Eden Godsoe, Co-Founder of The SkinnyScoop,Talks To She Posts

Eden Godsoe is the co-founder of TheSkinnyScoop, a social discovery platform that taps into women’s love for sharing and comparing information. She talked to She Posts recently about getting her startup business off the ground.

Tell me a little bit about the origins of SkinnyScoop.

SkinnyScoop was born out of my relationship with my co-founder Erin Crocker.  Erin is one of those “go-to” women who is constantly doing research, polling friends and sharing information.  She created all these great spreadsheets on product recommendations, feeding schedules, travel itineraries, you name it. 

This content was passed around over and over again, and helped thousands of women (including myself) make more informed choices.  But the whole process of creating and sharing these spreadsheets was cumbersome and not much fun.  We thought – what if we could build a platform that enhances this natural desire women have to share and compare. Fast forward a year and SkinnyScoop is that platform -  with thousands of women using us to share their information and decisions or see how others have tackled a problem or purchase.

What does SkinnyScoop offer bloggers?

Bloggers are natural partners for us.  Not only do we offer valuable content, user engagement and exposure for bloggers, but bloggers themselves tend to be some of our biggest users on a personal level.  Bloggers are, by nature, mavens and influencers. SkinnyScoop is the perfect platform for them both professionally and personally.

In our Top 10 blogger questions ,women bloggers told us their biggest challenges were Content (coming up with new posts each day/week), Engagement (connecting with readers) and Marketing (getting exposure and generating growth.)  SkinnyScoop is the solution for all three of these. 

What exciting things do you have planned for 2011 with SkinnyScoop?

2011 is going to be a busy year for SkinnyScoop.  We plan to accelerate our growth and build out our blogger-focused tools. 

Of particular interest to bloggers is our “interesting content” section, which will allow content creators like bloggers to link relevant posts to our questions pages. Beyond building out tools for bloggers, we will soon be launching a Facebook quiz application and iPhone app.

What do you do with all of the survey data you collect at SkinnyScoop? Is working with brands part of your long-term strategy?

We believe that women are THE decision makers and are the audience that brands need to reach, engage and influence.  SkinnyScoop is all about enabling, influencing and monetizing women’s decisions.  Women share a lot of valuable information on SkinnyScoop around product choices, parenting decisions, preferences, etc.  This information is incredibly valuable to brands as they can better target and engage with women at the right time and with the right message.  

Companies ranging from zulily to Zestra have put in branded questions on SkinnyScoop to get women talking about their particular product category (children’s clothing in one case, female arousal oil in the other case.)  We will continue to build out this side of the business as we grow. 

To be clear, we do not sell private information nor do we give third parties email addresses or other personal information.  We are honored that women trust us to share this information. We are simply the platform that helps women make more informed decisions and enables the companies that want to reach them do so in a higher-impact manner.

What social media tricks or tools have been most effective in growing SkinnyScoop?

SkinnyScoop has a distributed model, meaning our functionality and content can be enjoyed in many forms or forums.  Our bite-sized nuggets (like 56% of women have kept love letters from past flames or 59% of women wear mascara on a daily basis) are perfect for social media, blogs and other content sites.  We share trending nuggets on Facebook and Twitter as well as our own blog. 

We also encourage our users to share interesting content on their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds or blog posts.  I think it’s important in all forums to keep the content short, sweet and compelling.  We view social media as achieving three goals – introducing new people to SkinnyScoop, engaging current users further and driving traffic to our site or partners’ sites/blogs. 

Time management is a challenge for many bloggers. How do you manage to balance your time between SkinnyScoop and all of your other endeavors and interests?

I am definitely one of those “work hard, play hard” kinda gals.  I started SkinnyScoop when I was still working at another company managing a team of 200+ people.  I also had a 4 and 2 year old at home as well as sitting on the boards of two non-profits.  Personally I love the act of juggling and prioritizing.  I am not happy unless I am super busy. 

I’ve learned over the years to get really good at saying no or cutting projects that aren’t generating results.  I’ve also learned that there is no perfect work-life balance but that it is possible to have a career and a family.  I’m lucky to have a very supportive husband, a great team and fantastic advisors.