In this episode of The Lab, the DadLabs team travels to Atlanta and meets up with some of the leading social media dads and bloggers in the online parenting world. What's happening for dads online? Find out from companies and web sites like General Motors and Man of the House the impact fathers are having on marketing. Are you a dad that has thoughts on how parents can best use social media? Do you share your fatherhood experiences via blogs, forums, or tools like Twitter and Facebook? Let us know by dropping a comment on this video or visiting us at DadLabs.com. DadLabs Ep. 684 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Clay: Today, we head back to Atlanta to speak with the social media gurus of the Modern Media Man conference to learn about what's out there for dads.
Daddy Brad: This episode is brought to you by BabyBjorn. You know Daddy Clay when your baby's snuggled up in this front carrier, your fingers are free to tweet.
Daddy Clay: What's going on with dads online?
Craig J. Heimbuch: I see a whole new opportunity for men specific media. I think grownups are starting to engage media the way we did when we were kids. There's comic books, Maxim, Esquire, whatever. And I think that men are looking for voices that they can identify with. Dad as a man. And being a father is part of what he does, but he looks at everything through a father's eyes. And so we're seeing a new age of service journalism. We're seeing a new age of infotainment. The way people write, it's like they're acknowledging. It's okay. This is part of who I am. I don't know everything. But I want to learn it. And guys that like what you're doing and what we're trying to do at Man of the House is provide them information they need but also community that they can identify with.
CC Chapman: Let's face it guys. We don't go out and knock on our neighbors door and ask them, "Dude, how do I take care of my kid?" Or, what do I do in this case? How do I satisfy my wife? Any of these conversations. We don't go to that.
And so online gives us that ability to go ask the questions and find the answers to anything we want.
Daddy Brad: And you know one of the things I like about your site and kind of your take on this is dad as man.
CC: Yeah.
Daddy Brad: It's not about changing diapers.
CC: No, it's not. And that's the really cool part. I love being a dad. I love every part about that. But I also love talking football.
Daddy Brad: Right.
CC: Or having a beer. Or talking about beautiful women, or cars, or movies. All this other stuff. The minute you become a dad it's the next phase of your life. It's another piece of your life. It doesn't mean you chop anything off and leave them on the table.
Jason Falls: I'm really excited about events like M3 Summit and websites like yours that are focusing on the dad perspective and the man perspective. Because in the marketing world, for the last 50-60 years, big brand, big-box marketers have ignored dads in a lot of ways because they think that dads are only influential in the purchase decisions of tools and cars. That's it. And that's not true. And we all know that's not true. And so I love the fact that micromedia channels like Twitter and blogging and forums and message boards are allowing those niche audiences to come out including dads, and the male perspective online. So I think the only trend that I'm noticing is these really, really good content producers like you guys are bubbling up to the top and providing a voice and content that guys are interested in. And it's not just the typical guys are interested in sports and sex and so on and so forth, it's people who are real guys who have real lives and real jobs and real problems and these websites offer content that helps us.
Christopher Barger: What's really cool about events like this and others is you get to talk to people. You get to learn from them. You get to hear their perspectives of what they're looking for. That's honestly why we do this. Taking perspectives, bringing them into the company so that we can better serve the people we're trying to sell to.
Daddy Clay: Well the outreach has been really effective.
Christopher: Both parents are always going to be involved in the purchase decision of something as big as a car. It's several thousand dollars. That conversation doesn't happen with just one parent. There's been a lot of outreach to the mom side of the house. We're going to continue to do that. That's important. But dads are under-recognized. And it's very important for us to kind of go in. Actually, one of the things I'd love to start doing is doing couples drives. We're here at M3, we're taking the dads out. We've been at BlogHer. We've taken the moms out. Have both partners in together. Recognize the importance of both people's input in the decision.
Jason: It's all about finding the people that are going to provide you with the value. And whether that be for your job or whether that be for parenting advice. Find the people out there who are having good conversations, sharing good information and experiences.
Craig: Go out and get involved because I think you'll find especially if there's a writer that you like or a blogger or online magazine or video source, we're very receptive to people reaching out to us. And when you have that dialogue, it's like man I've always wanted to know how to and I'll go, I'll go find out.
Daddy Brad: So everybody needs to join us. We need to evangelize.
CC: Yes, tell your buddies. Tell your friends. It's okay. Get out there and go online. There's dads out there and it's growing every single day. This is just the beginning of it. It's going to get bigger and bigger.
Daddy Clay: We want to thank the social media gurus at the Modern Media Man Conference in Atlanta for joining us. If you've got ideas about how dads can best use social media, share them with us at DadLabs.com. Join the conversation. We want to hear from you. You're sure to hear from us.
Daddy Brad: Thanks BabyBjorn. I just tweeted you. I twitted online.