My thighs thank me for this.
My boys are cranky.
Seriously, though, as is recommended for almost any trade show, I arrived with an objective. This year, I was on the lookout for candies made with real sugar and natural dyes. I spoke out about these things last year and wrote about the food dye rebellion back in 2008. (Yes, at Momformation. I always feel compelled to point out that I was writing there back in the day as if to prove I'm truly a digital dinosaur.) I'll be posting about my and my not-so-little taste tester's faves over in Gina Rau's Feed our Families blog.
That said, I didn't always take my own advice about bloggers and trade shows. I sometimes asked for a sample to take home. But I see a difference between asking for pricey housewares versus packs of candy that retail for $1 or less. Plus, after a few hours walking the show floor, I'd sampled everything from alpaca jerky to intense dark chocolates and seaweed snackers. My taste buds were doing somersaults. And when it comes to family-friendly snacks, I definitely want opinions from my family.
I was typically well-received when I explained myself and the story I planned to write, but there were definitely some vendors who didn't seem to grasp the blogger angle.
In fact, there are a couple of items I sampled at previous expos and wrote about on my food blog that still bring in traffic via search. At one point, my blog was the in the top five results for these product searches, and yet when I mentioned that to people at those booths, "Did you know people come to my blog when they're searching for information on your product?" {jazz hands}
"Oh, that's nice."
It's not that I expected them to bow down to me, but there seemed to be a disconnect.
People search for your product online. And then they click through to to my blog to read my thoughts on your product. My opinions can impact purchase behavior.
Of course, on the other end of the spectrum, there were folks who wanted me to promise to mention them.
It's 2011. Are you finding that businesses you interact with understand the power of blogs and social media?
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