Not Your Mommy's Blog: The Evolution of Dad Blogs
Mommybloggers have become a major force in electronic social media and are making an impact on traditional media, as television and print journalism cross over into the blogosphere. But what about dads? Over the past few years we're seen an increase in men writing online about their experiences as fathers. Dadbloggers are writing about a number of issues that men have traditionally shied away from discussing: work-life balance, the challenges and rewards of raising children, and how being a father affects men both physically and emotionally. With the attention given to mommybloggers by media and brands, can we expect dad bloggers to grow and have the same clout? Does the dadblogging community exist, and does it represent an accurate cross-section of American fathers? Will brands and publishers flock to dadbloggers as they have to mommybloggers? We'll explore the opportunities and challenges dads face as they look to push dadblogging into the public consciousness.
Presenters
A.J. Jacobs is the editor at large at Esquire magazine and the author of three New York Times bestsellers, including: THE KNOW-IT-ALL (a chronicle of reading the entire Encycopedia Britannica from A to Z) and THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY (about following the hundreds of rules in the Bible). His next book, DROP DEAD HEALTHY comes out in April. He has written for The New York Times, New York magazine and, most proudly, Dental Economics magazine. He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show and CNN, among others. He is a frequent contributor to NPR. He writes about culture, politics and fatherhood for Esquire.
Craig J. Heimbuch is the Editor in Chief of ManoftheHouse.com, an online resource for men and dads owned and managed through a partnership between Proctor and Gamble Entertainment and digital agency Barefoot Proximity. He is an award-winning journalist and author and a father of three.
Danielle has been successfully driving brands forward since 1995. Her experience in the agency world and established relationships within the blogosphere form the ideal combination of context and sensibility. Danielle’s intimate knowledge of social media strategy, trend watching, and influencer outreach stem from years of working with some of the nation’s top corporations and brands.
Recognizing a market for connecting brands with the bloggers who directly influence their consumers, Danielle created Sway Group and expanded on her talent for maximizing projects. A frontrunner in strategic influencing, Sway Group now represents over 50 of the web’s most high profile mom bloggers and blogger events with a combined monthly reach of nearly 16 million readers. Prior to forming Sway Group, Danielle was SVP, Director of Strategy at Edelman Digital in Chicago. There she touched the campaigns and day-to-day social strategy of a variety of large brands, including Johnson & Johnson, Quaker, Bush’s Beans, SC Johnson, Kraft Foods, Con Agra, True Value and Kimberly Clark, impacting campaign processes from conception to execution.
Danielle values honesty and assertiveness, and is committed to challenging the status quo to enact change. When she’s not connecting bloggers and brands, Danielle maintains www.foodmomiac.com – a blog dedicated to all things food and motherhood, and is passionate about her recent conversion to Fletcher Pilates and running. Danielle is a graduate of Vassar College and currently lives in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago with her husband and two children.
Jason Avant is the founder and managing editor of DadCentric, a groundbreaking and popular website for fathers. He and the website have been featured on ABCNews.com, BusinessWeek.com, USA Today, Time.com, CNN.com, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the CBS Evening News. A blogger since 2004, he has written and served as a Contributing Editor for the travel website UpTake, and has also been featured on the creative writing website Indie Ink. Along with DadCentric, Jason is a Featured Contributor at Man of The House.com, the Dadding blog at Babble.com, and the pop culture website MamaPop.com.
Saturday, March 10
