the Bloggess, but I’m still hoping a few of you will show up to talk with us.

Take the time to make your own list of sessions that matter to you. Don’t feel that you have to go to every single session, but do yourself a big favor: don’t miss the conference while you are at the conference.

BlogHer Boston Sessions

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I was honored to be on two panels at BlogHer Boston on October 11th. I taped them both, with the good intentions of using the tapes to write my posts about the panels, both of which were a blast to do.

But time presses on, and when I gave a quick listen yesterday, I realized the quality was pretty good. So I did a little post-production on the files and here they are!

The first panel, Blogging Basics: I blog therefore I am, was moderated by BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins. My fellow panelists were Candelaria Silva Collins and Christine Koh.

Read the live blog coverage here. Download the mp3 here.

I was the moderator of the second panel, Social Media can save your business, and was joined by Laura Fitton, aka Pistachio on Twitter and Laura Tomasetti from 360 PR.

Read the live blog coverage here. Download the mp3 here.

BlogHer ’08 – Too many parties?

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I’ve just returned from my trip to California for BlogHer ’08 and a short vacation, both of which I intend to tell you ALL about either here or over on Snapshot Chronicles, depending on the topic. I certainly didn’t intend a two-week hiatus from blogging, but I was so busy being there and truly enjoying the experiences — in San Francisco with my mom and son, at the conference and then up in Sonoma for a few days — that it just sort of happened.

But I have some great posts planned, which hopefully will make up for my absence.

Starting with my reflections on BlogHer ’08. I’ve been to all four BlogHer Conferences, and have seen it evolve from its fairly humble beginnings in a San Jose office park to a world class blogging conference, community and advertising network.

1000 attendees this year. Sold out again. As the song goes, I’ve seen the changes.

From the first conference which had a definite tilt toward technical and business types. So much so that the few mom bloggers in attendance said quite clearly that they felt marginalized. (2005 post-conference observations).

To year two, which was the explosion of the mom blogs. So much so that the conference seemed to tilt completely the other way, leaving the more business-oriented adrift. BlogHer Business came along to fix that little problem. (2006 post-conference observations one and two)

To year three in Chicago. BlogHer was definitely growing up. With the accompanying growing pains. Bigger and better than the year before, it had  terrific programming, but suffered from being dispersed over three locations — the Navy Pier conference site and two hotels. The sponsors were also much more prominent. This is purely a statement of fact, as I agree with BlogHer’s sponsor policy. Sponsor support is the best way to keep the cost of the conference within reach of the community, most of whom are NOT submitting expense reports to their companies for the trip.

In 2007, the community was now too large for everyone to know or speak with everyone else during the conference, and it was clearly stratifying along both topic and, for lack of a better word, popularity. Mom seemed to be the word. It was clear that advertisers and sponsors were most interested in mom bloggers, with an emphasis on A-list moms. Read last year’s post conference posts (mine here, for others, just search on BlogHer 07)  if you want to rehash all the post conference controversies that resulted. I don’t, at least not in this post. Let’s just say there was all sorts of resentment, along multiple topics. From why do companies send mom bloggers lame pitches for laundry soap to why don’t the advertisers and sponsors value women who aren’t mom bloggers or A-list. Many valid points, all of which have been discussed ’til the horse became glue.

The most relevant thing about last year for today’s discussion is that 2007 was the first year of numerous invitation-only parties, most held the night before the conference began. In previous years, the organized party action was by and large at the BlogHer sponsored events.

This year, there were even more invitation-only parties and swag suites, both outside of and during the conference hours.

While I am glad to see BlogHer grow into a world-class conference that attracts sponsor attention, I worry that the spirit that attracted so many of us to a woman’s blogging conference will get lost in the swag and party shuffle. One of the reasons BlogHer has the sponsored parties on both nights of the conference and also started the Newbie party this year is to make sure that no one gets left out. Rankings, ratings, book deals, tv appearances etc. etc. None of that matters. Everyone gets the same two drink tickets.

It’s all about the community. That’s one of the things that makes BlogHer so special. It’s more than a conference. Sure we don’t always agree and sometimes we fight, but there’s more there there than just two days in a swank hotel.

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t have a problem with swag or parties. It has been  terrific to see the women’s blogging community grow and attract attention from sponsors and advertisers who, to use a cliche, "get it." Who get that you should talk with bloggers, not at them. That you should participate in the community, not try to "leverage" it. For many women who attend BlogHer, this is their vacation. For the moms, it may be one of the few times in the year that they get a couple days to let their hair down without kids. It’s terrific that companies want to take them to dinner or throw a cocktail party or give them some good swag.

It’s also very understandable. If a company has been working with women bloggers, why wouldn’t it want to have an invitation-only dinner for the people they’ve been working with, as Nintendo did Friday  night. Or create an event for Sunday like Michelin. The swag suites are okay too, as long as they are open to everyone, as MomSelect did by handing out flyers and Alpha Mom did by announcing on Twitter.

