Marketing Roadmaps

BlogHer

A practical definition of content marketing

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Disclosure: I am Vice President of Sales & Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

Content marketing. It is the hot topic of 2014. And like “native advertising,” there are as many definitions of and opinions about it as there are marketing pundits on the interwebs.

Far be it from me to back away from a challenge.

Linguistically, content marketing simply is using “content” to market products and services. But what exactly is this thing called “content.” Channeling Inigo Montoya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inigo_Montoya), it is entirely possible that this word does not mean exactly what we think.

Let’s stay simple to start. Brands are using “content” as distinct from “advertising” to promote their products. This can take many forms:

  • sponsored posts — on blogs and mass media sites (advertorial)
  • sponsored editorial
  • in native ad units
  • editorial on brand sites

Sponsored posts often integrate the brand into a story, not dissimilar from old style advertorial, but quite a lot of this content is just, well, content brought to you by a sponsor, either intermediated by a publisher, like Forbes BrandVoice or Mashable or direct, like Coca-Cola’s new content site, Coca-Cola Journey.

Mashable Screen Shot for content post

Example of integration of sponsored editorial: Is Your Cash Working for You?, sponsored by American Express

On some level, this is the fulfillment of the promise of the World Wide Web — build a terrific website and your customers will come to you, with the twist that we finally get that reading about the products isn’t the attraction. It’s useful and when you are ready to buy, critical, but product websites are selling tools, not marketing tools. They matter once you are in the consideration phase.

What attracts the consumer is storytelling.

And now brands are joining their customers as the publishers of content. If 2004 was the beginning of the rise of the citizen journalist, 2014 may be the birth of the brand journalist. This has implications for the quality of the news we consume, and already has had an impact on mainstream media. Advertorial content is increasingly front and center on mainstream media sites, with varying degrees of disclosure. More on that another day.

The long term impact of this shift on the independent,  read objective, journalist remains to be seen but the shift to brands as the direct funder of our news feed is already exerting a tremendous pressure on prices.

The quality of online content is also at some risk… The costs of feeding a machine that relies on new stories every day is why newspapers began selling advertising in the first place. Unlike an advert,  which is “create once, play many,” and works because of its simple, entertaining, purchase-oriented message, content marketing requires new stuff every day. The temptation is strong to sacrifice quality for volume.

But simply shoving a lot of words into a funnel isn’t going to have the long term effect we want. We need deeply engaging content that will connect consumers with our value proposition in a meaningful way and encourage them to consider our product or service. Bottom line, much as I love the quizzes, and top 10 lists, their impact is fleeting when it comes to long term engagement.

Collectively, we –marketers, consumers and publishers — need to take a step back and commit to creating and supporting GOOD content.

What’s good content in this context? It’s well-written content that engages the audience with a story, and connects with the brand message in some fashion. It can be tightly integrated like a review, loosely integrated like many sponsored posts or simply aligned editorial brought to you by the brand, with a brand message at the end of the post or article.

While brand marketers can, and should, produce material to feed the content marketing machine, the best stories will come from the community. No matter how well we write, we shouldn’t try to copy community-created content. It is extremely difficult to excise our passion for our brand from the story, and, as has been proven time and again, with good stories and bad, there is nothing more powerful than an engaged consumer.

Use your marketing passion to create the brand material for your content funnel that consumers rely on for more information about a product – micro sites, Facebook pages, Pinterest “catalogs,” and help your customers channel their passion into storytelling. Find and nurture your evangelists. Let them create the content and stories that matter with your support, either directly sponsored by you, or syndicated for re-use. A story may not be new to you, but it will be new to someone.

Personally, I’m excited about the potential for content marketing, and true partnerships between companies and their customers, brands and bloggers, to tell the stories that connect us with each other and with the brands we love. It’s what I’ve been hoping this interweb would morph into since I started writing about the space in 2004.

Here are some oldies but goodies from my archives on the topic of the brand-blogger connection:

Other writers who touch on this topic that you might enjoy: Rebecca Lieb, Christopher S. Penn.

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The one about the swag

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. While I work on digital and social marketing programs with many of the brands that sponsor our conference, I am not directly involved in the event side of our business and experience the Expo Floor much as any other attendee would. Except I can’t enter any of the sweepstakes 🙂 In my past life, however, I was in charge of event and channel marketing for multiple employers.

