An assortment of sponsors like American Airlines, Disney, Glade, Pine Sole, Suave and Yahoo sent reps to mix with women of color bloggers.
If you follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, you know that this weekend I attended the inaugural Blogalicious conference in Atlanta. The three day gathering focused on connecting blogger women of color to each other to celebrate the pleasure of blogging and learn about the business of it. Women of all nationalities could attend and did. So did some men.
Founded by the Mama Law Media group, three lawyer mamapreneur bloggers, Blogalicious’ other main mission was to introduce marketers to women of color bloggers to ensure that we are included in the digital dialogues about their products and services.
Women of color make up a good chunk of the blogosphere and social media universe. But we are often underreported and underrepresented in the mainstream social media conversations.
It’s an unfortunate reality considering these statistics presented by Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, CEO of Nia Enterprises LLC, during the “Marketing to Women of Color” townhall.
- Women of color are big consumers of online technology from social networking, blogging, search optimization and email.
- Women of color currently represent the largest group of all new technology users which is a position they are projected to keep for years to come.
- Latina, Black, Asian, Native American and Middle Eastern women of color control 85% or more of all purchase decisions made today and are labeled multi-influencers according to WomenEntreprenuer Magazine.
- The Toughest Customer: The Essential Guide to Selling to Women by Delia Passi, reports a woman will refer up to 26 individuals to a company, product or service if she is happy with her experience compared to a man who will only refer an average of 11 people even with the highest degree of satisfaction.
At Blogalicious, these facts were manifested in the tech savvy females who came from as far as Alaska to fellowship. This was my first blog conference and I was thrilled and impressed by the amount of brain power emanating from the rooms and the generous amount of information swapping that took place.
Here’s part 1 of a rundown of what I soaked up there concerning social media trends and how to build a better blog:
1.) Twitter is the new email. If you’re not on Twitter, you should be. Instead of trading email addresses, attendees and organizations traded Twitter handles. It’s now the easiest and quickest way to connect and relay information. In fact throughout all of the workshops and talks, people Tweeted massively. #blogalicious was set up just for the conference. (By the way the Wall Street Journal is already declaring email dead:”The End of Email“)
2.) Don’t just blog, build a community. Blogs are shifting from being “just blogs” to being mini-communities. With a touch of a few plugins or tools, you can allow people to become a member of your blog and follow you, share it with others through news posting/voting sites like Digg, Reddit or Stumble Upon, and bookmark it using sites like Delicious or Google Reader. Add these tools to your site. Plus encourage community interaction by talking to your community and encouraging them to chat with each other.
3.) Cross-pollinate!: That’s the word from Gwen Peake, Global Digital Communications Manager for Ford Motor Company. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other community, share your posts with your friends there. If you write for content sites like the Examiner or Associated Content, place links to your post there too. Add links to your Flickr pages and YouTube site. Being an active social media contributor increases your influence in the community, attracts traffic and extends your digital footprint.
4.) Use one-stop sharing sites to cross-pollinate.: So many social network sites so little time, right? Use these one-stop shop sharing sites that allow you to connect with everyone on the different sites you go to in one place. Here are some good ones: FriendFeed (connects with Twitter, Facebook among others), Ping.fm (I use this – allows you to place updates to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and your instant messengers.) For the power Twitter users there’s Mashdeck, Twillow, and Social Oomph (formerly Tweet Later.)
5.) Link. Comment. Be a Guest: Link to other blogger sites on your site, but also link to company Web sites in your posts. These will bring your blog up in searches. Give back to other bloggers by commenting on their sites. Eventually they will return the favor. Also ask to be a guest blogger on another person’s site and invite them to blog on yours too.
6.) Make sure your blog has a purpose and a niche: Define the purpose of your blog, tap into a niche that resonates with you and blog about it. Readers and marketers are looking for passion and authority. Make sure that comes across in the subject matter you choose. If you are writing about a product or service, make sure you’re really interested in it.
7.) Embrace your inner SEO expert/Analytics: Search engine optimize, much? Just not into the analytics? SEO and analytics are sometimes not a blogger’s strongest suit. There are technologies for that to help you become better at it. Try Blog Grader to find out how your blog ranks in comparison to others in the niche, while Web site grader measures your blog’s marketing effectiveness. Google Analytics is the easiest free site traffic analyzer there is and as long as you have gmail you automatically get an analytics account.
8.) Be aware of the FTC rules on bloggers and products: Beginning December 1st, bloggers will be required to disclose how they received the products they feature in their blogs. Failure to do so will result in a major fine.
9.) Style your Blog: If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger, pull in a designer to help “style” your blog. Create your blog brand identity and add it to your blog. Designers often don’t come cheap. You can find graphic and web designers at affordable prices at Site Points Marketplace. Check with your local art and design school to see if a student will design your blog for free in exchange for adding it to their portfolio. Also check out the site Meet up.com - a community that connects people who possess the same interests online in order to meet offline. There may be a Web designers’ meet up group in your area. Join that group then find out if a designer will work at a reduced rate or for free for a mention in your blog.
10.) Write well: A blog is grounded in good engaging writing. Make sure your writing is airtight and top-notch.
Part 2 Scenes from Blogalicious and Coming Attractions – Later this week.
