Last week I attended BlogHer '10 in NYC. If you've never heard of the annual BlogHer conference and your target audience is of the female persuasion, look it up! You should know about this conference and about the BlogHer community.
There were a lot of companies and organizations there, and by a lot I mean A LOT, so getting the attention of these women took more than having handouts and demos available. While at the conference, I took a few notes of how these women interacted with the sponsors and exhibitors, and from these observations I left with four tips/takeaways that I'll share with you, so that when you do attend a BlogHer conference or any conference of this caliber, you'll be ready.
4 Tips for Getting Your Brand Noticed1. It's all about the swag! The attendees walked the exhibit halls gathering the fun items each company provided. For me, the swag I considered "valuable" made it into my luggage and into my home. Those that did not benefit me, never made it out of my hotel room.
Bottom line, your swag must be valuable to your audience. However, valuable doesn't necessarily have to have a large price tag. For example, I received an Arm & Hammer coupon for a free bottle of the company's laundry detergent and to me that was valuable.
However, while we all know the attendees love the swag, to truly make an impact at BlogHer you must go above and beyond. The remaining tips will focus on how to do just that.
2. Do something unique! Because there are so many exhibitors and sponsors there, a company could easily get lost in the wave of other organizations. To stand out above the rest, try doing something unique. For instance, Chevy was a big sponsor at BlogHer and instead of handing out swag, they provided a valuable service to the bloggers and attendees with the Chevy Voltage Room which was your recharge station. Attendees were there blogging, tweeting and communicating through numerous social outlets which involved the use of their smart phones and computers. Eventually, every attendee needed a little charge to get through the day and the Voltage Room became that place.
Other unique ideas included onsite makeovers (CoverGirl and Pantene), shipping swag to attendees' homes free of charge so they didn't have to stuff it all into their luggage (Pepsi) and hosting a TV cooking show, onsite, using conference attendees as the audience (Jimmy Dean).
3. Mingle and Make Yourself Available! I noticed very few of the sponsors and exhibitors left their booths or stations to actually spend time in sessions and with attendees. However, for those that did take the time to speak with many of the bloggers they accomplished more than expected by simply saying “hello.” By getting involved these sponsors and exhibitors got to hear directly from the bloggers about how they’d like to be approached, what pushes their buttons and what makes them jump on an opportunity. Additionally, by doing so these bigger brands made the brand they were representing develop a human persona. This is an important connection to the consumers and one that will better help brands successfully approach the bloggers.
4. Make Your Presence Known - Ahead of Time! With all that is now available on the web, why would you not reach out to individuals prior to the event's start? You could be giving away high priced products and providing extras to bloggers to giveaway on their personal sites, but if no one is aware of what you're doing, that promotion will likely fall flat. Yes, no matter how cool.
It's so easy to do a simple blogger search to determine which bloggers will be attending. Try taking the time to identify 20-40 bloggers that will be at the conference, then send each blogger a personalized email to let them know what you'll be doing at BlogHer and that you hope to see them there. An act as simple as that could help drive awareness and draw an audience.
Want to take it a step further? Start connecting with these bloggers now. Introduce your product(s) by offering them to influential bloggers for review. Provide them with the products to also give away on their blog. That way, when you reach out just to say hello and to let them know you'll be at BlogHer, they'll likely be more receptive. Additionally, this step could be imperative if you simply want to attend the conference to make connections. If you make these connections ahead of time, then you have a reason to approach those bloggers at the actual event. Lastly, once you get to the conference, be sure to follow-up with those bloggers that responded to your initial outreach. Can't find them in person? @reply them via Twitter. They were all over Twitter making their own connections so when I reached out, they quickly responded.
Wrap-upIn short, your mere presence at a BlogHer conference will get you nowhere. As a brand, if you want to leave an impression on the bloggers attending the conference then you must think outside the box. Who is your audience and what will drive them to think twice about your product? Whatever you think that may be, go with it and leave the branded frisbees back at the office.
I'd like to leave you with one small piece of advice. Bloggers are very powerful. They are the consumer, and therefore are highly trusted by their readers. Be nice, know what's important to them, and take into account what actions will make them happy versus which ones will result in a negative post about your organization.
Did you attend BlogHer? What were your takeaways?
