15 Nov, 2010
Brain drain to brain dump
Posted by andrea tomkins in: The business of blogging|Yaktivism
Last week Shannon and I hosted our third Ottawa Brain Brain event in which we talked about two recent social-media related conferences.
Every time I walk away from OBD I feel reinspired and all floaty and happy to have the opportunity to learn from so many smart and wonderful people. Thank you to those who braved Elgin Street parking and came out to share your knowledge and experiences with the group! I know how hard it can be to put yourself out there and open up. BUT YOU DID. Thank you for that. New OBDs are being planned for the New Year.
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Blogging about blogging is so META. Isn’t it?
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I’ve been wondering if I’m becoming even more jaded and cynical the longer I hang around in the blogosphere. Why is it that some people are able to skim the surface, look at things on a superficial level whereas I am seemingly unable to chill out about certain topics?
I am gearing up for a huge rant here – one that has been percolating for a few weeks and I’m finally drumming it out now. I’ve been talking and thinking a lot about this World of Blogging and I want to finally clear my head.
I attended the Shes Connected conference in Toronto (SCCTO) back in October. SavvyMom was one of the sponsors and extended the invitation to me.
SCCTO looked like a great opportunity to meet other likeminded women living and working in the area of blogging and social media. As a time-crunched mama I had to consider the pros and cons of attending.
Pros: meeting people, networking, learning.
Cons: time and money.
The conference itself was free to attend but I’d be driving down and staying overnight. I decided to stay two nights because I didn’t want to drive all the way back to Ottawa after the conference. Thankfully, fuel was cheap (HELLO PRIUS. My consumption was 4.4L/100kms on the trip down. Woot!) and I snagged a deal at a hotel within walking distance.
I haven’t been to as many conferences as some other people out there but I’m willing to bet that conference participants aren’t often stopped, greeted and hugged by conference organizers. But then SCCTO wasn’t like many other conferences. I got a big hug from Donna Marie Antoniadis, co-founder Shes Connected. I was cool with that. In fact, I thought it was nice.
SCCTO was ultimately about connecting brands (i.e. Kraft and Coke and Maple Leaf) with top “influencers” in the online world… women who influence public opinion within their own spheres (like Facebook, via blogs etc). The idea of “Influencers” is not new. There’ve always been women who like to chat and share information but it’s traditionally been happening at the playground, over the back fence, or over a cup of tea.
Blogging is the new back fence.
I was aware of what I was getting into because I took the time to read the marketing material that was given out to the sponsors (a.k.a the brands) of the conference. (PDF here.) This document was right on the SCCTO website, available for all to view in black and white.
“… brands will have direct access to some of Canada’s top digitally connected women, (moms, bloggers and leaders in social media). Learn how to engage these influential women with your products and services.”
and
“If you connect with 1 influential digital woman at our conference – she has the ability to connect your brand with thousands of other women. Now imagine connecting with 100 of Canada’s most influential women in a one day event!”
Participants should not have been surprised to discover that by attending the conference they were essentially giving brands (who each paid $5000 to be there) permission to pick their brains for the cost of lunch and a conference pass. (Oh, and a bag of swag, which was heavily emphasized in the lead up to the event.)
Brands see dollar signs in the relationships that women have with other women (we’re influencers, remember?). So it was with a healthy dose of scepticism that I attended this conference.
Social media represents a giant challenge to these big companies. Traditional media cannot accept swag, bloggers can, and blogs don’t work in the same way as print ads and television commercials. Traditional advertising is one-way, and broadcasts a tailored message to a very wide audience. Social media is narrowcasting a customized message to a niche audience, and it’s made even more complicated (not to mention risky) because there’s an added level of interaction that wasn’t there before. At no other time in advertising history have campaigns been able to backfire so horribly and become PR nightmares. Equally so, a great idea can spread like wildfire and gain exposure to insanely huge numbers via viral marketing.
Brands are finding this a tough transition but we are all muddling through as we go. Changing attitudes and changing technologies are making it even harder.
I was eager to attend SCCTO because I wanted to see what the brands are thinking about on their end. What are they doing in the realm of social media? How are they engaging bloggers? What are they looking for? What’s in it for me?
I can’t deny that the idea of employment also crossed my mind. I think I’d make a great sounding board. (I’m still wondering why brands don’t call me up and ask me about campaigns they’re planning. And pay me to do so.)
Part of SCCTO provided some great learning and networking. Other parts I felt taken advantage of. For example, each of the big sponsors had 20-odd minutes to make a presentation to the audience. (Keep in mind, we were supposed to be 100 of Canada’s top social media influencers.) Calvin Klein used their time to give me the hard sell, not tell me about their social media or marketing strategies, or really engage my interest from a business perspective. I was trapped in an informercial – for 20 minutes.
It’s obviously hard for some companies to understand that they don’t need to do the hard sell. This was not supposed to be a trade show. Building brands can happen indirectly by building relationships. CK’s presentation would have been so much more effective if they’d approached the audience as professionals, not as a future sale.
Brands also had the opportunity to talk to us about their social media campaigns in a round-table format with smaller groups. I found myself at the Maple Leaf table. There were four people from their marketing department, including a chef who’d made a presentation earlier that afternoon.
They asked us if we enjoyed our lunch. (It was provided by ML and they’re promoting various “natural” cold cuts and a new line of Dempster’s bread.) The answer all around: a resounding yes.
“I liked your bread,” I said. “But I’m a big label reader and didn’t have the opportunity to read the ingredients. Is there glucose/fructose in it?”
Sidebar: why am I concerned? Why is anyone? This next part is from Wikipedia (from here):
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — also called glucose-fructose syrup in the UK, and glucose/fructose in Canada — comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sugar substitute. In the United States, it has become very common in processed foods and beverages, including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.
Glucose/fructose is derived from corn, and it’s a cheap substitute for sugar.
“Critics of the extensive use of HFCS in food sweetening argue that the highly processed substance is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions.”
So I asked the question. I had to! There was a pause. No one from Team Maple Leaf seemed to know. The pause grew longer.
And then, as if she was unsheathing a sword from its scabbard, a fellow blogger pulled one of the Dempster loaves out of her bag. WHOOSH.
I scanned the ingredients as the whole table waited.
“Yes,” I said. “There is.”
Aaaaand that’s where the conversation ended, or at least the one that I had tried to kickstart. I could have pushed it but the moment quickly passed and the moment was gone. Whether or not they understood the controversy surrounding HFCS, no one from ML addressed my concerns. An excellent opportunity was lost, but at least I got to make a point. And hopefully it will be passed along to someone who has the power to do something about it. I don’t want to buy your bread if it has glucose-fructose in it.
I know that this conference couldn’t have happened without companies like Maple Leaf. Their commitment meant that I was able to attend for free. But why couldn’t they have been prepared for my question? I know for certain that I’m not the only person who’s concerned about HFCS.
In the end, I have to be honest … and I might be burning a bridge … but I am really on the fence about SCCTO and if it doesn’t change I probably won’t attend future versions of it. Despite the big hug at the outset – the one which signalled to me that I am being embraced by my community – the rest of the event seemed too heavily weighted on brand side and much less so on the community side. And when I think hard about what blogging means to me, why it’s important, it’s because of the community, not about the swag. Or Kraft. Or Maple Leaf.
See? Jaded.
On one hand I was happy for this small opportunity to hang out with my tribe and network with new people, but as I drove home with one thing on my mind: Bloggers, we are undervaluing our worth. Big time.
Gah. I need to break this up into two posts. There’s just too much to cover. More later.
