Random Tuesday the Blogalicious Edition: 5 Things I learned on Day1!!

I’m baaaaack!!!

I had an awesome awesome time at Blogalicious despite my failure( on my part at least) to find balance.  But moving on! I’m going to focus on what I learned, and it was a lot! I’m just going to share a few highlights here, but boy are they the best ones!( In my humble opinion!)

1. The first speaker of the conference was @iamjessejones founder of U-ology 101, The Science of You.  This guy was awesome!  He started out giving us all food for thought that I think that every blogger should ponder:Is your blog something that you are really passionate about? Or are you just trying to get in and make some money? Be passionate about your blog!  Build relationships because you WANT to be in a relationship, not because of what they can do for you NOW. Don’t worry about numbers.  If you have 50 followers, KNOW those 50 followers.  Interact with them, email them, respond to them.  And remember, we are all walking brands.  When we blog or tweet, we are representing our brand! Watch what you say online! Is it a part of your brand? Or are you more concerned about being real? And my favorite quotes from his talk about twitter: “We are what we tweet” and “Your next tweet could dictate your next opportunity.” Wow.  Makes you think about a few things you’ve tweeted huh? I know it did for me!
2. The next lesson learned was from a workshop The Truth about Brands, Bloggers and ROI: My greatest lesson to share from this workshop is “Content is not King. GREAT content is King!” As @tedrubin said,”People don’t share the ordinary, they share awesome!”  I want to be awesome! I want folks to think my thoughts (twitter and otherwise) are awesome enough to retweet and repost.  Just a few other gems from this workshop: 1.Use twitter for ORIGINAL content.  2.Don’t use tweet longer, make it short! Learn to tweet in 40 characters or less!  3.Be Authentic!  4.Work together! Don’t be afraid to work with other bloggers.  5.Join blogger networks to network and build more relationships!
3. Lunch was divine, and not just because of the food. There were table talks and this led to meeting @brittont13, @dumbparent, and @mylatinovoice and @chasing_joy.  Especially @chasing_joy.  My new bloggy friend. 🙂
4. My favorite workshop of the day was called Creating Kick A$$ Content Online.  Headed by Sirius\XM Radio host Shawna Renee,Tara Pringle Jefferson (@theyoungmommy) from The YoungMommylife.com and @LamarTyler from BlackandMarriedwithKids.com.  I learned that: 1.Make your headlines do double duty for you! Make them specific and useful.  2. Come up with one feature that’s uniquely you!  3.Write shorter. I’m going to have a problem with this one.  But there was a solution!  4. Make it a series! LOL !  5. And the most important one:make friends with your editorial calender. I have one, and never use it! This can help revolutionize your blogging! It can organize you, help you see when you tend to blog the most. Help you schedule your posts. This one was so important to me that I was tweeting  @theyoungmommy about it the next morning and it took us both a minute to realize that we were sitting RIGHT NEXT to each other tweeting back and forth. SHAME!!!
5. Continuing with the Kick ass Content workshop, I must say that @LamarTyler really opened my eyes about vlogging and creating video for my blog.  What stands out in my mind is this  “The Gatekeepers are GONE.” Basically, ANYONE can produce video content and get it out there.  We are the new media folks! WE create content.  We are the ones getting it out there! He dropped so much knowledge on me that I’m just going to direct you over to his blog for the presentation he put up there.  GO!!!NOW!!!