I just think we’re reaching a point where it’s too much. How many parties can people really attend? How much swag can we stuff in our suitcases before we have to pay the overweight or second bag charge to the airline? One mom I spoke with on Thursday night at the Kirtsy/Alltop party had six other parties to attend that night, including the open-to-all People’s Party.

While it’s fine — wonderful even — that sponsors are willing to foot the bar bill the night before the conference, how much is too much? What do you really get out of a party if you are worrying about being late to the next one?  Are we counting cards collected or making connections?

One problem, and reason for so many pre-conference parties,  is that there is so little time outside the conference hours to connect. BlogHer did its best to accommodate the sponsors by making sure that the breaks were long enough for attendees to check out Sesame Street, the spa suite, the Internet Cafe and all the exhibit tables. While this may have made some of the breaks too long, by and large I think attendees appreciated having unstructured time to talk with other bloggers without feeling like they were blowing off the conference sessions.

Swag, parties, it’s all good.

Until it’s not.

I personally draw the line at invitation-only events held during the conference hours. I just think it is wrong to have a private event during the conference  hours that draws attendees away from the conference program. Away from the speakers who have worked so hard to prepare for their sessions. There were other examples during BlogHer but far and away the worst in my opinion was the private suite that SixApart held Friday afternoon during the Community Keynote.

At the Community Keynote, twenty bloggers read their posts on everything from depression, body image and suicide to the Wiggles, porn and farts. For some bloggers, this was their very first time speaking in public. The emotion on the stage and in the room was palpable during the more intensely personal posts. When it was funny, we all laughed.

It was the very essence of the BlogHer community. And at least five of the bloggers who read at the Community Keynote are on SixApart platforms (Moveable Type, TypePad and VOX).

But SixApart decided to hold a private party at the same time.

Definitely not in the right spirit. Which is why I didn’t go, even though three people offered to let me tag along with them. Yeah, even though this blog is currently, and I stress currently, on TypePad, I didn’t rate an invite. Oh well….  I wouldn’t have gone anyway 🙂

What would I like to see instead?

I was pleased to see companies getting together for joint events like Kirtsy, Alltop and the sponsors of the People’s Party, and I hope we see even more of this in the future. But I’m greedy. I want more. 

I’d like to see a major company NOT throw a party and instead donate a significant amount in the names of the attendees to breast cancer or autism research, two issues which are very near and dear to this community. And I’m not talking a token $10,000;  make it meaningful, and I guarantee the BlogHer community will remember you.

And the swag? While it’s fun to collect trinkets and trash (and there was some good stuff this year), in the end we really pay for the free shit. Either the suitcase weighs too much or we have to check a second bag or we have to ship a box home, all of which costs money. For the free stuff. In my case, I was glad to have it because it made lovely padding for the wine we shipped back from Sonoma. But what would be really cool is for companies to mail it afterward. Just show us the goodies and get our mailing address. Don’t abuse our trust by automatically adding us to your mailing list, but I guarantee you, people will appreciate NOT having to lug your product samples home. Unless it is small and really useful, we really would prefer to get it later.

I also think companies that throw parties or host swag suites at the conference should be official sponsors of the conference at some level. It’s about supporting the whole community, not just part of it. This will require some creative thinking from BlogHer on how to structure it, but I know they are up to the task. It will also require the companies throwing the private events to coordinate, not compete, with the main event.

That’s the spirit of BlogHer.

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Speaking of useful swag, the best items were the 3-plug outlet from Topix and the Joby Zivio Bluetooth headset. Both already have a home in my laptop bag and purse respectively. Small, useful items. Everything else? In the box with the wine. 

And the best party?  Y and Lindsay’s infamous Cheeseburger party. Supported this year by Alpha Mom.

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What I learned from Camp Baby (part 2 of 2)

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On Monday, I covered the the mom bloggers’ perceptions of Johnson and Johnson’s Camp Baby and I was hoping to follow that up with an interview with the event organizers. Unfortunately, they haven’t responded to my queries. I can only hope that it was because my emails got caught in their spam filter or something…

While I could take a guess at their goals for the event, my speculation would still just be my opinion, and I certainly can’t pass judgment on whether it was a success. That’s their call, based on what they hoped to achieve.

But I go on vacation on Friday and need to wrap up my J&J coverage before I leave. Other stories beckon. For now, we’ll have to be satisfied with their public statement about the event on their blog and this short article in BrandWeek.

Instead, this wrap-up post will focus on what we can all learn from Camp Baby. Starting with some advice from two women who attended. I asked them what advice they would give to another consumer products company considering doing a similar event. Jodi, from Mom’s Favorite Stuff said:

"I’d recommend re-vamping the invitation process.  It should have been more streamlined, and more explicit (ie: no kids, space is limited, etc). If another consumer products firm wanted to do something similar, I’d just recommend being very clear and transparent.  Explain the objectives, the expectations, and I think most mommy bloggers will appreciate it!"

