I have to confess that I did a lot of things wrong at the first, one-of-its-kind ShesConnected Conference last week.  When you attend a conference, you do certain things like, (a) taking pictures of and with speakers, conference host(s) also people you get a chance to talk to, and (b) exchange business cards to keep in touch.  I was just excited to be invited and did none of that, shocking, I know,  yet I am contained for the goals I had in mind before head to the conference, which is I learn, I listen and I engage.

I learned a lot from Johanne Thomas Yaccoto , President and Founder of Thomas Yaccato Group Consulting) and Sidneyeve Matrix, Professor in the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University during their presentations.  Johanne talked about how gender intelligence connects women consumers and business growth, Sidneyeve took deep dive into how to click with Millennial Moms; as a researcher myself I could sit there all day absorbing the information and discuss with them, yeah, that’s what I will do at next conference.  I would encourage businesses want to understand women market, check out Johanne’s book, The Gender Intelligence Retailer ; and Sidneyeve’s presentation “How to Click with Millennial Moms“.

I listened to the brands that came came for the day, they were all very interested in this women connected power and how we influence our networks in the social space, the brands are eager to work with digital women but are still in the early stage of figuring out how.  I would give these brands; including KOBO,  Kraft Canada Foods, Maple Leaf, Egg Farmers of Ontario, Seagram’s, Coca-Cola, Smashbox, Bourjois Paris, Calvin Klein Fragrances, Booty Camp Fitness, Look Good Feel Better, credits for just being there, and hope we will see some action steps in the near future.

I engaged with people that I’ve chatted online, have met before or even it was our first hug, to have meaningful conversations, either to get to know them better or potential collaborations, and that was why I probably only met about 22 awesome women that day, still 78 to go!  I am o.k. with it, relationship doesn’t build in one day, engagement is not just 6 tweets.

Here is what I think how can brands and we digital women work together for win-win:

Getting to know us individually — Treat us with respect, we could be Brand’s ambassadors or advocates, but what we represent must resonate with our inner selves.  Ann Dougulas said it well, “Each of us has unique, niche reach”, some runs online magazine like Maria Lianos (@amotherworld), some runs online shopping deals/coupons/contest/forums like Kimberley Clancy (@FrugalShopperCA), some are simply amazing moms like Jen Banks (@abusymommy).  We are all different yet similar in some ways, we have different life style (if you call it style) and needs for our family, take some time to visit our websites and get to know us as person.

Thinking outside of the box — Some brands at the round table discussions asked what topics we write about, some are fashion obsessed, some are interested in exploring foods, the truth is we are into a little bit of everything, don’t forget we are women!  So for brands in food industry think Vicky (@momwhoruns) is a foodie (true!) who can spread words, may also want to know Julia (@NuggleMama) has 5 kids under 10, if she can use the recipes to quickly prepare delicious meal making the whole family happy, shouldn’t she have some say in it?  Or look at me, people who know me knows I don’t cook, so traditionally I’m not the type brands are looking for, but if I can use some ingredients/recipes that make me feel cooking is easy peasy and it’s actually awesome, will my friends and my network listen and curious to find out more? You bet!!

Looking at potential, not scale – Brands, Marketers like to know the scale; website traffic, RSS subscribers, numbers of followers/friends/fans/connections, I get it.  It’s business and marketing budget has to go somewhere.  Choose wisely, sometime it’s better to go with smaller fish.  Why?  Because smaller fish generally appreciate much more when given the opportunity.  Women are not competitive, we are cooperative and we support each other tirelessly and selfishlessly.  We help each other to be successful and cheers for the success.  Everyone starts with small, if brands can cultivate the relationship from the beginning, it’ll last longer.

Hiring your market for your market — Look at some of the successful women today, Erica Ehm (@YummyMummyClub), Maureen Dennis (@weewelcome), Julie Cole (@juliecole) from Mable’s Label (@mabelhood) and many others, all staffed with brilliant women; because they understand what women can accomplish once empowered.  For brands, I would suggest at least one Brand Manager works with one Community Manager, if not 1 Product Manager with 1 Community Manager; providing enough training (if necessary) and support (very important) to make sure this Community Manager is the face and voice to the public.

All of these takes time, but isn’t brand building?  Never before women has the opportunity to let our voice be heard, it should be heard and needs to be heard.  In this digital, social world, brands that qualifying relationship not quantifying relationship will win, because after all, relationship building is not a fast food culture, it ain’t healthy if it is.

Would you agree?  What do you think?

(Big shout out to Donna Marie Antoniadis (@donnaantoniadis) and Mark Grindeland (@mark_grindeland) for hosting the ShesConnected Conference (@sheisconnected), looking forward to next year’s events!!)