Mom 2.0 Summit

I’m going to Miami in a couple of weeks, for the Mom 2.0 Summit. I’ll be partnering with Creative Concepts’ client Ecover for a fantastic project: I’ll be offering style advice to conference attendees, and talking about ways to create a greener closet, including tips for laundry — and recommendations for Ecover’s fantastic line of ecological laundry products.

I can’t wait.

Sponsoring bloggers for conferences has become more and more popular in the last couple of years. In it’s most basic form, a sponsorship works like this: A company hires a blogger to be their representative at a conference. The blogger will have certain responsibilities during the conference — hosting a party or reception, say, or attending and promoting an event during the conference. In other words, the blogger becomes a short-term spokesperson for the brand, for the duration of the conference.

The advantages to the blogger are clear: typically, the sponsoring company pays for the blogger’s travel expenses, or pays the blogger a flat fee (which is often used to cover the cost of travel to the conference). Obviously, this is a good deal for the blogger, particularly since conferences can be expensive propositions and most bloggers are not making a million dollars a year off their web sites.

The benefit to the brand is less tangible — but no less valuable. The brand gets the opportunity to piggyback on the blogger’s popularity, if you will, and to talk directly to her readers and followers. In other words, they get a ready-made audience for their message, and a trusted voice to deliver that message.

For Ecover, our partnership is a streamlined way for the brand to reach new consumers. The bloggers attending Mom 2.0 are my people, if you will; I know them from other conferences, from their blogs and Twitter and Facebook, and — more importantly — they know me. They know my voice and my values and my ethos; they know that I don’t ever promote products I don’t sincerely like and feel good about. So when I say that hand washing with Ecover’s Laundry Wash will lengthen the life of their clothes, they know I am telling the truth — about the hand washing and about the detergent.

For brands looking to connect with bloggers, having a sponsored spokesblogger for a conference is a good first step. Think of it as going to a party with a friend who knows everyone. By the end of the night, you’ll know everyone, too — and better yet, they will know you.