BlogHer Reflections
08/02/2005
Opening session BlogHer - Lisa and Elisa and Jory challenged us to keep 3 questions top of mind:
1. What did we learn?
2. What would we do with the information?
3. What would be recommend for someone who wasn't at BlogHer?
BlogHer was not a conference focused only on business blogging. Sure
there were several sessions about biz blogging including an informal
session led by Charlene Li, Forrester.
Sidebar: Made my day when Charlene said she read and liked Diva Marketing..lesson learned (again) never know who is reading your blog.
Sidebar: Charlene Li posted findings from a recent Forrester study on RSS.
BlogHer was a conference that embraced people from multiple corners of the
blog world. It was a time for people (divas and divos) to challenge the
status quo of blogging. To question the current models. To explore strategies to do it smarter and better.
Halley Suitt and Charlene Li jump started the morning off with an lively debate about how "A-list" blogger linking and the Technorati 100 influenced establishing, visibility and perhaps credibility of bloggers. The concept was so controversial that it made it's way into the blogosphere.
Question: Why should we place so much emphasis on Technorati or any of the blog search engines for that matter when most people use traditional search engines like Google or Yahoo! or MSN? In fact, the amount of link farm spam that pops up on Technorati searches is reason not to depend on it.
Then there was the odd reaction from a few male bloggers to the suggestion of creating a list of women speakers. I mean really...what's the big deal? Plain silly. Here's Robert's post:
Renee Blodget, on how to get more women to speak at conferences: "We talked about the lack of women speakers at technology conferences....and what to do about it. There's a need to create a master list of powerful interesting and dynamic woman and what they want to talk about, so we have access to this list when an opportunity comes up to recommend someone when asked or proactively submit someone's name."
Renee, we already have that list. It's called Google (or MSN or Yahoo, they all pretty much work similar).
I used to hire speakers. And that's EXACTLY what I used to do. Go to Google and see who is known on a particular topic. I'd search for "DHTML Guru" "DHTML Expert" "DHTML book" "DHTML Tips" "DHTML Techniques" "DHTML Community" and other searches like that. I'd make a list of the names I kept seeing over and over again.
Here's a hint: you can get on those lists. Just blog and blog well.
So the real trick isn't to make some sort of new list. It's to teach people how search engines work and how to get other people to notice that they have expertise in a certain area.
Question: Why would anyone search the internet if they could go to a credible, list where information is aggregated? Perhaps includes comments about past speeches, references, testimonials.
BlogHer was most valuable for me when I explored new worlds. Friday found myself drinking a California chardonnay with bloggers who were into political blogging and journalism Chris Nolan, Roxanne Cooper, Liza Sabater and Jill Fallon. Right from the word go I was taken out of my biz/marketing blogging comfort zone. What fun. And thanks for the drink Roxanne.
On my way to BlogHer Sat am met, Anina, a young woman who made her way from MN to Paris and along the way became a successful fashion model. Anina is a hot chick (and smart diva) who codes and wants to turn the fashion world onto blogging. In fact she's doing a blog project with Six Apart.
Sidbar: Podcast with Chris Ritke at 49Media
Girlfriend, I will never look at "mommy blogs" or "identify blogs" in the same way again. How to Get Naked took a look at how much should one risk in exposing one's self in the blogosphere. Koan, one of the panelists, even managed to audio tape the session. Take a hop to her blog to listen to a very interesting thread. Other panelist were Diva Ronni Bennet and Heather Armstrong aka Dooce one of the most popular mommy bloggers and one of the most trafficked blogs on the internet.
One of the highlights of BlogHer was meeting old and new friends Yvonne, Jill, Elena, Celeste, Susan, Christine, Elisa, Susannah, Sally, Amy, Mary, Evelyn, Arieanna and Matt. And many, many more... Lisa you were missed.
1. What did we learn?
Divas, when you go to BlogHer
next year make sure you plan time for a pedicure ... never know your little piggies might show up on a post. Complements of Renee.
That we can learn from all corners of the blog world. That issues facing mommy bloggers, political bloggers, non profit bloggers and biz bloggers are very similar.
2. What would we do with the information?
Use new insights and ideas to create a better blog. What's better? What are your goals?
3. What would be recommend for someone who wasn't at BlogHer?
Identify a couple of blogs outside your comfort zone; add them to your reader and follow them for a few months. Perhaps even pop in on the conversation.
Then start a saving your pennies for BlogHer 2006!
