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Life in the DayngrZone

Sharing real life, one adventure at a time.

Hello from Blog Life University 2017

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Blog Life University Conference, 2017 Blog Life U, 2017 Blog Life University, Blog Conference

I’m spending the latter part of this week at the 2017 Blog Life University Conference and I can’t wait to share all the key takeaways from the conference with you later, right here on the blog.

If we met at the conference, welcome! I’m a blogger just like you. I’ve been blogging since 1997 and I’m really excited to share my passion with you the NC Blogger Network. 

If you love blogging as much as I do, and you love connecting with other blog bosses just like you, then you’re going to love the NC Blogger Network. 

Whether you’re a fashionista or a foodie, new to blogging or a veteran, NC Blogger Network’s got something for everyone – and for every type of blogger. I look forward to welcoming you to our community! We’ve got what you need to succeed. 

Blog Life University 2017 Attendees – Grab Your Discount!

It’s all about building community and connecting with your tribes, you know, like minded-bloggers, so I’d love to offer you a discount on our annual membership. Use code BLOGLIFEU now through Monday, 9/25 and get $10 off our annual membership. 

About The NC Blogger Network

NC Blogger Network is North Carolina’s premier community for bloggers. We bring bloggers together for events, education, networking and paid opportunities working with relevant brands! Membership to the NC Blogger Network is based on an annual subscription.

Our goal at the NC Blogger Network is to create a strong state-wide community of bloggers working together to support and encourage each other through our network. It is also our goal to provide our members with paid opportunities working with brands they know and love.

About Blog Life University 2017 and What We’ll Be Sharing 

Blog Life University 2017 is THE Conference to Learn How to Take Your Blog from Hobby to Business.

These speakers are experts in their fields and ready to share with you their secrets to success. Scroll down to read about each session – you definitely don’t want to miss!

Thursday, September 21, 2017

  • 9:00 – 9:15 am – Welcome with Melissa Llado
  • 9:15 – 10:15 am – Getting Paid What Your Worth Through Working With Brands by Jenny Melrose
  • 10:15 – 11:15 am – Organizing Your Day for Maximum Productivity with Aaronica Cole
  • 11:15 – 11:30 am – BREAK
  • 11:30 – 12:30 pm – Expanding Your Reach With Podcasting by Nicole Culver
  • 12:30 – 1:30 pm – LUNCH
  • 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Make Your Photos POP Without Breaking the Bank by Tiffany Dahle
  • 2:30 – 3:30 pm – Jumping Into Videography WithOUT the Fancy Equipment by Christina Patterson
  • 3:30 – 4:00 pm – BREAK
  • 4:00 – 5:00 pm – Grow Your List to Maximize Your Income with Kirsten Thompson
  • 5:00 – 5:30 pm – Closing Remarks with Melissa Llado

Friday, September 22, 2017

  • 9:00 – 9:15 am – Welcome with Melissa Llado
  • 9:15 – 10:15 am – Massively Grow Facebook to New Heights with Rachel Miller
  • 10:15 – 11:15 am – Pin It and Win It…Traffic That Is with Cynthia Rusincovitch
  • 11:15 – 11:30 am – BREAK
  • 11:30 – 12:30 pm – The Art of Affiliate Marketing with Dollie Freeman
  • 12:30 – 1:30 pm – LUNCH
  • 12:00 – 6:00 pm – Brand Expo Open
  • 3:00 – 4:00 pm – Protecting Your Financial Future- Creating a Business Budget with Iyanna Vaughn
  • 4:00 – 5:00 pm – Building Abundance Through Product Launches with Becky Mansfield
  • 5:00 – 5:30 pm – Closing

Blog Life University 2017’s Sessions and Speakers

  • Jenny Melrose takes you behind the scenes of working directly with brands to increase your sponsored post rates.
  • Becky Mansfield is sharing all about launching a product successfully to increase your income.
  • Melissa Crenshaw Llado will walk you through adding income through an online store.
  • Aaronica Bell Cole knows all about increasing your hourly rate by maximizing your productivity and she’s sharing all of her secrets with us!
  • NC Blogger Network member, Tiffany Dahle, takes amazing photos and she’s going to show you how to take gorgeous pictures without spending tons of money on expensive equipment.
  • Beloved Women with Christina Patterson started her video blogging with just her phone and she’s going to show you all of her tips and tricks to getting started with video easily.
  • Nicole Culver is all about increasing your reach with podcasting…growing your audience will bring in more income and she’s going to show you how.
  • Cynthia Rusincovitch is sharing her secrets to building and organizing your email list for maximum return on investment.
  • Rachel Miller is a guru at growing your business through Facebook and she’s diving deep with massively growing your Facebook page.
  • Dollie Freeman knows how to boost your affiliate commissions even if you’ve never done affiliates before…learn the ART of affiliate marketing to substantially increase your income.
  • Iyanna Vaughn is going to wrap up the conference by showing you HOW to protect your financial future and organize your blogging finances so you can reap the rewards of growing your online business.

Let’s Keep In Touch

I look forward to connecting with you, welcoming you to the NC Blogger Network and I hope you’ll stay tuned for those session recaps and key takeaways. 

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How Social Media is Driving Reality TV

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Reality TV – There’s no escaping it and for many of us, we don’t want to. From American Idol to Survivor reality television has taken over. But how does social media play a part in reality television or the making of a star? The “Social Media as the Driver of Reality Television” panel touched upon these questions, and many more yesterday, at Social Media Week Miami.

“Social Media as the Driver of Reality Television” Panelists

Photo Credit: Ivan Nava – Steve Berke, Lesley Abravanel, Alexia Echevarria, Louis Aguirre

The panel was hosted by Emmy award-winning TV host of WSVN 7’s “Deco Drive”, Louis Aguirre. The local all-star panel included Lesley Abravanel (pop culture writer for the Miami Herald), Alexia Echevarria (Executive Editor for Venue Magazine and cast member Real Housewives of Miami on Bravo), Steve Berke (Contestant on Fox’s The Rebel Billionaire) and was certainly one of the more popular and entertaining panels of the day.

There’s no doubt you’ve heard of Bravo TV’s hit franchise “The Real Housewives.”  Part of what makes it so popular is that Andy Cohen had the foresight to give people the power to share their stories around the shows and directly interact and engage with him, the network and the reality stars themselves. All reality show housewives are required to have social media accounts. They tweet, they blog and they have Facebook pages and clearly, their audience loves it and it’s working for them.

Also, driving the link between Reality TV and social media are apps like Into Now and Get Glue, that allow you to check in to the shows you’re watching and talk about it with others who are watching as well in real-time.

Social media has already changed the world as we know it… – Steve Berke

At one point, Steve Berke stated that social media has already changed the world as we know it stating that if it wasn’t for social media, today’s U.S. President wouldn’t be Obama, it would be Hillary.

Social media is turning the average Joe or Jane into celebrities

Social media is turning the average Joe or Jane into celebrities. Don’t believe me? Ask Justin Bieber. Steve Berke mentions that in order to break into the music business, you’d better have a pretty healthy following on YouTube if you even want to be considered by a record label. His suggestion for creating videos that will get watched – digital shorts. He added, “If a video is too long (10Min) I’m going to skip it, but if the video is 3 min long ok.”

Journalists vs. Social Media Influencers

Speaking of celebrities, it’s said that they will measure your level of celebrity by the number of followers you have on your social media accounts. Which leads me to the conversation about Klout. If you don’t think people are paying attention to Klout or that your Klout score doesn’t matter, think again. Fashion Night Out at Bal Harbour Shops selected their VIPs based on high Klout Scores, stated Louis Aguirre. Respected journalists with years of hard work couldn’t even get into some of the VIP Parties, yet there were bloggers who were in attendance because they had more clout than traditional journalists.