Christina from A Mommy Story also pointed out that they packed a lot into a very short time, and it took her a couple days to recover from the exhaustion. Her advice for another company trying to reach out to mom bloggers:

"Events like these will work to draw in a lot of attention – just look at all of the Twitter noise from those three days! But be prepared for the snark as well as the positive blogging. And please, if you ask for our opinion about your products, be ready for a lot of criticism along with praise. We’re an educated bunch, and we know what we’re talking about. Take our suggestions seriously. I will be watching to see if J&J implements any of the suggestions we gave them."

Let’s make these the foundation for our learning points.

One. Be clear and explicit from the get-go. Make your expectations clear so the bloggers can set theirs. If you are going to do an event (more about my evolving opinion of events in a bit), define your group carefully and as narrowly as possible. If you can’t accommodate nursing moms or people who can’t stay the whole time, don’t invite them.

Two. Transparency. It is more than just asking bloggers to acknowledge the junket. It starts with clearly communicating the objectives of your event to the participants. It also means being honest about your agenda. Christina commented in her email, which I quoted in the earlier post, that it was clear that the sessions all had an unacknowledged product component. Guess what: the women figured it out.

Three. It’s not a one-way conversation any more. Just because a company says it is so does not mean that customers/bloggers will believe it. If you ask for feedback and opinions, be prepared. For critcism and to take some action. Or don’t ask. As Christina points out in her comment above, the women at Camp Baby had strong concerns about chemicals in baby products. Did J&J take them seriously? Only time will tell, but it does sound like the company was surprised at the strength of the bloggers’ convictions. And knowledge about the subject.

Four. You’ve read it here before. Read the blogs. Over time, not over night. You have to know what the bloggers are interested in — to invite them, to create a program that interests them, to have a relationship. There isn’t a ranking system or index available that can replace the knowledge gained by truly getting to know someone. At a minimum, as Julie (mothergoosemouse) says in the comments to my previous J&J  post, at least read the About Page. You’ll be amazed at the wealth of information.

Finally, and this is my opinion, not something from the feedback or comments about Camp Baby — consider that a blow-out event may not be the best way to engage over time with the customers you are trying to reach.

Lindsay Ferrier (Suburban Turmoil) wrote this week about how the momosphere is changing, and  not necessarily for the better. The focus on monetizing the blog, getting ad revenue, paid posts and all expenses paid junkets, whether to New Brunswick New Jersey or Orlando, has created a different, less friendly world than before. So far 72 comments and counting.

So the question is, what is the best way for companies to engage with bloggers? With their customers.

Sure, a big event can be a lot of fun — even for the organizers, there is a certain exhiliration in having pulled it off, but wining and dining is a date. Getting to know someone, helping them achieve their goals, adding value consistently over time. That’s a relationship. As a marketer, I want a long-term relationship with customers. Not a one night stand. Generally, those aren’t terribly satisfying.

How can you help the blogger all the time, not just once? Access to company resources for research? Involvement in new product development? User Councils? Think outside the box, and not just about getting this or that product reviewed. What is the customer relationship with the company over time? What will make her love you? Why do you love her?

If you work for one of those consumer companies salivating over the mom blogger segment, or even a smaller firm that wants to reach women bloggers, including mom bloggers, I have some advice for you.

If you want to reach women bloggers, especially in the United States and Canada, don’t dump thousands of dollars into a big event. Devote a fraction, just a fraction, of that budget, to supporting a BlogHers Act initiative. This year, the focus is on maternal health in the US, the environment in Canada, but there are other causes within this umbrella as well. I guarantee you, you will reach more people, garner more positive attention for your company, your brand, than any slick event.

Here are just a few ideas, all of which I came up with driving to a business lunch today. Imagine what we could do with a bit more thought.

       

  • Make a donation. Through BlogHer’s widget or through a blogger whose cause you support;

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  • Give products to women bloggers in your network for giveaways/raffles on their blogs;

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  • Match donations over some specified period;

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  • Create a contest or giveaway on your site to benefit BlogHers Act — more complex than the other ideas but potentially quite rewarding.

Keep in mind,  this is how I make my living, but today, in this post, the advice is free. I hope like hell someone pays attention.

But, no fooling, you want to explore one of these ideas and need some help, give me a call. 978 562 5979.

 

UPDATE 4/20: I have spoken to Lori Dolginoff, but just haven’t had time to write up the interview. Look for it later this coming week.

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Almost Live from New York, BlogHer Business

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I’m still catching up after a whirlwind 3 days in New York City at BlogHer Business, where I caught up with old friends, made some new ones and didn’t get nearly enough sleep.

As promised, I will be posting the HP Case Study as well as some observations from the Improve this Pitch panel — look for the posts mid-week —  but in the meantime, please check out the posts from the BlogHer live bloggers.

I was also interviewed by the Screengrab team from Weber Shandwick. They were doing a series of short interviews with participants. Here I am, almost live from New York, talking blogger relations: