Heidi Klum, or "Holla Holla"?

OK, so you want to be in social media, but you’re feeling like MySpace is a little too young for your kind of consumer. Well, you should probably check the current demos for MySpace, because I think the average user is now about 35. But no matter. I hear you. And if your brand is more Heidi Klum than “Holla Holla,” you want a place that’s consistently high quality and brand safe.

Well, this is social media week here at OLDMTA, and I want to tell you about some amazing sites that are worth a look. I’m gonna start with Divine Caroline, the product of Real Girls Media, an SF-based start-up targeting women. Divine Caroline is their first offering, and seems targeted at the 25-44 set.

The first thing you’ll notice when you go there is that it looks more like a magazine than a collection of bling bling profile pages. The concept is to make members into citizen journalists in the sense that users are asked to write articles, reviews, etc. which are then filtered by an editorial team and presented much like a site like Sunset or New York Magazine presents professionally produced content.

Divine Caroline still has profile pages, but its raison d’etre is as an editorial focused environment. It’s a different definition of self expression than the sparkly pages and mass friending of the giants.

What’s most interesting about this site to me is that it totally flies in the face of my snarky theory that 80% of the public has very little interesting to say. Divine Caroline members prove that ordinary people can write, and write rather well. I would imagine there are some metaphorical red pens at DC doing some editing, but people really have passionate feelings and stories and messages and the site is a delight to read.

Who’da thunk that there were THOUSANDS of women who have the time to write long edit – high quality edit? All points of view are represented as well. It’s not a site with a “political” agenda beyond empowering women to connect and go through life together.

I’ve been watching Divine Caroline for awhile and I am happy to say that their traffic is becoming strong and sustained. And that is just great. What’s more, it’s hard for me to imagine a brand that wouldn’t want to be in the midst of this editorial environment. No F-bombs here.

Divine Caroline has also developed some really excellent DEEP partnerships with advertisers. The first one I saw was a combination video and sweeps for Sears appliances. The vid was a great cinema verite about the very real excitement we feel when we get a great new appliance.

Right now, they have a infectious promo running for Pam Professional, which is a “high heat” cooking spray. There are four vids, starring Jamie Lauren, the Executive Chef of Absinthe, a tony SF restaurant. The videos are gorgeous, and clearly DC found an ideal spokeswoman in Lauren, who delivers an engaging set of cooking tips and recipes. Additional elements of the promo include a tasteful sweeps befitting a product for the Viking Stove set, and some nice interactive flash ads.

This is the kind of thing that will really make a difference for a brand. It’s not just a bunch of ROS 728x90 banners that people won’t notice. Rather, it’s creating great exclusive content that people will actually enjoy and remember.

I could go on about Divine Caroline, but check it out yourself. When the Real Girls Media team cracks the nut of UGC video and photos, this site’s going to explode. Till then, it’s a great place to reach an upscale opinion leader audience that’s large enough to make a difference for a national brand’s marketing efforts.

If your brand is more Heidi Klum than Holla Holla, Divine Caroline is a good bet.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.