Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Summer Blog Social

A couple of bloggers have started a Summer Blog Social this week where they have asked readers to answer some questions and participate in the blog party. As I was looking at the questions, one hit home for me so I thought I'd answer it and give out some of my grand wisdom.

Advice for Others:
If you have gone to a blog conference before, tell us what your experience was like. Was it what you expected?


Yes, I've been to a blog conference before - one for work and one because it was in my area and I wanted to learn more about blogging.  Was it what I expected? Yes and no.

Since this is more of a personal blog, I'll focus on that conference.  It was a one-day conference that was mainly focused on blogger tips and how you could market yourself. Speakers gave tips on everything from finding your passion, how often to blog, safety in blogging and photography. There were a lot of tips that were wonderful and very useful, and some that I still use to this day. But as I have no dreams of having this blog be a source of income, the tips on marketing for income weren't geared for me. This is a fun hobby and an outlet, but I have no goals of becoming the next Pioneer Woman.

Some of these blogging conferences are geared more for bloggers who are just getting into this arena so it's very important to pay attention to the agenda to see if this is the best one for you to attend. Conferences range in prices and experience level and the best place to find out about them, I find, are through Twitter.

One thing I did expect going to this conference was to find interesting people to follow on Twitter and while I did that, I also realized that for a socially introverted person like myself, it's hard to put yourself out there. While I am not an introvert with people I already know, when it comes to complete strangers, I just seize up. You have to go into the conference knowing that if you want to make friends and have people to talk to during the conference, you have to make the effort to put yourself out there.

Now that I have the wisdom from that conference, here is what I recommend you do in advance of any blogging conference you plan to attend (I will next time!): It's best to follow other people who will be going to the same conference on Twitter -- the conference promoters will usually have a list of attendees and their Twitter names. If you can start those conversations before hand, it will be easier once you get to the conference. Make plans to meet before hand so you will already have a read-made buddy for the conference.

And don't forget the business cards! That is the best way to remember who you met and also to get your social media info out to others.

6 comments:

Liz said...

I feel like connections made via Twitter are one of the biggest "takeaways" from a conference. You can share a meal or even just talk for 5 minutes while at a conference, but that's often enough to forge a brand new friendship - while trading barbs - on Twitter.

Unknown said...

Such important tips- that follow through on connections made is so, so very important!

Denise said...

Thanks for the comments Liz and Galit.

angela said...

I like that you added to follow up and follow through with connections. I'm sure that it can be tough as a natural introvert to push yourself into the fray, but if you follow through, that's more important than an extrovert that meets four times as many people and doesn't follow through with any of them!

Denise said...

Thanks Angela -- that is so true!

Jackie said...

If it weren't for meeting people & talking on Twitter before hand my first blog conference would have been terrifying!!
And with Bloggy Bootcamp coming up I'm a little concerned but I know that there are people going that I talk to regularly & just need to hunt them all down!