Other writers have already done an excellent job of sharing the attendee perspective on the brands at BlogHer and their promotional offerings.

I want to focus on the brand side of the equation. Whether you call it swag (PG version: stuff we all get), schwag (an alternative spelling) or trinkets and trash (a personal favorite), companies make the investment because it helps them achieve their marketing goals. Ultimately, the marketer wants the target consumer to buy her product, and she uses a variety of strategies and tactics to bring potential customers through the purchasing funnel of Awareness to Interest to Consideration to Purchase.

And marketers have been doing it for a VERY long time. For example this Coca-Cola coupon found on  Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia: Believed to be the first coupon ever, this ticket for a free glass of Coca-Cola was first distributed in 1888 to help promote the drink. By 1913, the company had redeemed 8.5 million tickets.

There are two kinds of swag — promotional items of varying utility (and price points) imprinted with the company name or other branding, and actual product, often but not always in sample sizes.

A defining characeristic of swag is that it is broadly distributed — at a conference, an event, as a product premium, on box, at the cash register etc etc. The intent is to reach large numbers of consumers. It is not deliberate seeding of product with known influencers, although with social media, the two tend to conflate, and there is more of an expectation that consumers are also influencers.

So, back to our two kinds of swag – promotional items (trinkets and trash) and actual product. CPG brands (food, cosmetics, household products) can more easily give away samples of their products than consumer durables like electronics, furnishings, and automobiles, but even they often offer promotional items, either instead of or in addition to product sampllng or coupons.

Promotional items

Why give away promotional items? In a word, awareness.

The more useful the trinket, the better the chance that awareness will lead to consideration. When I was an independent consultant, I gave away lens cleaning cloths in a little plastic case. People held onto them for years. At BlogHer 2008, I picked up a 3-outlet extender from Topix that I still use.

Utility doesn’t have to be longterm. Bottled water, personal fans and sunglasses may not make it home from the outdoor concert, but you can bet they will be well used during. It also doesn’t necessarily mean used by the consumer herself. Many trade show trinkets end up in the “look what I got you on my trip” bag that parents bring home to their kids, and that was just as true at the computer industry events I attended in my previous life as it is for blogging conferences. At BlogHer this year, I picked up pair of green sunglasses at the Turning Leaf booth, and my son wore them throughout BlogHer and our post-BlogHer vacation in Chicago.

Doug in Chicago, note green Turning Leaf sunglasses. (c) Susan Getgood 2013

In addition to utility, another factor to consider when selecting promo items is alignment with brand messaging. Fitness items align with wellness messaging, makeup accessories with cosmetics brands, cooking tools with food brands, and so on. Years ago, I worked for a company that made software for tire dealers, and we gave away tire gauges.

Finally, cost. Promotional items do not have to be cheap trinkets and trash. Luxury brands use promo items too, but their distribution is usually more limited than what we are discussing here, the use of promo items in a mass consumer marketing strategy. Generally, the cost of a promo item for mass distribution should be commensurate with the cost of the actual products as well as your overall trade show budget. Bottom line, don’t spend a lot but don’t default to the cheapest item in the catalog either.

Product samples

Product samples make their appearance at events in all sorts of guises — from sampling on site (usually supported by generous coupons and/or a promo item) to free product in trial or full sizes. Regardless of size or form, their role is to encourage trial. in other words, to jump the consumer right to the consideration stage. At BlogHer and other social media events that attract influencers, the brands want to connect with the consumer on two levels, as both a customer and an influencer of other customers (hopefully with some scale!)

Food and many beauty products lend themselves very well to onsite sampling, while others (shampoo, body wash, household cleaning as examples) work better as trial or full size “take-home” products.

The key is to integrate the promo item or sample into your marketing strategy, with a clear objective and desired result. In other words, don’t just give stuff out because everyone else is. Understanding the ROI of your swag can turn it from a cost item in your event budget to an investment in your brand.

All the exhibitors at BlogHer this year did a good job with their booths and swag. I didn’t really see anything that didn’t work for its intended consumer — and keep in mind that not every attendee at BlogHer was the consumer for every brand. That’s why there’s a Swag Swap set up for people to drop off the stuff they don’t want. Whatever is left at the end is donated to local charities.

That said, I do want to call out a few that are great examples of my points above.

