On Saturday, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Kidspot Voices of 2015 Breakfast and Masterclass.
What a day! So much learning. So much interaction. The two-dimensional faces I’ve followed across blogland suddenly sprang to three-dimensional life. I saw friends I made at the ProBlogger conference last year. I met new friends.
But back to the learning. So much learning. I live tweeted the event, so feel free to head to my Twitter account and search the hashtag #Voicesof2015 for a full rundown.
In the meantime, here’s the highlights reel.
1. You have something important to say.
It’s hard to believe sometimes. Whether it’s because you’re just starting out at this blogging gig or because you’ve been doing it so long you feel you’ve used all your content, you can doubt yourself and what you’re saying.
It’s irrelevant. It’s too obvious. It’s been said before. It’s been said better. It’s been said more clearly. I have nothing worthwhile to add to this conversation.
But you do. You do have something worthwhile to add. As Craig Page of Ogilvy PR said, authenticity is key. Don’t be anyone but yourself. If you are yourself, you have something to say.
And what you’re saying might have been said before, but it hasn’t been said the way you’ll say it. Caroline Makepeace from yTravelBlog drove this message home with a fabulous example: in music there are a finite number of notes, keys and chords. But people make new music all the time.
2. Blogging is hard work.
Whether you do it as a hobby or to earn an income, blogging is a slog. You make time to write, to share your content and to respond to comments. You painstakingly research topics and edit photographs.
You probably enjoy it (why else would we do it?), but it’s still work. So the advice from Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mike’s (who also happens to be the Voices of 2015 Editor) to work hard and work consistently stood out for me.
3. Work smarter.
Blogging is hard work. But you can make it less difficult by working smarter.
Heard it a million times? Yeah, me too. But Kelly Burstow from Be a Fun Mum went above and beyond with a very specific tip about working smarter.
4. Don’t spend your life on social media.
It is so easy to spend your entire life on social media. And when you’re a blogger, it’s very easy to justify the time. I HAVE to reply to all these Facebook comments! I MUST share this Instagram photo I was tagged in! MY COMMUNITY NEEDS ME!
Breathe. Take a step back. If you love social media and you feel the balance is right, great. (And congratulations! Please tell me your secret.) But if not, remember point 3. Work smarter.
You may like to follow Clare Hillier from Checks and Spots‘s lead and pick your preferred social media channels. After all, you can’t be everywhere all the time. And you won’t give it your all if you’re on a platform you don’t enjoy just because you feel you have to be.
5. Engagement isn’t the same as community.
If you have an engaged audience, then well done. Seriously. It’s not easy to develop. I’ve been blogging for almost four years, and can still drop a blog post or a Facebook question into what feels like a bottomless pit. (Although most of the time, I feel the engagement love, so thank you all very much!)
But building a community is another ballgame. I’ll admit that I was struggling with understanding the difference between engagement and community until Zoey Martin and Katie Michelle from Operation Move spelled it out for me.
6. The people who work for brands are just people.
If you want to work with brands (confession time: I still haven’t decided), don’t freak out. Don’t get scared by the bigness and everywhereness of brands. As Anna Hickey of Etsy said, the people who work for brands are just people. Connect with them. They won’t bite.
Phoebe Montague from Lady Melbourne gave some great tips for working with brands, and most of them were relationship-based. Build a relationship with the brand representative. Meet them face to face. If that’s not possible, call them on the phone. Don’t resort to email every time just because it’s easier; it’s too impersonal.
Once you have that relationship, be clear on what the brand wants from any sponsored posts and what you’re going to do for them. Are they after more social media followers? More visits to their website? Increased sales? All of the above?
And once you’ve done the post(s), follow up with the brand. Share your stats with them, and make sure the brand tells you how they saw it too. Did their social media following grow? Did sales increase? Montague’s example of a dress that sold out every time she posted a shot of herself wearing it had people nodding their heads and scribbling notes furiously. Anecdotes like that make your media kit stand out. (Note to self: create a media kit. If you decide you want to work with brands. End note.)
7. Sometimes you need to let go.
I will not mention Frozen. I will not mention Frozen. Oops. Sorry.
Quite a few speakers mentioned letting go of things in different contexts. Craig Page said that if a brand isn’t the right fit for your blog, don’t force it. If you work with a brand and it feels wrong, don’t go back. Let the relationship go.
Anna Hickey gave some excellent advice on doing so. If you decide against an opportunity or decide not to work with a brand anymore, do it respectfully. Explain your reasoning, be polite, and mention your openness to potentially working together in the future on different campaigns. Then let it go, let it go, can’t hold it back anymore… Oops. Sorry.
Nathalie from Easy Peasy Kids also had advice on letting go, but she applied it to those of us who watch our stats too closely. (She also received a spontaneous burst of applause for doing so.)
8. (Bonus lesson) Bloggers rock!
A quick visit to Kidspot’s Voices of 2015 finalist list will convince you of that quick smart. Congratulations to all in the top 100! It’s a super impressive list.
And Kidspot has been busy since Saturday – the top three parenting and style finalists have already been announced! More congratulations for everyone.
Phew! What a day. What a lot to take in. I’m still recovering. Thank you to Kidspot, Garnier and Ford for hosting the events and making us all feel so welcome.
Did you attend any of the Kidspot events on Saturday? What did you learn?
This is magnificent – thank you! I love the post-event round-ups and Instagram feeds because it really makes me feel like part of it all, even though I’m removed from it. That point about engagement and community is a fantastic point, and one I’d never really thought of before. I have to admit, the glass-half-full person in me sort of sighed and thought “Great, another area I fail at” but it’s a valuable thing to consider anyway.
I know what you mean! “I just got them engaging! Do I REALLY need to build a flipping community?” Yes, apparently!
Great great great tips Em! I was kind of following along with your Twitter updates during the day Shen I could! Sounds like a lot of learning was done!
Thanks Zita! Hope you’re still enjoying yourself on the other side of the world.
I was so impressed with your up-to-the-minute-tweeting from the event and I’m equally in awe of your awesome wrap up for the event. I feel like I’ve got almost as much out of the masterclass as if I’d been there, apart from the yummy breakfast and fun with friends! Pleased you had such a great day. PS. Love those quotes- pure class!
Thanks Sammie. That means a lot. Loved these quotes too!
The message that I loved was “Blogging is a hungry beast. It doesn’t matter how much you feed it, it will always want more.” I think Kelly said that, but I can’t be sure. It totally summed up how I feel about all the things I should be doing!
Great wrap up mate and it was great to see you. x
I loved that too. I think it was Clare (in the same session as Kelly’s) because she also mentioned about not being everywhere just because you feel you need to be. Stick to the formats you’ll enjoy and commit to.
Thanks for sharing your tips! Much appreciated!
You’re welcome! I hope they helped.
I was at the masterclass and it was so cool to meet you Em! Your tweeting meant I could relax on my own note taking so thank you!
So great to meet you! And hug you right off the bat.
Thank you! Loved this post – fantastic wrap up 🙂
You are welcome – glad you enjoyed it!
Great little summary Em. I was disappointed not to go. Although I was in Brisbane squishing my new nephew, so not a bad trade off. I really appreciated your tweets too.
That sounds DIVINE. Yes, it would have been nice to see you, but clucky cuddles always win!!
Great round up Em. Number 5 – yes! So true.
It was a big AHA! moment for me.
I so wish I was there. I love the quote about the difference between engagement and community. I have engagement, but still working on building a community.
I wouldn’t say I’m working on the community thing. Still happy with engagement, and will think about whether community is necessary when I haven’t yet decided what I want to achieve with this blog (if anything in particular!).
Great round up post- sounds like it was a really valuable experience 🙂
I’m really glad I went. (In fact, the goodie bags made the cost worth it before I even learnt anything!!)
So lovely to see you – fabulous wrap up you Tweet head you! x
Great to hug you! And see you. And eat your face, apparently. Sorry about that. x
This wrap up is fantastic! These were all key messages that I walked away thinking about too.
Thanks Bec! Was so great to see you.
Thanks for sharing. I followed from afar (via Twitter) and was very jealous mainly cos of point 8!
Deb
Yeah, point 8 was a winner! x
This is a brilliant wrap up Em.
So great to get some insight.
Congratulations to all the finalists! xx
Thanks Dannielle! And yes, big congrats to all finalists. What a list!
Thank you for sharing what you learnt. I got a lot from this post, it was clear, succinct and included great visuals. I think I now understand the difference between community and engagement.
Thank you, Cam. What a lovely comment. I’m glad the post helped.
I must be living under a blogging rock as I had not heard of so many of the blogs that made it in to the top 100. There is lots of great tips above, thanks for sharing and I will have to make an effort to try and go next year. xx N
I hadn’t heard of all of them either (and some were Instagram and Facebook accounts/pages rather than blogs) but am slowly working through the list!
A great summary Em and thanks also for live tweeting – almost as good as being there! I loved seeing all the happy faces of attendees on my IG feed especially that photo of you and Emily from Have A Laugh – what were you whispering to her?! I hope to make it over east to a blogging event one day – so many people I want to meet in 3D 🙂
A pleasure! Live-tweeting cements the info in my head. I’ve always been a write it once, remember it always kinda gal. As for that photo, I have NO idea what we were doing. All I see when I look at it is me eating her face. All she sees is her hand cupping my boob (which it wasn’t, but it certainly looks like it!).
Great round up post. You really were the queen of twitter for the event.
Thanks! As your photo featuring my concentration face shows.
Thanks for sharing this tidbits with those of us who missed out on attending!
A pleasure! x
Here i thought your Twitter feed was epic and now you have gone and topped it off with an awesome wrap up of the day. Thanks so much from all of us who couldn’t make it.
Thanks Malinda! You are very welcome. x
So awesome to have this wrap up as I couldn’t be there!! Thanks for taking the time to share the goodness 🙂 Sounds like it was a very inspiring event. x
It was great, and point 8 could have been points 9 through 12 as well. So much blogging talent in the country, in that room, everywhere. Very inspirational.
This is a great summary Em… Feel like I was there. Some days I think a post is great and get nothing. Or I write a funny quote and hear crickets… Gets confusing too.
It’s so hard to know, isn’t it? Or you sit on one for ages because you think it’s controversial, then one day you’re feeling brave and hit publish… and all you hear is support. Great, obviously, but you wonder why you were so nervous!
Thanks for sharing your learnings with us. I love reading these posts, it eases my FOMO.
FOMO is awful, isn’t it? I probably can’t make it to the award night later in the year, and I’m already feeling the FOMO! Ridiculous!
Love those tips Em, and thanks for the breakdown.
I do hope I get to meet you one day! x
IT. WILL. HAPPEN. One way or the other. x
Wow. Sounds like it was a really insightful experience. Thanks for sharing such great advice. I would have loved to have been there, if busting out my waters wasn’t on the agenda (didn’t happen by the way) x
Thanks Vicki! I hope it’s happened since you wrote this comment. In fact, your blog is my next stop to find out! x
You are the master of wrap up posts, Em. This is awesome and I’m so grateful for it. Promise you do the same thing for Problogger?
Thank you Renee. And ABSOLUTELY. So so so so excited about PB!
I loved your live tweeting of the day – it made me feel I wasn’t missing out on quite so much by not being there. Great list of your takeaways as well – I do like the explanation of engagement v community by Zoey and Kate.
Thanks Kirsty. Zoey and Katie are two clever, clever girls. (And so gorgeous! Love them to bits.)
