BlogHer ’11: Bloggers, Brands and Lots of Questions
Last year I joined thousands of women (and a few brave men) for BlogHer ’11 in San Diego, CA. This was my second year attending as both a blogger and social media professional, which gives me a glimpse into what motivates and concerns bloggers and brands. For two days I attended sessions, mostly about bloggers working with brands–what to do, what not to do and what to expect as told from the perspective of bloggers, brands and PR execs who represent brands.
I walked away with three revelations:
1. There is a lot of confusion from brands and bloggers about how they should work together. Like an episode of Love Connection, trying to make a connection between the two parties can be painful to watch. They want to work together, but neither group seems particularly certain about what they should get out of the deal. It’s these details that seem to create the most confusion.
2. There is no one-size-fits-most approach to working with bloggers or brands. Ask five bloggers the same question about something like compensation and you’ll likely get five different answers. This lack of standardization is what makes word of mouth marketing and influencer outreach genuine, credible and incredibly confusing to brands and bloggers alike.
Brands are also guilty of the same inconsistencies. They want and expect different things, and often they don’t know what they should expect from bloggers or what to offer bloggers in exchange. There are some companies, such as Sway Group, LLC, that are trying to bridge the information gap and help bloggers and brands work together, almost like translating for people who speak different languages.
3. Each group could benefit from learning a little more about the folks on the other side of the proverbial aisle. While we aren’t talking right wing versus left, there is clearly some bad blood between bloggers and brands born out of lack of understanding. Conferences like BlogHer, Blogging While Brown and cross-overs–bloggers who understand business and business people who blog–help to educate both bloggers and brands about how to work better together.
I’ve been to a few of these conferences and the questions remain the same, which means bloggers and brands need to keep reaching across the aisle, raising and answering these questions and educating one another. Brands and agencies should be building relationships with bloggers, reading their blogs and learning who they are, what they write about and what makes them special. Bloggers need to start or continue to make connections to people at brands and agencies so they know who to contact with a potential program or post idea or simply to get a gut check about working with brands.
That’s all for now. Keep writing and reading blogs, and play nice kids.
For more information about digital and social media strategy follow @JenPolk1 on Twitter.
How to Pick a Blog Post Topic
A few months ago, with all the best intentions, I agreed to write a few blogs for an up and coming online mom community that was hoping to expand their content. Now I sit here wondering what to write about. To say that the road to hell (and online anonymity) is paved with good intentions would be a understatement. My case of writers block got me thinking, “How do you pick you a blog topic?”.
In an effort to get the creative juices flowing and get back into the habit of blogging regularly, I decided to put pen to pad and share some thoughts on how to pick a blog post topic. Having already gone through the exercise of starting a blog and choosing a general blog topic – personal and professional branding with social and digital media, I needed the narrow the scope and figure out a specific post topic that would relevant and useful to a community of moms.
Below are a few mental frameworks and quick ways to assess your audience and find the cross section between their needs and topics you can write about in order to choose a blog post topic.
1. Write what the audience wants or needs to hear about. How do you know what they want to hear about? Ask them! To some this might seem too obvious and too easy, but trust me its worthwhile…plus blogging is meant to be fun not torturous. This is especially easy to do if you’re talking to community of users. Check out the community discussion boards, which are usually easy to sort by topic. Find out what your audience is talking about and what they’re curious about.
2. Write what you know. One thing separating an informative blog from an op-ed piece is an ounce of fact. While you don’t have to have a PhD, you do owe it to your readers to offer more than just your opinion. What you think is a great start, but take the time to do your research and back-up your opinions with actual fact. This means writing about a subject that you’re interested in so you won’t mind spending a few hours on research.
3. Write to help your readers. People blog for a lot of different reasons , but at some level we’re all writing because we think, or at least hope, something we share will be meaningful to someone. Remain true to that! Don’t just pontificate, but try to add value through useful info, or at least charm and wit.
That’s it, the process I follow to break the shackles of writer’s block. To find out what I wrote about, stop by Social Moms for a read.
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3 Reasons to Love Instagram
While I appreciate mainstream web publications, I sometimes learn about hidden technology gems through lesser known publications and blogs. This is one of those times, and I was fortunate to learn about Instagram–the latest photography application for the iPhone.
Developed by Burbn, Inc., Instagram
is one of the top rated photography apps and is quickly becoming a favorite tool of many. I’m no exception and I can think of many reasons why, but for now I’ll limit myself to three reasons to love this app:
1. Easy to use. Grab pictures from your photo library or take a new picture. You can also turn things around for an impromptu self-portait. With 14 photo filters that range from a simple black and white (Inkwell) to a grainy technicolor look (1977) it’s easy to enhance your favorite pictures. There’s also a flash adjuster which comes in handy with filters like Gotham.
