Central Florida Blogger and Social Media Conference

Wow! Yesterday was the best combination of overwhelming, great content, and awesome networking.  I truly learned so much and have a bundle of notes to go through with things to work on for this blog. To tell you everything would take hours, so here’s some of the most important things I need to remember and you should consider from the Central Florida Blogger and Social Media Conference.

The event started out with a flash mob, I’m not kidding! In the big domed room, where vertigo was certainly kicking in for me, Lou Mongello was the keynote speaker. A self proclaimed “recovering attorney” Lou is an expert on all things Walt Disney World related. He emphasized to BElieve in YOUrself, and treat your readers as your friends not your fans. Luckily I already have that part down. He pushed the “5 P’s” too, be: passionate, prepared, patient, persistent and positive, and your time will come.

Next I attended a session on building your media kit, I will be putting The Wanna Be Athlete’s advice to use here very soon and getting one together.

That's me in the rust tank and grey and black blazer, with Olga (tan blazer) of You+Me=Fit

In the Vlogging session Scooter Magruder told us not to worry about what kind of camera others are using, use what you’ve got. With tips on lighting and making sure your audio is clear your Vlog will be audience ready. Of course “content is king” so you better be talking about something people want to hear too.

My laptop battery failed early on me and I didn't really have time to stop in the recharge room, so I switched to my notebook early on.
I spy Julie from Peanut Butter Fingers! It was so nice to meet her over lunch.

Yahoo is out. This was part of Tom Jelneck’s opening comments in his SEO segment. Not a single one of the 80 plus bloggers in the room use Yahoo anymore. To organically build your blog, post a LOT. Google likes content; the more you write the more it wants to come back. Graphics are not a Google ranking helper because they cannot be indexed, totally makes sense but I had not really considered that yet. Don’t stop posting pictures though, that’s a major part in attracting readers to your site. Here's one of Iris, another fashion blogger, and me in between sessions. She thrifted her skirt and earrings, I must get better at that!

Iris and I took a quick second to visit the photo booth.

I attended a few more sessions throughout the day and had a great time making friends. My favorite session had to be Extreme Makeover Facebook Edition. Jeanette Scott of J’s Everyday Fashion Blog ran the show. Unaffected by only having 4 hours of sleep, J was on it. She had me on the edge of my seat sucking up every bit of information possible. She focused on engaging readers across platforms, specifically Facebook. Some of your audience will not be into reading blogs (I know crazy thought right?) but may check Facebook constantly throughout the day, so cater to them too.

J's Everyday Fashion

When everyone broke off by niche with like bloggers I was almost torn, did I want to go to Fashion or Food? I feel like I’m more driven by fashion, I mean I started a group when Facebook first came out called Shopaholics Anonymous, come on!

(Source: J's Everyday Fashion)

Our breakaway session was small, only about 10 fashion bloggers. It was great though because it allowed us to have individual conversations, as well as group ones among everyone. Most of the girls were from the Orlando area which thankfully is really not that far from me. I can’t wait to go back to Orlando and meet up with these girls again sometime soon. It’s so nice to actually have face to face relationships with a few bloggers now, and even though I was only with some of these girls for a couple hours the connections were definitely there. Everyone was so pleasant, easy to get along with and we all had a lot in common.

Swag bag goodies, can't wait to put the OXO bottle to use!

I’m on the lookout now for the next blogging conference I can attend in the Florida/Georgia area. I recommend you find a conference or meetup too, especially if you don’t know any other bloggers yet.