Blogalicious Puts Blogging Women of Color on Brand Map

When three moms, lawyers chronicling their lives balancing family and work on their blog MamaLaw, discovered they weren’t getting the same opportunities as mainstream bloggers, they reached out to their bloggers of color and discovered they were not alone.

At that point, the trio decided to do something about it by establishing Blogalicious, a weekend-long lifestyle blogging conference for and about women of color bloggers with the focus to connect them with major brands.

The team has since dwindled down to two.  According to the conference publicist, Justice Jonesie, an original member of MamaLaw Media, LLC determined the stresses of producing the conference so far from her home in Jacksonville, FL was too much.

Update, 10.30.11: However, Justice Jonesie disputes that claim.

The remaining members Justice Fergie and Justince Ny have soldiered on. Both want to reach out to companies that had no idea women of color were blogging.

“A lot of brands just didn’t realize we existed and they didn’t realize that there were lots of women of color out here blogging,” said Justice Ny.  “A lot of brands also didn’t realize about how diverse was the content women of color were blogging. We’re not just mommy bloggers or fashion, but we do food, politics we really run the gamut.”

Blogalicious, which has been featured in the Huffington Post, Washington Post, NPR and Sirius/XM, has evolved over the years and expanded to include empowerment sessions monetization and control versus passive waiting on the brands. This year’s sessions included segments on writing pitches to sponsors and advertisers, developing a mobile application, mobile marketing, and maximizing blog page views through search engine optimization.

Smith, who has a 4-year old daughter and also works as a private attorney in DC, said “The first year is hit or miss – but now we really engage the community to see what everyone wants to hear.”

In response to attendee request, it added a session on Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) which was very popular this year.  Tara Ziegmont, who writes the blog Feelslikehome.com, started learning about SEO in 2008 to increase traffic for her own blog. She is now an SEO expert, the technique which involves manipulating blog content and text in order to maximize the number of readers that reach a site.

“People think SEO is so complicated and can’t do it themselves,” Ziegmont remarked after her session. “SEO firms are paying thousands of dollars to get it down which is out of the reach for personal bloggers.  But, they can totally do it themselves.”

Amanda Yates  of Food on the Table, an online service and mobile app dedicated families saving money and eating better at the grocery store, and Anna Palmer, Founder and CEO of  Vermont-based software development winwinapps, moderated the “Inside the App-ters Studio: What It Takes to Develop Your Own App” workshop.

The two shared inside tips on selecting an app developer, spit and beta testing app users, and on marketing and promoting an app.

And the brands have responded, using the conference to reach bloggers that are connected to a different market they may not have known existed.

“They were approaching us from the traditional advertising marketing perspective that doesn’t necessarily reach people of color,” Smith added. “Bloggers are mavens. They are the town criers. So, what this conference does is open the doors for the town crier to speak to the brand and tell them this is what you are doing right and this is what you are doing wrong. And in the past few years we have seen some growth in terms of brands being more sensitive and brands really understanding how to reach this market.”

This year’s sponsors included the American Cancer Society, Cover Girl, Lifetime Moms, McDonald’s , Whirlpool, Gain, Sears/Kmart, Johnson &Johnson, Gain, Hanes, Pine-Sol, Aunt Jemima, the Susan G Komen for the Cure foundation and others.

Despite its rapid growth, the founders have strived to stay true to the conference’s original roots.  Although it could accommodate more, the organizers cap attendees.

“We have definitely expanded to ensure that we listen to what people have asked for,” Ny told Politic365. “What has not changed is that we are intimate; we are still friendly and inclusive.”

This year’s conference was attended by nearly 400 bloggers from around the nation.

Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt represents small, women, and minority owned business and technology companies at The Ghatt Law Group LLC, the nations’ first communications law firm owned by women and minorities. She's won landmark cases on behalf of her clients which include national civil rights and public interest organizations. In addition to actively authoring several blogs, being a radio show host and sitting on the boards of three non-profits, she is a tech junkie who has been developing online web content since the very early years of the Internet, 1991 to be precise! Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks, on her blog, Jenebaspeaks, which covers the intersection of politics and technology or on her Politics of Raising Children blog at The Washington Times Communities section.

More on Politic365

• Author, Professor: Hip-hop has a Growing Influence on Politics
• Weiner To Call It Quits — Pressure Too Great
• Trayvon Martin and 7 Black Men Who Should Be Alive Today

7 Responses to Blogalicious Puts Blogging Women of Color on Brand Map

1. Pingback: Blogalicious Puts Blogging Women of Color on Brand Map - Jack & Jill Politics

2. Pingback: Blogalicious Puts Blogging Women of Color on Brand Map | Law Firm

3. Justice Jonesie says:

   3:51am October 27, 2011 at 3:51 am

   Hi Jeneba, Justice Jonesie here. __Thank you for highlighting the wonderful work behind Blogalicious. I would like to point out that I did not leave the company due to the stress of the conference or the distance from Jacksonville. This fact is not correct. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further. _

   Reply

4. Pingback: Social Media Responsibility | Justice Jonesie

5. @JenebaSpeaks says:

   6:18pm October 29, 2011 at 6:18 pm

   For the record, Justice Joneseie, I DID respond to your comment via a direct message and off a public format. I just saw your article about me. This was a misunderstanding and was NOT my fault. I wrote what was told to me by the publicist for the conference. That is a direct source of information.

   Reply
6. Justice Jonesie says:

   12:46am November 3, 2011 at 12:46 am

   CORRECTION TO THE UPDATE: I never once said I was still a partner of MamaLaw Media Group nor am I involved in organizing the event in any way. This is yet again, an inaccurate statement and another example of irresponsible reporting. On my blog post written in response to this post, paragraph one clearly states I am not a partner to MMG.

   Reply
7. Justice Jonesie says:

   2:07am November 3, 2011 at 2:07 am

   Thank you for the subsequent correction.

   Reply