2. Encourages sharing. Post your pictures to the public feed, add tags and share through the app, email, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and more–all with a few fingertip swipes. You can also find and follow friends from your phone contacts, Facebook and Twitter to see, like and comment on the pictures they’re posting. Think Twitter meets Foursquare–the ability to see what friends are doing through the eyes of their camera lens.
3. It’s free–but it shouldn’t be. Enjoy this while it lasts. Instagram is hands down one of the best photo apps on the market, free or paid. This means the developers could have charged or maybe they’re hoping Instagram will do for photo sharing what Foursquare has done for location sharing–make it more popular to share these aspects of our lives with the world than to keep them private.
Whatever the case may be the world is more beautiful and more interesting through the eyes of friends and strangers all sharing their lives in photo. Instagram has made it all possible by turning even an amateur into an iPhone-wielding professional photographer.
Who Owns Social: 4 Questions to Answer Before You Decide
Who owns social media? This is a question that companies and brands of all sizes have been wrestling with, and the more complex the company the more difficulty they have finding a definitive answer. The reality facing most is that the owner of social media could require a shift in the organizational structure; breaking down of traditional silos and barriers; rethinking of roles like marketing, customer service, public relations and even sales. 
It really means understanding your brand and brand purpose. It also means more flexibility than most corporations and business people are comfortable with because the owner of social media at your company will likely need to change as social and your use of social continue to evolve.
Before we get to the evolution of social media at your company, let’s begin at the beginning–what do you need to know or decide to determine who owns social.
1. How can your brand use social media to maximize value to it’s customers while fulfilling it’s purpose? Start with your brand architecture and positioning (what you say about your brand); add a healthy dose of listening using tools like Radian 6 (what others say about your brand) and stir.
2. What needs to change within your company or about your brand in order for you to close the gap between advertising and reality, and which internal teams need to lead that change? The internal teams needed to close the gap should also be at the forefront of your company’s social media efforts.
3. As you start to close the gap between advertising and reality, who are the storytellers internally that will inform customers, solicit additional feedback and address the wave of complaints that is sure to follow? This is when your brand needs to be it’s most honest about its shortcomings and enthusiastic about its improvements. Who is up to the task?
4. Who are your adventurers? As you embark on improving the brand from the inside out, some things may need to change about the corporate culture to take the emphasis off the internal agenda and focus more on external relationships. Explore and experiment with ways to build new connections and drive behavior. 
As you explore and experiment, push the cultural norms of your corporation; try new things and new ways of doing old things. Make certain that your social media efforts support your brand purpose and add value in the lives of your customers. Finally, ensure those efforts are led by the right teams and individuals at that time.
5 Ways Brands Can and Should Use Twitter
A snowy Tuesday evening and the eve of the great blizzard of 2011 and I’m perusing the chatter on Twitter. As I do I see a number of my favorite brands–some local Chicago businesses, others national brands, all doing interesting and innovative things on the platform.
I’m inspired to write this blog because I don’t think enough credit goes to marketers and conversationalists who are using Twitter and increasing brand awareness without the aide of billion dollar marketing budgets.
Here are 5 things I’ve learned from them about how brands can and should use Twitter.
1. Start the conversation. @Huggies does a good job of asking a question that really gets you thinking and is easy to respond to in 140 characters. Even better, they often RT your reply which makes the user feel heard and recognized.
2. Join conversations about your brand. I can’t stress enough the close ties between pop culture and Twitter for consumer brands. Therefore, your brand has to have a full-time voice, and eyes and ears, to remain aware of what influencers are tweeting and saying offline that could lead to tweeting. This could be an opportunity to engage a very powerful brand advocate.
3. Tie into the trends. Twitter had made it incredibly easy to see what people are talking about. Go the extra mile and tie your brand to one of these conversation topics. This is great way to be relevant and spark up a conversation. Retailers like @bluelgcrew and @homedepot are doing this as we speak, tweeting about tips, tools and sales to help those in the Midwest battle the snow.
4. Connect across channels to reach more of your audience. @JimmyFallon is a great example. This afternoon Fallon tweeted to followers to play the hashish game by sending him your worst pickup lines with #worstpickuplines. Stay tuned to Jimmy Fallon Live tomorrow night and he’ll show his favorites. An awesome way to drive his audience from Twitter to TV by offering someone 15 seconds of fame.
5. Engage followers around your brand with a regular event. Whether it’s a regular Twitter conversation like the weekly deal chat hosted by @Frugalista or the daily trending topic shared by hosts if BET’s @106andPark. The topic is posted every evening on their show and leads to hundreds of tweets by their viewers and followers.
These ideas may not be driving ROI or winning a Shorty, but they’re creative, engaging and fun. At the end of the day that’s one of the primary reasons social consumers respond to and remember brands.
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