This past weekend I attended Bloggy Conference and participated in a panel at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Yes, it’s a blogging conference located at a huge amusement park on Lake Erie and it’s awesome.
When we weren’t riding rides or wandering through the haunted corn maze, we attended conference sessions covering different aspects of blogging from affiliate marketing to creating instructional videos to the North Iowa Bloggers panel about creating local connections in one’s community.
Here are 10 of my favorite take-home points that I learned at Bloggy Conference:
From Rachel Martin & Dan Morris’ (Blogging Concentrated) presentation “111 Things You Never Knew About Social Media, Tech & Blogging.”
1. Don’t be stagnant with how you post on social media; keep testing things. If your Facebook views are down, ask yourself how you are continually changing your posts. One reason Instagram has remained successful is because it keeps introducing new features. Rachel & Dan encouraged us to ask ourselves how fast we’re able to alter what we’re doing.
2. There is actualy an app called Ignorenomore that parents can install on their child’s phone. If you think your child is ignoring you calls, you can activate this app which will shut down your child’s phone so that he or she can only call the number(s) you’ve selected, like yours or 911. Supposedly, it’s nearly impossible to uninstall from the child’s end.
From Rachel Martin’s presentation about Facebook pages:
3. When you write your Facebook updates, approach them with the intention of making them so powerful that people will pause at your status when they scroll through their feed. Will your readers connect with your posts enough to want to share them with their friends?
4. The Facebook algorithm awards engagement. Building huge followings of people who only liked your page to enter a giveaway doesn’t necessarily build communities of people that engage with your posts and genuinely want to see what you create next.
5. Share things that you know your community will love. Martin recommends that if you read something and say, “I wish I would have written that,” it’s something worthy of sharing. If you join Facebook/Twitter sharing groups, you may feel obligated to share content that simply isn’t a good fit for your community.
6. Make status updates that are long enough to offer the option where you have to click to “read more.”
From Donna Hup’s presentation on Twitter:
7. Twitter analytics exist! Access your 28-day summary here.
8. Tweeting more than twice an hour results in a drop of your click-through rate per tweet.
From Sara Mock’s presentation “Instructional Videos – Connecting With Your Audience In A New Way”:
9. You can subscribe to Final Cut Pro for $10 a month!
10. Instead of winging a video, try mapping it out ahead of time with a story board. Include a call to action at the end encouraging people to leave a comment (only if you’ll answer them) or find you on other social media platforms.
From left to right: Me, Sara, Donna & Beth.
Thanks again to Sara Broers for inviting me to speak on the Panel “Local Connections Matter.”
This is awesome and I am so glad I was able to attend this with you!
The Real Person!
Thanks Sara. It was a blast.
Loved this! Awesome tips, Jeni!
The Real Person!
Thank you so much!
You beat me to it, I have a list posted for tomorrow, but only 5 things 🙂
Great list, love it Jeni!
It`s pretty cool how different things impact different people. How we take a way totally different experiences from the same event.
Great post,
The Real Person!
I will look forward to reading your post tomorrow!
Love it and so happy to have been able to have been a part of this with you! Thanks for your great take away. Now to write my post!
The Real Person!
Can’t wait to read yours!
Fun!!!! I don’t know about the late night at the amusement park with the scary people…but sounds like it was a great event! You’re still coming back from MN Blog Con….right??
The Real Person!
It was really fun! Did you ever do the Valley Scare thing? We never made it to that. I am going to try to make it depending on the employment situation:)
I see too many people “winging” videos. If you throw too many up on Periscope of “eating lunch” or “walking down the street” then people won’t view any of them. Put some planning and content into them and make people WANT to watch them. Good stuff, Jeni!
The Real Person!
Thanks Pat-means a lot coming from an experienced video creator. Haven’t taken the leap into Periscope yet.
I had so much fun this past weekend and learned a lot too. Thanks for including me in the list 🙂
Thanks for writing this Jeni! I have loved reading about everyone’s posts! Sounds like you learned a lot–can’t wait to see those “mapped out” videos…great advice!
Thanks for sharing. Appreciate the insights you provide and try to put those to use for Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank.
The Real Person!
Congratulations on your new position!
Loved all of this. Especially number 2. I’ll be sharing that with a few people I know. Thanks!
The Real Person!
Thank you so much! Rachel and Dan of Blogging Concentrated rock.