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BlogHer, Comic-Con, and the rethinking of a presidential candidate

July 28th, 2009 Posted in Building Community

If you doubt the power of BlogHer, and the female (not mommy) blogging scene, consider this post by PunditMom.

I know soon-to-be-ex-Governor Sarah Palin is busy tweeting and taking one last swing around Alaska on the taxpayer’s dime. But if, as I suspect is the case, she’s got more on her post-gubernatorial to-do list than: (1) play with the kids, (2) clean up theb house and (3) make a Costco run, she’d sashay herself and her fancy pageant walkin‘ to Chicago where almost 1,500 women bloggers (and a few brave guys) are gathering for the biggest ever BlogHer conference.

We’re at “mainstream” with the idea of connecting with influencers. Not only were the list of brands sponsoring/participating at BlogHer insane, a potential presidential candidate (let’s be real here, she’s setting herself up to run) could start to change her perception by getting her geek on is a reality.

The woefully bad attempt at running campaign activities by Team Palin has, once again, completely missed an amazing opportunity. Not to get too political in this forum, but there’s an important lesson here for those of us not in politics: traditional channels aren’t always the best, and certainly not the only channels to consider.

Looking at the other big event this weekend, Comic-Con. Even just a few years back, Comic-Con was an event for nerds, looked down upon by the outside world, and considered irrelevant by the mainstream media and the entertainment industry. Looking at the sponsor list, speaker list, and twitter posts from all walks of life, the nerd threshold has been crossed by a great many people in the world and in companies.

It’s easy to blow off nerd culture as irrelevant, simply because you don’t like comics or blogging or whatever else. But if you’re not considering how your audience, existing and potential, spends their free time you are missing significant opportunities.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 11:03 am and is filed under Building Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • Thanks so much for the link. I do find the tone deaf quality of politicians to venues such as BlogHer and other "non-traditional" ways to reach people of influence disconcerting. I was shocked when I read the Valerie Jarrett profile in the New York Times Magazine this week, and learned that Barack Obama had to have his arm twisted to attend an event that included over 200 college-educated black women in South Carolina. His hesitance? It was a sorority reunion. But so what -- why would Obama turn down a chance to meet that kind of group of influencers because of the type of forum.

    Someday, politicians will break out of that mind set.
  • Thanks for the comment!

    As far as the politicians go, don't forget campaign staff is as much the problem as anything else. Like traditional marketers, they're slow to reform their opinions of the "right" way to do things. In particular, doing "new" types of events and events that aren't inherently "mass" is something unfamiliar to them, therefore scary.
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