October 9-11 I was in Atlanta, GA at Blogalicious Weekend – a groundbreaking conference for women of color. I moderated and spoke on a panel with Gwendolyn Peake of Ford Motor Co, and Jessica Faye Carter or Nette Media, which discussed the state of women of color in social media. Just one quick look at the leaders in social media makes it obvious that there’s a lot of room for

Ghennipher, CEO of Cindikate addresses audience at Blogalicious. Also Gwendolyn Peake - Ford Motor Co; Jessica Faye Carter - Nette Media

improvement in both the areas of women of color being leaders in social media, as well as multicultural women bloggers being able to transition their blog into a real business through corporate sponsorship. The conference gave excellent tips on exactly how to achieve both of those objectives.

There’s really a lot more to this subject than I’m able to blog about this morning, so I plan to do a blog series on Social Media Marketing to Multicultural Women where I discuss the issues more in depth. In the meantime, for those companies who already market to women of color, or are freshly looking at the spending power of this market segment and are wondering how to effectively reach them, these key takeaways from our panel at Blogalicious will give you a view from the inside:

Social Media Women of Color
Key Takeaways

Women of Color in social media today

• Leaders in Social Media: Still a long way to go for women of color to be considered in the high profile lists of speakers and experts in social media. The diversity barrier is slower to be broken in terms of women of color being considered as leaders in social media than it is in recognizing women of color as a powerful retail market.
• Consumers of Social Media: Women of color feel like an overlooked segment of the web population even though “mommy bloggers” are advertiser’s new favorite target market. By 2010, the buying power of multi-influential women of color will rise to $1.2 trillion, this burgeoning market is influencing sweeping changes in social media. According to Lynne Johnson, SVP Advertising Research Foundation, “There are no social networks aimed at African-American moms, at least from what I’ve seen”. There’s clearly room for this kind of social network marketing.
• Corporations recognizing the power of women of color in social networks: Big brands starting to pour resources into custom social networks for women of color. (ex. http://www.pepsiweinspire.com/)
• Solutions for bloggers and Corporations: Bloggers need to realize that corporations are (albeit slowly) actively reaching out to women of color and creating an openness on your blog for advertisers who are embracing diversity will help all parties. Corporations need to proactively research the market, get training, and reach out to women of color who are blogging.

Moving from independent blogging into corporate social media

• Take note of and appreciate other people’s way of looking at the world, not just your own.
• Remember, everything you say online as a face of XYZ Corporation is a reflection on the company, not necessarily of you as an individual. Consumers are a lot less forgiving of poorly considered corporate opinion than equally imperfect individual assessment.
• Don’t assume you have to stick to one arena. Employers seeking new additions to their social media teams are looking for folks who are flexible, well-rounded and knowledgeable about a number of topics.
• Engage in consistent and value-added dialogue with your online community, boosting your Alexa, Google and Compete.com rankings, and increasing your number of RSS and email subscribers.
• Be sure to enlist the assistance of Facebook fan pages and Twitter followers to show cross-pollination of your brand online.
• Don’t underestimate the power of specialty sites like Flickr, Photobucket, Vimeo, Blip, Delicious, Scribd, SlideShare, Upcoming, etc. The more arenas you can show engagement of your community online, the better the opportunities for corporate interest in your brand.

Building online communities/Using social media for advocacy

• Know and clearly communicate the purpose of your community to users. It’s much easier for them to commit to your endeavor when they understand the underlying agenda. Be careful of assuming that people will “get it” when they read your blog; instead, craft a brief, clear statement to avoid confusion.
• Keep it simple. Your site/interface will be more effective if it is intuitive and easy to use. Pay attention to details like navigation, color scheme, and fonts to ensure that users have a smooth interaction with your site. To assist in building community, try a plugin that allows users to invite friends or import contacts.
• Remember that users are the hub of your community. Empower them by setting and enforcing rules professionally, soliciting feedback, and making adjustments where necessary. Use tools like GetSatisfaction.com and Uservoice.com to manage the user/customer service process.
• Take advantage of tools and interfaces like APIs and plug-ins that will allow your users to port their identity from other social networks to your site (e.g., Facebook Connect, OpenID, Twitter API, Disqus, etc.)
• Use activist and social entrepreneurial tools like act.ly (Twitter-based petitions), or change.org (web-based petitions) to facilitate action by your community. Or setup a giving team on Kiva to pool your community’s support of those in need.

Connect with the panelists:

Ghennipher Weeks (@ghennipher)
Book: SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate
Personal Site/Blog: www.ghennipher.net
Corporate Social Media Hub: www.Cindikate.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ghennipher
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ghennipherw

Gwendolyn Peake (@gwenj)
Book: If It Walks Like a Duck…: And Other Truths My Mother Taught Me
Personal Site/Blog: www.TheDuckWalk.com
Corporate Social Media Hub: www.TheFordStory.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GwenJimmere
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/GwenJPeake

Jessica Faye Carter (@jescarter)
Book: Double Outsiders
Personal Blog: JessicaFayeCarter.com
Corporate Social Media Hub: www.nettemedia.com
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/JessicaFayeCarter