BlogHer12 Recap Part II: Sessions and Glitter

Friday

Friday Morning, I  woke up bright and early. I was READY to get started.

Breakfast was served…..

The opening address from Blogher co founders was like a rallying cheer! Go forth  and learn and network!!

And to start that off, we started with Speed Dating.  In that short time,I managed to meet Erin from abookformydaughter.com.  Amazing since we had just been messaging each other!

And then, off to the sessions!

I had a plan, if you remember. But I ended up at Brand Blogger Connection.

Speakers were Anna Lingeris from Hershey, Doug French, Kevin Brown from Huggies, Maria Niles, Stephanie Quilao and the fabulous Denene Millner from My Brown Baby.

She rocks by the way.  Did you know she has never pitched a brand? Her thought: Brands are attracted to the voice.

Just a few points:

• Don’t compromise your integrity JUST to work with a brand.
• Remember that YOU are the brand!
• The future is mobile! Look at your blog on all devices( iphone, ipad, android etc). Does it default to moble viewing?
• Keep your pitches and convos super short with Brands. Tweet them. Use bullet points.
• When bringing up monetary compensation, know your worth.

There was more, and you can go here to the live blog of this session. It was awesome. I’m glad I went!

Next was lunch…..

And the fabulous Martha Stewart!

You know, I liked Martha Stewart before  I heard her speak. but I always thought of her as….stiff.

But wow. I LOVED her!

After lunch, we headed over to Strategic Content Development Across Multiple Media: Onstage, Onscreen and Online.

THIS was the session I HAD to go to.  The speakers were: Dr Goddess, Franchesca Ramsey, Issa Rae and Luvvie Ajayi.  I follow all of these ladies and was sooo soo pleased to see this panel of hilariously creative women all on one panel.

To say it was funny was an understatement.

Highlights:

• WordPress is easy to use, consider tumbler too. It’s easy to update
• Invest in a good camera
• tech tools to analyze productivity: tweetreach, google analytics, You Tube insights and crowdbooster.com
• Dont underestimate yourself!
• you don’t have to be on twitter everyday!
• twitter is a dinner party, facebook: you already know everyone.

The last session that I went to that day was Leveraging Facebook and Twitter.

Speakers were: Diane Lang, Leticia Barr and Nelly Yusupova.

I mainly went to this session because my Facebook game sucks. Big time.

But I still learned a lot about twitter that I didn’t know!

• Invest in a good headshot. Keep it the same across social media
• Bio on twitter: link to your about page on your blog
• 80/20 rule: share 80% personal stuff and 20% other stuff
• Links help define who you are

Facebook:

• Create a marketing strategy to drive folks to your Facebook page.
• 88% of Facebook users never return to your page after liking it.
• Put out questions on Facebook. It creates engagement. Ask thought provoking questions.
• Post “did you know” facts, polls/surveys, talk about the news
• You cannot ask people to “like” your page on Facebook. But you can ask them to like a post.
• Post outside business hours. Most people can’t get on Facebook at work anymore!

And again, the rest of this talk can be found here.

I hung out in the expo halls quite a few times and ran into a few fabulous brands…

Later on that evening, I ended up at the Hasbro Party. I was amazed, really Amazed when I got the invite to this one.

I LOVED it!

I walked there with Mimi and we met up with Quiana( @HarlemLoveBirds), Nellie ( @Bklynactivemama) and Dani( OK Dani).

The drinks were STRONG(yes only one)

I FINALLY FINALLY met Veronica( veronicaarmstrong.com)

We danced, ate mini quiche and beef wellingtons, took silly photos and got swag.(Which Pookah loved loved loved)

And walked back to the hotel.

Past Times Square!!

 

Which is just….really bright……and busy…on the eyes….

And of course, when we got back to the hotel, it was time for the fabulous Sparklecorn!

This was a cake…

It was all about unicorns and glitter apparently…

And it was FUN!!

As I headed to bed that night, I realized that I was really loving this conference.

Really!

Stay tuned on Thursday for Part 3.

But COme back tomorrow for a few photos.