Since New York is still at the top of my must-visit locations, I have yet to attend in person, but have managed to catch the live-stream from the last 3 conferences. You still get to benefit from the information shared during the panels, but without the fun meet-and-greet with fellow bloggers.
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| The IFB Conference was hosted at Milk Studios in NYC. |
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| You'll never see a blogger far from their phone. (Exhibit A on the right.) |
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| Waiting for everyone to get seated. 400+ bloggers, media personal, and brand representatives were in attendance. |
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| Opening speech was delivered by Jennine Jacob (left), founder of IFB. |
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| Panel 1- What are Bloggers Worth? |
Panel 1: What are Bloggers Worth?
Moderator: Jinna Boo (Grease & Glamour)Panelists: Susan Schwartz (Glamour), Jessie Thorpe (Denimology), Carmina (La Carmina), Jenni Radosevich (I Spy DIY), Kat Griffin (Corporette), Lauren Tesar (Lifebooker)
Highlights:
- If you're self hosted, you own 100% of your content but when you blog via other platforms they have control over the existence of your blog.
- An advertorial is lingo for a post you're paid to produce and public on your blog.
- If 3 people are willing to pay your price, perhaps it's time to raise it.
- Insist brands pay your set rate.
- Sponsors are looking for flexibility, scalability (relevance to a particular demographic), and credibility.
- To separate yourself from other bloggers and reach out to brands, create a media kit that includes what you post about, your audience, partnerships you've formed, and your demographics .
- A media kit can be in PDF form.
- Give information, such as your stats, as requested (not necessarily posted directly on your blog.)
- Only sell ads for what's relevant to your blog- keep them within your niche.
- Put together your ideas and shop it out to brands you want to work with.
- Using an agent or manager can allow you to get around having to talk about money.
- Ideally, your comment section should become a forum for readers to converse with each other.
- To encourage more comments, pose a question at the end of your blog posts. Get people to talk about your content.
- Comments show engagement, traffic shows reach.
- Blogging can be a channel to showcase your skills and target what you want to do..
- Demonstrate passion rather than just enthusiasm to set your blog apart.
- Blogging is the next marketing medium.
- Bloggers have changed what branding is.
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| Jess Estrada (left) and Aliza Licht- DNKY PR girl (right) from panel #2. |
Panel 2: Media Goes Mobile
Moderator: Jess Estrada (Fresh Jess)Panelists: Aliza Licht (DKNY PR Girl), Bryan Boy (BryanBoy.com), Tom & Lorenzo (Tom & Lorenzo), Macala Wright (Fashionablymarketing.me), Karen Moon (Style Musee)
Highlights:
- Where you can't be at a desk 24/7 using mobile apps such as Twitter and Tumblr keep the conversation going.
- There are so many mediums out there that you can only do so many things.
- With Twitter, the most popular choice, you have to condense the voice of your blog down into 140 characters.
- Using twitter to share even a little personality in every tweet helps engagement, making it a conversation.
- It's a good idea to #FF people who keep conversation going.
- Percent of engagement, not how many followers you have on Twitter is what people should look at.
- It's not how many followers you have that matters. It's what you say and are they listening.
- Don't say things [tweet] if you don't have anything to say or you're not inspired.
- What's your strengths? Let that show through the platforms you use.
- Use media platforms to drive traffic back to your blog.
- Consider, would you be interested in what you wrote on your blog? On twitter?
My notes don't necessarily capture everything communicated during the panels, but I always find these conferences a great resource for new ideas to consider for my own blog. For part two, tune in later next week where I'll share contents from Panels 3 and 4.
If you were there in person or also had the opportunity to watch the live stream a few weeks ago, which Panel was your favourite? Which was your favourite panelist of the day?
Photo sources: IFB Conference on Livestream
