4 Influencer Marketing Takeaways from BlogHer16

What do you get when you put 5,000 insanely smart and confident female influencers in one location? Let's just say the conversations we had last week at BlogHer16 were nothing short of brilliant, keeping our team on their toes from the minute the doors opened until we closed down the booth. Sure Kim Kardashian made headlines with her new wig, but beyond the superficial, it's very clear that these powerful ladies are why brands are investing millions into the influencer marketing space.

In case you missed it, here are the key takeaways from BlogHer16.

Blogger tribes are real.

At most tradeshows you see attendees as competitors, always looking to "one up" each other. But at BlogHer, there was a legitimate sense of helping, caring and teaching. Everyone was willing to share ideas to help others take their businesses to the next level. In our case, while of course we were eager to chat about engagement and monetization, we also were more than happy to offer best practices around improving security or to tools that can be used to track engagement or manage relationships. The broad support networks were impressive.

Inspiration comes in many forms.

BlogHer was more than just a conference, it was a great networking event that served as a place for inspiration. Keynotes and sessions not only focused on how to build brands, but also how converge individual's businesses and passions. While celebrities like Sheryl Crow and Mayim Bialik drove big crowds, some of the smaller sessions discussed important topics such as mentoring, diversity, funding and other messages of inspiration that left attendees buzzing.

Monetization is a hot topic.

We believe there is great opportunity for influencers to monetize their social media following, however it's important to first listen and build a following, before diving in. We had a number of great conversations with up and coming bloggers interested in building their monetization strategy. In most cases, we recommend first gauging your interactions and then when the opportunity presents itself, take advantage (starting with tools such as Social Buzz). We were also asked a lot about how to charge for brand relationships and how to measure success and heard great feedback in our pay for performance/revenue sharing approach.

Everyone loves a dog.

And Tiny from Pup Star was a sure hit!

Thanks to BlogHer16 for a top notch conference and to all the incredible brands and influencers for great conversations!