BlogHer '08 – Part I, COMMUNITY

I understand the appeal in reading blogs written by women. They are honest, raw and often explore deep emotional topics in a way that other media outlets can't or won't touch. Women can write about issues with a rawness that people relate to. So many things in our world today are 'packaged' and lack authenticity, but this is not an issue for female bloggers and it is core to what keeps bringing readers back.

Recently, San Francisco played host to BlogHer '08, where over one-thousand female bloggers and a handful (literally) of guys, including myself, collected for all things “blogging.” It was, frankly, a bit intimidating. Was I invading female-only territory? Would anyone speak with me? Would there be a hazing ritual?

It was my first BlogHer conference and uncharacteristically I approached it with loose objectives. “Take an open mind and learn” was my game plan, and I am glad it was. I must admit that I found myself to be a bit nervous. I'm not even a blogger by any strict definition. What the hell was I doing here?

Turns out, my self-produced anxiety and fears were unfounded. All, and I mean all, of the the women were very welcoming of my presence at their event. In fact, they seemed encouraged by my presence and genuine interest and reasons for attending. Other men I spoke with echoed similar sentiments.

First impression when I walked into the main event room was that there was a lot of power brought together here, the “bottom-up grassroots power-to-the-people” kind. I am not the first to recognize that women blogers are an influential group, but to see so many assembled together, interacting, writing, hugging, laughing, snapping pictures, and twittering leaves you with a strong impression that these women are tuned in, vibrant and expressive.

Another significant impression is how diverse the group is in every way -- racially, sexuality, style, parents or not, appearance -- except their gender. They are not a segment of society, they represent all of our society. And as a part of it, they have created a very tight-knit community with a common interest. Many know each other very well from reading their respective blog posts and comments. They are supportive and very comfortable challenging one another. And if you think about it, these are very healthy characteristics for a community.

Part of the community's strength is that there are many leaders, some formal and many more informal. This conference's organizers Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins deserve a lot of credit for putting together a successful event. They are smart enough to know that there's enough talent and interesting people attending that they don't need to be in the spotlight. They kicked things off, kept them going, and stayed out of the way.

Unique and brilliant and it worked. It was a great experience, I learned a lot and will go again.

Here's the NY Times' take on the event, Blogging’s Glass Ceiling

Next month I will share my impressions and evaluation as business marketer.

Lucid Announces the Launch of a New Utility for Marketers, “The Mom Marketing Search Engine”

As appreciation grows for the spending power that U.S. mothers command, reliable and timely information about these super-consumers and how businesses can connect with them is needed. Lucid Marketing has created an expert knowledge-base with tools for any marketer wanting to learn about and follow the developments in marketing to “the Big Niche,” Moms.

Our objective was to bring value to our industry and offer marketers multiple means for staying informed on the topic of marketing to moms. The free new service is a single source for marketers to get timely, relevant and accurate information on marketing to moms.

Studies, articles and developments in mom marketing are organized and more readily available to fit the needs of brand marketers. Current and past knowledge is gathered from multiple sources offering a variety of stories and varying perspectives.

“We've always known where to look and what information was truly important for developing effective campaigns that reach moms,” says John King, Lucid's President. “Then we asked, why not share this? We think it will be a big factor in developing even better marketing and more of it.”

Lucid’s Mom Marketing Search Engine is loaded with hundreds of relevant articles and reports on marketing and moms from reliable sources. Contributors include agencies like Ketchum, researchers like eMarketer, mom pundits such as a Maria Bailey, writers like Andrea Learned, reporters such as Brandweek's Becky Ebenkamp, and consultants like Michelle Miller.

Keeping up with new developments is also made easy through a variety of social media services including the traditional (email, blog, and RSS), but also Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Lucid's social network for marketers.

We wanted to do three things very well:
1.Aggregate in a usable format all the information available on marketing to mothers,
2.Keep it relevant and up-to-date, and
3.Offer marketers easy ways to stay informed.

The new Mom Marketing Search Engine is readily available at www.lucidmarketing.com

Online Marketing

I recently attended the “On Line She Trusts... or Does She? The State of Women's Belief in a Virtual World” Webcast. The round table discussion visited this overall looming theme by focusing on what the panelists are doing to effectively position their brands among women who are online today. Having been with Lucid for nine months now, I feel the solutions the panelists provided were expected; something we are very familiar with here at Lucid.

Brands are changing the way they advertise to women online in order to meet changing expectations, and gain consumer trust. To do this, I'd like to share with you how some of the brands at the meeting are accomplishing this:

• Looking at the market in a social and phsychographic way, instead of demographic to gain a better picture of how to approach the market.

• Providing consumers with the entertainment, content and value they crave, while positioning the brand in the background.

• Approaching their consumer within the consumer's online environment. Some brands are leaving content within the consumer's environment instead of redirecting the consumer back to the brand’s site.

I share this information with you because I realize this may be new to some.

While I attended this meeting hoping to learn something new about what tomorrow's demands will be, I was left feeling a little empty. The panelists recognized marketer’s need to adapt with the evolving expectations of their consumer. Then they described how they are taking action today. I'd prefer to know: what are you doing tomorrow?