Topix outlet from BlogHer 2008 and AloMune waterproof pouch from 2013

Starting with two very small items in the official conference swag bag. Verizon had a USB car charger plug that scores on all my promo item criteria – useful and reinforces Verizon’s branding as a mobile solution provider at a reasonable price point. Immune supplement manufacturer AloMune distributed samples of its product in a very useful cell phone sized waterproof pouch. Neither item was terribly expensive, but almost every attendee probably could find a use for them. Or knows someone who could. And bonus: small and packable so likely to make it home, even with attendees who were not checking luggage or shipping stuff home.

CVS was a sponsor at BlogHer and another conference I attended earlier this summer, Reviewer’s Retreat. At both events, it took the surprising, generous (and not cheap) approach of handing out swag bags of full size products. Not just one or two items — I didn’t count, but it was about what might fit in the hand basket you’d grab when you’d run into the store for a few things. At both conferences, it also was a wide variety — cosmetics, bandages, a first aid kit, cookies and other snack items, hand creme, sunblock and so on. Some of the items were CVS-brand, others were well-known (and not inexpensive) brands like Lubriderm, Roc and Aveeno.

Now, I don’t have first-hand visibility into the brand’s marketing strategy, but I’m guessing one objective is to increase the average basket size (purchase), and that is the goal supported by the generous swag bag. It’s a bold and noticeable move to reinforce the brand messaging — that CVS carries a wide range of merchandise, including food and snack items, at a variety of price points. It isn’t limited to prescriptions, toothpaste and OTC medicines.

I also really hope that the number of items isn’t a coincidence — that someone really did think about how many (as well as what) to include, to mimic that basket size.

Using my focus group of one, I’d say it works. A few days before we left for BlogHer, I had to pick up a prescription ($20) and while I was there, I picked up make-up remover wipes, vitamins, shampoo for my son and a bunch of other stuff, about $50 worth. I know I considered and purchased some of the CVS-brand items as a direct result of the Reviewer’s Retreat swag bag.

So, next time you hear someone bemoaning the swag and promotional items at conferences and events, remind them that swag is an important element in the event marketing mix, brands rely on it to achieve their marketing objectives and consumers welcome it.

And if you don’t want it, just don’t take it. It’s that easy.

'THAT WAS EASY!'

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The Pinterest chapter, Part Two:Engaging with Brands on Pinterest and Sponsored Pins

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

And, now the conclusion of my multi-part “chapter” on using Pinterest as a promotional tool.

English: Red Pinterest logo
English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As you grow your influence within the Pinterest ecosystem, you may get offers for sponsored opportunities. I am not talking about “Pin It To Win It” sweepstakes. I covered why I don’t recommend them to influencers or brands in my previous post.

So what does make sense for influencers to engage with brands on Pinterest? I break it down into four basic opportunities:

  1. Creating a board for a brand on its Pinterest account. You are essentially acting as a freelancer, curating pins to align with a brand message or theme. Some brands may wish to leverage your reputation as the content curator, and others may just want your expertise. You might be curating from deep archives of brand content to create a compelling re-pinworthy board or sourcing material from the Internet, always taking care to respect copyrights. With regard to FTC disclosure, it is a board on the brand account so it is assumed to be commercial activity. The brand will likely have a branding message it wants included on or in each pin.
  2. If you are writing a sponsored post for a brand, including compelling and pinworthy images to encourage readers to pin.  These can be branded or unbranded. If you do sponsored posts, you are likely already asked to include compelling and pinworthy images to encourage readers to pin. And if you haven’t been, you will be, as it is becoming a standard ask. When your users pin images from your sponsored posts, they are not required to disclose, as they are not compensated for their action. If you pin images from your sponsored posts, you should include a disclosure statement on the pin.
  3. Creating a board for a brand on YOUR Pinterest account. If you are approached to create a board for a brand on your account, carefully evaluate the ask. Will the resulting board be interesting to your followers?  Is the brand asking you to pin all branded content or is the assignment broader, curating a board aligned with the brand message but not necessarily brand content? Both of these scenarios can be effective but it depends on the brand. The board and all the sponsored pins must include a disclosure statement, such as “Sponsored by”  on the board description and #sponsored on the pins.
  4. Pinning brand content to your boards, but not to a specific board. This is a very effective way to distribute brand content without fatiguing your Pinterest followers. It works best when the brand has a deep archive of branded content from which you can curate. A good rule of thumb: the pool of content you are curating from should be between 2 to 4 times larger than the total number of pins you have been asked to add to your Pinterest boards. In other words, if you are asked to curate 10 pins, an ideal pool should be between 20-40 pieces of content. All the pins must include a disclosure such as #sponsored. Including just the hashtag of the brand is NOT sufficient.