Key Takeaways

  • 90% of the television shows being produced right now are digital oriented.
  • Teenagers watch 5 times more YouTube videos than TV.
  • Social TV is where it’s at with apps like Into Now and Get Glue.
  • Everything is heading toward being web-based – so social will become even more important.
  • Attention spans are getting shorter, build your content around that fact.
  • SuperBowl had over 1 million viewers watching ONLINE.
  • Twitter is the new focus group.
  • Social networks have become the online water cooler.
  • Don’t underestimate the power of YouTube (or social media in general).

And finally, Reality TV much like social media, isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

There were plenty of great conversations around this panel and I could write for days, but in the interest of accommodating those short attention spans, I’ll let you check the recorded version yourself for more. You can watch the livestream playback at http://new.livestream.com/smwmiami/realitytelevision

You can read Lesley Abravanel’s blog “Scene in the Tropics” in the Miami Herald, check out Alexia Echevarria’s magazine “Venue Magazine”, keep up with Louis Aguirre on his Facebook page “Louis Aguirre TV“  and learn more about the projects Steve Berke’s working on at his website “Steve Berke for Mayor”.

Do you think reality television is here to stay? What reality shows are your favorite? (You can tell us, we promise we won’t judge) Do you use Twitter and Facebook while you’re watching TV?

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How Your Local Business Can Use Social Media

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I had the pleasure of attending two panels as a part of Social Media Week in Miami. Miami has a flavor like no other city and those in attendance for “Locally Social with Republica World” were as diverse as the city itself.

“Locally Social with Republica World” panelists (Arlene Linares, Patricia Guarch, Josie Llado, Susset Cabrera, Danny Rivero), moderated by Will Freyre discussed how a local approach to social media can build your brand within the local community and lead to great success. From food to fashion, the Miami scene is thriving and social media plays a huge role in bringing the community together to experience it for all its worth.

Create Culturally Relevant Content

Locally-Social-Panel

“Locally Social” Panel during Social Media Week in Miami

With South Florida being a popular tourist destination, @RepublicaWorld commented on communicating with tourists and non-Miamians, but their advice could work for any local business, “Know your audience. Mix it up and create culturally relevant content.” Excellent advice, indeed. The audience, on the other hand, debated the official language of Miami. Was it English, Spanish or Spanglish?

Keep Learning

Danny Rivero, who handles social media for local station WLRN, reminded us all that social media is ever-evolving when he stated, “Social media is something you can never master, but rather need to adapt to.” Whether your business is large or small and has local customers or international ones, you’ve got to continue to learn about new platforms as they emerge to see if they have value for your business.

While discussing which social media platforms the panelists found most useful, Pinterest seemed to be the one people were the most interested in. Though Pinterest has been noted as driving more traffic than Google, many in the audience had yet to embrace it, or fully understand its usefulness. They were, however, extremely curious to see how it could be used for business and if the “Locally Social” panelists were using it.

Set Guidelines

The conversation turned to Facebook and whether or not businesses should open up their Facebook page walls for all to post or close them for admin only posts. The general consensus was that open Facebook walls, though requiring more work to maintain, were the best way to go if you wanted to facilitate community and conversation. Some suggestions for preventing spam were to set ground rules upfront so that the community knows what will be allowed and what will not. With @MiamiNicePopUp adding that “If it’s not slanderous, then anything can go for the sake of discussion.” Removing negative posts was listed as a BIG no, no. Instead, it was suggested to turn negativity into an opportunity to open up dialogue – when possible – and to be transparent.

If attendees doubted the power of social media’s impact on a business, they quickly changed their minds when @Versailles revealed that 99% of reviews on Yelp for Versailles Restaurant come from out-of-towners. And, that since opening a Yelp account, traffic to their site has tripled. That’s powerful!

