Post-BlogHer '09: A Reminder of the Power of Listening to Influentials - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBloggers

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It's become part of our annual process--the week following the BlogHer Conference, when articles and posts about the event begin to emerge--to take it all in and let it inform our planning of next year's event. And given that we hosted 1,500 bloggers this year, there was an awful lot to read.

We continue to read wrap-ups of the event until we reach the end of them, to make sure that everything is being addressed. And we send out a post-event survey for good measure. Because you see, we practice what we preach to brands when it comes to working with bloggers. We listen.

We had to get good at this listening thing, even when it meant hearing the negative. Back in 2006, when our conference entered its second year, bloggers weren't used to the attention brands were starting to give them, and some responded to it, and the custom swag, by lashing out against the idea of having brands represented in any way. Though this group was--and still is--in the minority, their coverage made its way through the Blogosphere.

I wrote my own response to this coverage, a post that asked the community, what does it mean to sell out? Do we let brands invade our personal blog space, or avoid them altogether? Or do we invite them in when discussing them makes sense for our readers? The responses indicated that many feel that the extent to which one works with a brand is a line that a blogger must draw for him- or herself. There are degrees of partnership with brands, and some degrees are inappropriate, but brands themselves are not the threat. It's how we manage our relationships with them that matters.

This is why, despite the fact that BlogHer has its own network editorial guidelines for our members, we don't recommend enforcing a single code or approach for the entire blogosphere on how bloggers must work with brands. This was something I had to repeat often when press asked me about the "PR Blackout," an initiative that began online (on a momblog collective), that suggested Mombloggers, in particular, "not blog ANY giveaways, ANY reviews, and Zero press releases" for a week in August. This initiative was suggested for several reasons, but in large part to address the "burnout" experienced by bloggers who have been pelted with requests to review product.

I thought that this "burnout" was a construct at first. My mind went to a place where many experienced bloggers go: If you write with integrity, how is working with brands a problem? But when I moderated a panel about blogger and brand relationships at BlogHer this year and asked which bloggers were experiencing said burnout, I saw a small army raise their hands. One elaborated, "I was new to the whole blogging thing and just didn't know that if someone sent me stuff, I didn't have to review it. I felt obligated. And I'm horrible at saying no."

Many, perhaps new, bloggers nodded their heads in solidarity. At that point I realized that we still had a lot of work to do helping brands and bloggers better understand best practices for authentic word-of-mouth that passes the FTC smell test with flying colors. It also made me realize how hard it must be for brands who want to encourage authentic word of mouth but who don't have a single standard to enforce.

Other post-event hubbub involved some of the unofficial parties scheduled around our event, something that the conference has become known for, despite the fact that we don't plan or control them. Brands and blogger sub-communities have smartly leveraged the physical coming-together of 1,500 female influencers to plan private, sometimes lucrative, affairs. Issues arise when these brands discover a few cardinal rules of playing in this space. Rule #1: Be inclusive

Nikon bore some anti-brand sentiment from an incident that I can't even call a mistake; it was more a choice that other brands should consider when creating events for bloggers, and Mombloggers in particular. Two bloggers were not allowed admittance in the reportedly swanky, well-run affair, due to having their babies in tow. "Due to the time of the event, the noise level, the availability of alcohol and the proximity to water, we determined that from a safety perspective, children should not attend," says Althea Haigh of MWW, who blogged the event and whose agency produced the event for Nikon. Still, one of the bloggers responded with a flip "#nikonhatesbabies" in her Twitter feed, unleashing a brand's nightmare of reactive tweets and posts from people who were there and who weren't saying, in essence, "What she said."

I thought MWW's response in a smart wrap-up of the incident was a good one. They shared what they learned from the experience, and while many would argue that Nikon should not have had an event that excluded babies in the first place, the fact that the agency took a stand and defended it is powerful. In the discussion that ensued in the comments they generated more than their share of support from other bloggers.

This kind of listening is hard. Brands hear things they may not want to hear, but I've seen brands come out the other side as heroes, depending on how they react. There's an art to listening while respectfully holding your ground if the issue is pertinent to the brand. While many disagreed with the decision to not allow children in the space, MWW was clear that they thought it wasn't safe—no apologies. They were responsive, while still being patient enough to allow bloggers to come to their own conclusions.

After hearing often conflicting accounts on "swag-haggery" and the overwhelming glut of non-BlogHer after-parties, we reached out to the community and asked for their feedback. Boy, were there opinions, and revelations, in the hundreds: We discovered that though swag offered at some of the parties seemed excessive, the sponsors were appreciated, and they offered suggestions for reducing clutter and misunderstandings. We also discovered that two of the best- loved sessions were about storytelling and humor-writing, and it reminded us that our community is a community of women who write, nearly every day. And they want to talk more about that craft, and learn more about it. Something, after five years, that we may have taken for granted. We welcome our annual jolt of listening. And we'll achieve a blueprint for next year's event in the process.

We believe that every brand needs to put itself into this place of strategic vulnerability in order to thrive in the marketplace. Seeing it play out at our annual conference made us certain.

As co-founder and President of Strategic Alliances for BlogHer, Jory Des Jardins is an innovator in online advertising, women's media and Internet entrepreneurship. Jory can be contacted at jory@blogher.com.

Read all Jory’s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Jory Des Jardin - MediaBizBlogger.

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