Some things to keep in mind:

  • Pins are entities in and of themselves, and are most often viewed independently from the boards of which they are a part. Boards are useful organizing constructs but pins are the principal discovery mechanism. Make sure each and every pin is a useful piece of discrete content, with proper attribution and disclosure.
  • Your followers do not have to retain the disclosure if they repin a sponsored pin. You were compensated and must disclose. They were not.
  • Follow the 80/20 rule here as well: 80% non promotional pins, 20% promotional, whether for your own content or sponsored.

And there you have it, in two-and-a-half parts, the Pinterest chapter that would have been. What are your tips and thoughts on the best ways to use this platform?

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Brands & companies getting it right at BlogHer ’10: Liberty Mutual, Pepsi, P&G (BlogHer Marketing Lessons part 5)

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O Pepsi
Image by Lel4nd via Flickr

The comments, both here and on Facebook, on the previous marketing lessons posts have been terrific and chock full of examples, some of which we should strive to emulate, and others that we definitely want to avoid.

In this post I’m going to share my three picks for official sponsor companies that got it right at BlogHer ’10. These are by no means the only ones that did, but I have some specific learning points in each example.

Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project

I’ve been aware of the Responsibility Project since they reached out to me just before last year’s BlogHer. I don’t get many pitches and respond to even fewer but given my interest in ethics, disclosure and responsible blogging, I’m a good fit for their message of  “do the right thing” and have written about the Project a few times over the past year. I was delighted when I received an invitation to its outing to Ellis Island the day before BlogHer. I’ve been to New York many times, and seen most of the main tourist attractions, but never Ellis Island. So I RSVP’d yes, and made my initial travel plans to get to NY that morning in time to join the trip.  (BTW in the end, my plans changed and I went to NY on the Tuesday to film a roundtable discussion on celebrity worship, also for the Responsibility Project.) The Ellis Island trip was terrific as a sightseeing excursion and I highly recommend it. Details for organizing your own visit are on SCR.

Here’s why it worked as a blogger event.

Unique – The Ellis Island venue was a nice change from the usual meet & greet cocktail party/luncheon accompanied by swag bag that we’ve come to expect from blogger events. It also fit well with the theme of responsibility, although I admit that I nearly laughed out loud in the brief luncheon presentation by Peg Zitko, VP of Public Affairs at The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation when she tied the concept of responsibility to President Reagan’s decision that the American people should be responsible for restoring the Statue and Ellis Island through private donation rather than federal subsidy. Nothing against her message about the importance of the public contributions to the restoration — that’s an important story —  but responsible is not exactly how I would describe Reagan’s policies. Oh well, never mind…

The group was small, about 30 women. This made it easy to mingle and chat, and actually get to know each other. Liberty Mutual PR agency Ketchum told me they invited bloggers who they have been working with already, like me, and others who they wanted to get to know better because they thought the Responsibility Project themes would resonate for them.

Here are posts from:

The swag bag was appropriate and thoughtful — sunscreen, lipblock, bottled water, some snacks and an autographed copy of the Ellis Island cookbook written by our tour guide Tom Bernardin.

Limited lecturing – Because the trip was sightseeing, it seemed likely that the company presentations would be brief so we could enjoy the venue. They were. Senior Vice President, Communications Paul Alexander greeted us after we boarded the bus at the Hilton, said a few words and showed a brief film of clips from Responsibility Project commercials and media coverage. At lunch, we were treated to the afore mentioned brief talk from Peg Zitko and a screening of Second Line, a short film directed by and starring Danny Glover. That’s about it. Instead of bombarding us with presentations (or crafts) the Liberty Mutual and Ketchum people mingled and enjoyed the trip with us.

Executive commitment –– Major kudos to Paul Alexander who joined us for the whole trip, and managed to still look cool and crisp in his suit and tie at the end of the day, when we all looked a bit frazzled and fried. This is the kind of commitment from company executives that bloggers want to see. Not a few words and a hand wave as he or she is escorted from the room, and on to presumably more important things. I was most impressed by this, although perhaps I should have expected it. It is after all the right thing to do, and I have come to believe that Liberty Mutual walks its talk.

