Yesterday’s post should have given some indication as to what went down at the Company Blogging Forum, in a visual kind of way. Well today I thought I’d touch upon the pearls of wisdom offered to us by the amazing Susie Lau from Style Bubble (and various other well-known publications), Rhiannon Ashlee from Fashion Rocks My Socks, Sally Burlison from OhMyLove, Roxanne Nejad from Boohoo, Krista Madden from Handpicked Media, and leading the panel was the lovely Victoria White, editor of Company magazine- I’m sure she won’t mind me using a few snaps from company.co.uk‘s gallery.
One of the great things about these reader events is the networking, you’ve simply got to shrug off any insecurities, put your game face on and mingle. Lucky for me, I could talk the back legs off a donkey. The sense of community was palpable- I just thrive off watching group behaviour- but we were all there for the same reason, to learn from those in the know.
I had gone into the auditorium with many questions of my own but as the evening progressed they were pretty much answered, in rapid fire succession, before I’d even got a hold of the mic. Though I’ve always been a writer and have documented every important thing in my life, one of the reasons I haven’t really ‘blogged’ until now is that I struggled to find a focus. My interests are so varied I didn’t know who my target audience would be. The panel couldn’t stress enough, the importance of a USP (unique selling point), an angle that perhaps hasn’t been addressed yet. Well, my research supervisor is always banging on about that too, there’s no way my dissertation will make the grade if it doesn’t contribute to my field with ORIGINAL peer-reviewed work.
I had almost fallen into the trap of ‘conforming’ (ugh! such a dirty word) to the “look at me against a brick wall” culture of blogging that is so popular now, but after getting a good telling-off from my beau, I thought it best to hold on to my identity as an ‘arty-come-hipster’ type and decided to push things forward with a blog about theatrics… Genius! Company ed Vic feels that personal style needs to be just that. If, like me, you’ve not got a lot of money then let that be your USP. “What’s the story behind your outfit?” For me it could be seeing it on stage in ‘such and such a play’ or ,“the print on today’s tee was drawn whilst on the bus home from…” you get my drift.
Lucy from LucyJLoves.com has already won me over with her cute and innovative “ice-breaker”- look at all these lovely ladies coming together in a creative way, my twitter’s been on fire as a result, “Great idea Lucy!”
So you see? One should view blogging as joining a community and you absolutely must reach out and interact with your audience- listen more than you talk even. And yes, blogs can clearly lead to careers but you should always be blogging “just because you love it” and not for the freebies that MIGHT someday land on your doorstep. Monetising your blog should not be your primary focus, however passion and enthusiasm will translate very well.
So where do I go from here? Well, I’m extremely excited and raring to go after last night’s discussions and I’ve met a whole load of blogging babes to boot. It’s good to know that I might actually be on to something after all and that my identity, my quirks, and a consistent voice will eventually garner the attention that I’m seeking- in the name of theatre of course!
To cap it all off, I was chuffed to bits with my shout out on company.co.uk. It turns out that my customised clothes and a 5- year-old handbag have scored me brownie points in the style stakes! I simply must hail up my pals at House of Livinlife for the shirt and of course, Company magazine for keeping my hope alive.
Love Kami xxx