Hi Em. great wrap up post. Thanks for sharing xx
Thanks Lisa! You’re welcome. x
Thank you Em. This is fantastic and has eased my FOMO substantially! Xx
Excellent! All this talk of FOMO is making me pre-emptively feel FOMO for the events I’ll miss next!
Thank you so much for this, I’m glad there are a few wrap-ups around the blogosphere, so I can catch up on what I missed by not going. Awesome tips 🙂
Thanks Jess! Yes, there are a few floating around which is great. Will have to add links to the others to the bottom of this post.
What a great wrap-up, I’m really impressed that you remembered such key points and who said what. I walked away in a kind of overwhelmed blur….but your re-cap has helped immensely. Great to meet you as well!
Thanks Laney! It was all about the tweeting. Stuck in my head now! x
Thanks for this wrap up and top tips!
A pleasure! Thanks for reading.
Great tips, at times I have felt there are so many supposed rules of blogging, but says who? Blogging gets much more fun when the rules are gone and it’s just writing stuff you want to write when you want to write it when you get a chance to write it. Of course this might not help with crazy numbers of followers, but it does help with stress levels.
Yep, love it. That’s me in a nutshell, but that’s because my nutshell isn’t monetised. There are all sorts of rules, but they seem to change, or differ from place to place. The only rules I stick to are being upfront about payments and freebies. Of which I receive next-to-none. Too easy!
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing this great wrap up! ” If you are yourself, you have something to say.” I so needed to hear this. Inspiring qoutes from the day – I just love the way you have put them together. I’ve learnt a lot from this. Thank you. 🙂 Xx
Absolute pleasure. It was interesting to hear a PR rep say that. We all have things to say, that are worth saying. Love it.
I was there too – first time I’ve been to something like this! Very inspiring, a bit overwhelming at times, but lots of great advice and very friendly people. I was impressed, looking back on the Twitter feed, of his you captured so much of the day – I think you have managed a pretty thorough summary here!
Thanks Helen. It’s all due to the fabulous keyboard on my iPad! Could never have tweeted that much with my thumbs on a phone, nuh-huh.
It sounds like it was a really useful event to attend. Thank you Emily for posting these highly useful tips that you took away.
Absolute pleasure – thanks Cathy!
Great summary – glad you enjoyed it to (your tweeting was fabulous for those of us watching at home – so thanks!)
Thanks, it was great. (And thanks again!!)
Awesome wrap Em! It’s so nice to have all of these little pearls of wisdom reinforced.
I think that’s what I mostly got from the day. The engagement vs community info was new, but everything else was affirming and reinforcing rather than mind-blowing.
I loved your Twitter feed on the day and I think you have chosen a very wise top 8! Let it go is my fave and second fave is choosing your channels. x
Thanks Maxabella. And now Frozen is BACK IN MY HEAD, dagnammit.
Thanks so much for sharing that, all of the comments are so important for a new blogger like me.
You’re welcome! I hope it all helps.
Thanks so much for sharing all of these top tips, so kind of you and they really help will need to take them all on board!
A pleasure! Summarising it helps me too.
Great wrap up ! I think you should be nominated as the Twitter queen. Following your twitter feed made me feel like almost like I was there,
Thanks Jules! If the role comes with a crown, I accept! (I already have a SuperNerd cape. I wish I was joking. x)
Judging by the comments here I would say you have an engaged community, Emily! I doubt very much your questions fall into a bottomless pit 🙂
Love this wrap up of the event but disappointed we didn’t get to meet. ProBlogger baby!!
Nathalie’s comments really resonated with me about MOVING ON if someone unfollows you. Sadly, I have a thin skin and overthink it every time someone does this 🙂
Hi Emily,
Sounds like it was a memorable experience and those tips, invaluable. I am all for letting it go…and letting it flow.
Self doubt is a creativity killer.
Such a great round up Emand I love the quotes you highlighted especially Nathalie’s. So good meeting you in RL (and you’re soooo tall, I think that’s all I was saying to people). Zoe xx