Key Takeaways

  • Social media is always evolving and you need to be in a state of constant learning.
  • Be open and transparent.
  • Allow for open dialogue and conversations but set boundaries in advance.
  • Personalize your responses.
  • Know your audience. Mix it up and create culturally relevant content.
  • Mobile is where it’s at and your site better accommodate it.
  • Yelp, and other geo-specific sites are worth looking into.

All in all, it was a very informative session and the panelists did a great job covering a variety of topics and answering audience questions.

Is your business tapping into its local market socially? Is your business using sites like Instagram, FourSquare and Yelp? What advice do you have for businesses looking to use social media in their cities?

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I’m Back From Boston and Social 2011!

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After 5 glorious days, I’m back from Boston, and the incredible digital marketing unconference, Social 2011!

This was such a great experience, I helped put together the conference panels and wrote their respective blog posts in my new position as a Community Manager at Radian6. You can read about those below: 

My Trip to Boston and Social 2011

All I can say is that this trip and the conference itself were amazing, tiring, exciting, exhausting, insightful and fun. I had the pleasure of meeting so many of the people I connected with as an early adopter on Twitter. Look closely and you may see some faces you recognize. I also had the pleasure of meeting Isaiah Mustafa, you know, the hunky, Old Spice Guy. Yes, he’s hunky in real life, too (and humble).

Marcel LeBrun, Social 2011, Radian6

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Boston, Social 2011, Radian6

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Boston, Radian6, Social 2011

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Social 2011, Boston

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Boston, social2011

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Have you ever been to a Social Media Unconference or Conference? If so, which one? 

 

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Social 2011: Build a Better Campaign

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Build a Better Campaign

I traveled to Boston for Social 2011 and The Build a Better Campaign panel. Here are a few notes from the event and the panel.

Powerful campaigns deliver a message that resonates with your audience – they inspire, motivate and influence people to take action. Campaigns help you raise the profile of everything you do, from launching an application, promoting a product, driving donations to your charity or bringing a community together on your website. Today, a strong social media strategy can help you achieve almost overnight what used to take months in the good ol’ days. And, the tools you use can help place your campaign head and shoulders above the rest – think Facebook, FourSquare, Digg, Twitter, and YouTube.

But it’s not enough to just create an amazing campaign, not anymore. You need to do things that haven’t been done before or even take an old idea and put a new spin on it. Good strategy is born from research and insights – but how do you get there? Where do you begin?

One of the most important social media skills to exercise is listening – but you know that listening isn’t enough when it comes to social media. Let your brand’s customers, fans and influencers drive the conversation. Don’t ignore detractors or the competition either. If you want to build a better campaign, you’re going to need to take what you’ve learned from your community and put it into action. Your campaign should be a thoroughly researched and carefully crafted plan based on what you have learned – good and bad – from your community and it must be fully integrated throughout your organization.

Social 2011 –

© derekwilmot.com

During our panel Build a Better Campaign: Research, Plan, and Integrate, industry thought leaders Adam Keats, Senior Vice President, Interactive, Emerging and Social Media Marketing at Weber Shandwick; Cat Lincoln, Founder & Principal at Clever Girls Collective; David Wickenden, Executive VP & Senior Partner, Managing Director, Digital Integration at Fleishman-Hillard and Gemma Craven, Senior Vice President, Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide shared their experience on successful campaigns.

I also learned what social tools have helped shape successful campaigns and how communications professionals integrate listening data into their communications strategy. Plus, they answered questions like “How do I identify the right influencers and audience for campaign outreach?” and “What data and metrics are useful, and what could be misleading?”

What challenges are you facing when it comes to creating your campaigns? What questions would you ask these thought leaders?

* You can find Adam Keats blogging at Dad-o-Matic  and Cat Lincoln sharing all things clever at: Clever Girls Collective and you can read Gemma Craven’s insights at OgilvyPR.com. * 

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