Procter & Gamble

I didn’t spend much time on the Expo floor. In my early career, one of my duties was tradeshow coordinator and I spent my fair share of time setting up, working and dismantling trade show booths of all sizes. As a result, I have a love-hate relationship with trade shows. I love the customer contact and the energy when you have a great conversation with a prospect or a reporter. However, the very venue reminds me of endless hours manning show booths or waiting for freight to be delivered etc etc. As a result, unless there is something I am specifically interested in, I tend to cruise through as fast as possible. In the case of cleaning products and groceries, my family will tell you straight up that I am not the buyer 🙂 so I also don’t want to waste the booth staff’s time chatting with me.

However, I was impressed by the sheer size of the P&G booth, and heard many good things about it from folks who spent some time with the P&G reps. Even if all you did was walk by, you got the idea the P&G had made a serious commitment to BlogHer.

Other things P&G did right:  In addition to the show floor, it had suite space for its new brand Align. The reflexology massage was awesome! More importantly, though, it was paying attention before BlogHer. As I’ve mentioned previously, it offered (and I accepted) free samples of Align for the attendees at the pre BlogHer BBQ. That gives the brand some mindshare even before people get to the conference. Given the noise and competition for attention once BlogHer starts, this is smart marketing.

Pepsi

Pepsi had a lot of things going on during BlogHer but I’m going to single out one, because I think it is very important, not just as a marketing lesson, but as an example for anyone interested in gender equality. Or parity if you prefer.

It is a well known fact that there are not enough women elected officials in this country. Not enough women run, and of those who do, not enough win. The day before the main conference, BlogHer partnered with the White House Project to hold a workshop for women interested in running for office. NY York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also held a brief meeting with political and NY bloggers during the conference to focus attention on women as candidates.

However, I believe our political reality won’t change, or change enough, until the business world changes. Until more women are in positions of business power and choose to use those powers for good. To make change in the world. And to support women candidates.

Pepsi, helmed by a woman, CEO Indra Nui,  seems to be doing just that. The company took the opportunity at BlogHer to showcase some of its senior executive women. It brought a panel of senior executive women to BlogHer for a “Sofa Summit” moderated by Campbell Brown to talk about Pepsi’s forays into social media, being a senior executive, nutrition and yes, even their families. I was privileged to be invited to this breakfast session attended by about 30 women bloggers, many (but not all) of whom write about gender issues.

This is important — to see  women in senior executive positions at top brands.We need more of it.

Now you may have noticed that I didnt include any of the entertainment brands in my picks. Does that mean I don’t think Ubisoft got it right with Let’s Dance 2? Of course not. The dance-offs in the booth were brilliant, and many many bloggers tremendously enjoyed this booth. It’s also a slam dunk. Nothing in marketing is ever easy, but it is a lot easier to come up with fun ways for customers to engage with entertainment brands. Fun is already the point.

It’s a whole lot harder to make insurance, soap and soda sexy. That’s why Liberty Mutual, P&G and Pepsi are my top picks.

Unrelated to BlogHer specifically, but apropos of brands getting social media engagement with their customers “right,” brands that have a track record of positive engagement with customers in other venues tend to hit more than they miss when deploying social media tools. They aren’t perfect — no one is — but they already seem to understand the importance of connecting with customers over shared values, not simply products.

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On October 14, I will be speaking at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women in Pittsburgh on using social media to build your brand and advance your career. Early registration price is $135 and expires Sept. 1oth. But… courtesy of the conference organizers, I have a pass to give away . Just leave a comment on this post by noon eastern time on September 14th. I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.

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Disclosure: Liberty Mutual hosted us for the day, providing transportation to/from Battery Park and the Hilton, the ferry ticket and guided tour of Ellis Island and lunch, plus the afore mentioned swag bag. I also participated in the celebrity worship roundtable; my extra hotel costs for Tuesday and Wednesday nights were covered and the participants received a small honorarium for our participation. I attended Pepsi’s Sofa Summit breakfast on Saturday. P&G sent samples of Align for the attendees of the Boston pre-BlogHer BBQ at my house, and like many attendees, I received a reflexology massage at its BlogHer suite.

