Wednesday, December 15, 2010

lessons learned at lavish

Last weekend's Lavish! conference was so jammed packed with great speakers and I am so glad I made the trip!

As promised, here is my looooong list of tips I took from the "unconference"...

Saturday morning's keynote speaker, James Andrews, certainly got everyone excited about the social media and how far it's come and how far it's going to go. He told us through social media, we are able to "own our eyes." No one else is telling us what to blog or tweet about, it's up to us to create content...the voice is ours. A memorable thought from his speech was to take a "posture of humility" every day. Be thankful that even one person is reading your blog or following you on Twitter. That definitely got me thinking and made me very appreciative of how far I have come since I started this journey 7 months ago.

The Design Sponge panel, featuring Grace Bonney, was one of the most packed sessions of the day! It is where I took the most notes and got the most helpful advice for my blog and social media efforts.  Some of the tips...
- Take risks....put yourself out there!
- Create connections on a personal level. No mass emails to people- make them feel exclusive. Comment back when you receive a comment on your blog.
- Be natural and relatable.
- Twitter and Facebook are "social" sites, so be social! Be authentic with your interactions.
- Rule of 3 (regarding social media)...1/3 of your interactions should be personal; 1/3 business related; and 1/3 resource sharing (in the form of re-tweets, plugging others).
- Create your OWN content-- Integrity + Authenticity = Growth.
- Look to other blogs outside your niche for inspiration.
- Push yourself outside your comfort level.
- Share your knowledge.
- Write with purpose.

Our lunch Keynote Speaker was Jeralyn Gerba of Daily Candy and newly created Fathom. She gave great advice as well...
- Create a compelling, consistent voice.
- Again...ORIGINAL content!!!
- Verify all your facts-- this will give you credibility.
- Regarding advertisers and publicity-- Choose the right relationship for your brand and aim high. Try to get your ideal sponsors to advertise on your blog.
- Respond to feedback...take negative comments with a grain of salt; be generous and gracious.

The most emphasized point through all the sessions was to BE ORIGINAL AND BE AUTHENTIC with your voice. I summed it up in my notes by writing, "Inspiration doesn't necessarily need to follow up with imitation."  What I meant by that was, there may be blogs that you love and are inspired daily by and they are very successful, and in order to achieve that success, you imitate their style. That formula won't work for you since it isn't really you....it's you imitating someone else.  Once you use your own voice and style, your blogging efforts will pay off!

So there's my recap...I hope I didn't sound like a mess! I am so excited over everything I learned, I found myself typing super fast and probably making no sense :)

In other blogging news, I am over at A Thoughtful Place today sharing my 'Holiday Haven'!

14 comments:

leanne said...

great read, not rambling at all and all very true - who wants every blog to be the same? x

traci zeller designs said...

I love how you summed it all up! Thanks, Jade!

Unknown said...

great post, Jade - almost as good as being there!

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing what you learned this past week-end Jade. As a new blogger myself, I am eating this up. There is so much to figure out, but this is a fabulous start!

Janell @ House of Fifty said...

Great information, I like the point about looking at blogs outside your niche.
Janell

Kim@Chattafabulous said...

Thanks for giving us the benefit of your attendance there, Jade. I really wish I could have come but family schedule conflicts wouldn't allow it. I appreciate your support of my blog so much - hope we can meet in person one day soon!

Carissa @ the Fabulous Design File said...

Thanks for this awesome post! Great tips. Just found your blog through 'A Thoughtful Place'. Love it!

Kendra said...

Thanks for sharing the tips with us! Glad that you had a great time, and it sounds like it was very beneficial.

Katy said...

I found you through A Thoughtful Place too and I'm so glad I did! I've been thinking a lot about starting a blog lately but feel overwhelmed with trying to be as great as the other blogs I read...your tips (especially "Inspiration doesn't necessarily need to follow up with imitation") are GREAT advice and I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this post. Thanks for sharing!!

kayce hughes said...

Thanks so much for sharing! I have not made it to one of those things but hope to one day.

Haven and Home said...

I wish I had been there, especially since I would have LOVED to see you again! Thank you for sharing this Jade!!!! Seriously, we need to get together again!

Melissa G. Allen said...

Thank you Jade for sharing such great information with all of us. Thanks to your advice I am blogging more often and loving it.
www.mgainteriordesign.com

Leah said...

Thanks for all this great info! I am soaking it all up! Great guest post too!

Luvs!

Megan // Honey We're Home said...

Great points. I took a class from Decor8 and the biggest thing I came away with was also be authentic and publish content you are proud of. I have to remind myself of that from time to time when I feel pressured to have a daily post. Pressured by who?! Relax:)

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