From Blog World Expo 2010 Bed Rest Reflections

Returning from Blog World Expo 2010 I found myself relegated to bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. Things have settled down now and with all that medical excitement behind me I have time to reflect on my experience at Blog World while I keep my mind off the piles of laundry and dust bunnies quickly accumulating. Rumor has it that there are ants in the kitchen and so I force my mind to more productive thoughts as I share some ideas and themes inspired by our fourth year attending Blog World Expo.

Take Away #1

1. Don’t fear the mention of ROI. Look to the innovative early adopting entrepreneurs for inspiration.

When the opening keynote @Unmarketing said “It’s not about what is next. It’s about doing what we do better” I couldn’t have agreed more. But what I decided at Blog World 2010 is that the people we should be watching most carefully are not the “Social Media Experts” but the individual entrepreneur utilizing social media as a tool to build their business and grow their brand. I doubt that mentioning ROI (return on investment) in regards to how they run their business is a threat to the unicorn and bunny population in their eyes. Their bottom line is the sole and substance of why their business is still in existence. They are using social media to create value and business opportunity and in some cases with great success.


At breakfast I had the pleasure of sitting next to @LeeRosen, a small business owner in the legal field. He was early to the Internet, having a business website in 1995. Obviously an early adopter of technology but more importantly he was looking at tools to further his business interests. Here he was at a conference outside of his given industry learning all he could about social media.

I asked him what he felt his ROI in social media was and his reply, “millions.”

I bet not a single unicorn died in the making of those millions. :)

I am going to keep my eye on the individual, the entrepreneur to improve and inspire my social media game. These new renaissance men and women of the digital age roll their cuffs up and dig into their digitalness and they are being rewarded for their efforts.

I was inspired by Nadia B. of @BitchinKitchen. I have been a fan as a consumer and an admirer from a branding perspective. She dug into social media and created her brand, as she puts it “from pixel to prosciutto” learning HTML and CSS off the Internet. There is much sweat equity involved, no one will argue that, but isn’t that the entrepreneurial road? What they build whether making media, gathering a fan base, creating a community is creating value. Bitchin Kitchen has moved from Net to Network as a result of hard work, passionate development of their brand, and nurturing a fan base. These are the media artists of our time and return on investment is not an option.

If we are in fact here to market and grow a business or a brand using social media we must stop fearing the examination of ROI.

Someone has to feed those unicorns and bunnies.