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The year of forced engagement.Guest post by Elizabeth, Busy Mom (BlogHer Marketing Lessons, part 4)

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Elizabeth,  today’s guest blogger, is probably better to known to you as Busy Mom.  She has been writing about her life and family at the Busy Mom Blog since 2003.  Her full-time job in healthcare also makes an occasional appearance on her blog. She likes to engage with brands that have something relevant to her life and interesting for her readers, and reviews products on Busy Mom Reviews. However, she hates bad pitches, as regular readers of Marketing Roadmaps may already know from her comments on my bad pitch posts.  She lives in Nashville with her husband and three children.

Elizabeth responded to my call on Twitter for brand experiences at BlogHer,  good and bad. Her e-mail had such good, specific advice for brands, I asked if I could run it as a guest post.

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While I don’t think we’ll ever resolve when/where brands choose to have parties (I think it’s going to happen no matter what, and people need to just conduct themselves properly), I noticed a theme among the events and expo booths I visited.

This was the year of  “forced engagement.”

I get it. I wouldn’t want to be in the brands’ position, with freebie grabbers and all.  I think companies should get something out of our visits. I also understand my attendance was voluntary at the events and places I visited, but I just I felt like I was performing everywhere I went.

Don’t misunderstand. I have met some great people and was honored to be invited to the events I attended. They took the time to find me (for the most part) and I tried to stop by as many as I reasonably could.

The events I attended were quite lovely, but it’s as if some didn’t know if they were throwing a blogger summit, usually held over 1-2 days where I would expect to perform, or a party.

It may just be my personality, but the videos, going from station to station and the creating/making this, that and the other thing are getting a little old at something that’s supposed to be a party. What ever happened to just drinks, hors d’oeuvres, music/entertainment, conversation, a display or two and a gift bag at the end?

It’s one thing to be contracted to host or perform in some way at an event, and another to politely stop in expecting a traditional cocktail party and find yourself doing crafts and smiling for the camera at every turn.

If there’s a problem with swag-grabbers, then maybe they need to take more time with the guest list. I’m continually amazed at some of the folks I see at every event. Clearly there is little research into online reputation by some of these companies.

One party that I thought did a good job, and full disclosure, I was paid to be a host, but was NOT involved in the planning, was the Schick Intuition Kiss and Tell party. The brand was represented through the decor, there was a brief product speech and the rest was a memorable time with fabulous entertainment, an open bar and product (the razor, not the bar) samples at the end. Follow-up engagement is a contest and a coupon on Facebook.

Hallmark and the CheeseburgHer party did a good job, too. Both were good times, but there was no doubt about the sponsors. Hallmark had a pertinent holiday theme, and you knew right away what the new McDonald’s product was, but we didn’t have to perform for them.

I’m not sure what the answer is as far as engagement in the booths goes, but clearly it’s not accosting attendees at the door and coercing them into attending a show.  Note:  I’ve not been to other tech conferences, this may be a “thing” I’m not aware of, but it doesn’t happen at medical conferences.

And, contrary to popular stances, I don’t think swag is the problem.  Getting doo-dads and such can be fun (blasphemy! I know!) and there’s nothing wrong with it.

At a booth, I am expecting to hear what’s new with the company, try the product out if it’s brief, chat with the rep, and maybe throw a card into a fishbowl for a drawing/follow-up later, and get whatever doo dad if they have it (and I’m interested.) I’m not wild about being asked to sign up for their service on the spot (but having the option is good, I suppose) or to fill out some complicated form. I’ll spin a wheel if I must, but enough with the other games. Again, maybe just my personality.

I get that both the blogger and the brand should get something out of the interaction, and I know my presence is voluntary, but I’m just weary of performing all the time. And the feeling that they want to get as much out of us as they can is getting a little creepy.

Parties should be parties. Do something memorable, have a brand presence and follow up later.

Booths should be booths, have a small something “fun” if you must, but give me the information, let me enter your drawing or whatever by giving you my card, and personally hand me the promotional material or swag stuff.

Connect with me.

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In my final BlogHer Marketing Lessons post, I’ll share my thoughts about some brands that I think did get it right. It’s not an all-inclusive list — there was no way any one person could experience everything going on over those four days,  so please chime in with your experiences. Try to be specific in both your criticism and your kudos. This helps my readers use your opinions to improve their marketing programs — SG

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