Whether you're looking for a fun hop you can fill an organic content need with(yes, us bloggers worry about that), or are simply a reader looking for the juicy, and often hilarious, truth on blogging- you're invited. Bloggers, feel free to post your response to each week's topic any day of the week (Thursday is the feature day) and link up to the LINKY at the bottom of this post. Be sure to grab the button while you're here! Readers, sit back, relax, and prepare as we demystify blogging one dish at a time!
Week 3: Feeling A Little Shy? Conferences and More!
Prompt: Have you ever been to a blogger conference? With BlogHer 2014 just a few weeks passed, what better time to dish about the behind the scenes
craziness that goes on at your favorite blogging conferences. Whether
you have a story about your 'first time' to share or just a fond memory,
let's hear it!
What happens at a blog conference stays at blog conference, right?
It's actually quite the opposite, right? If there is any conference where people are encouraged to dish every moment, including the down and dirty, it's at a conference designed entirely for social networking and amplification. Sure you go to COMIC Con or D23 and you take a million pictures and Facebook yourself next to R2D2 and Jack Sparrow, but at a blog conference you're not the only one sharing photos of you. There's the thrill of spotting a blogger you've been reading for several years and finally get to gush to in person, *cough Lena Burkut, Way 2 Goodlife* and there's the sponsors who stage elaborate events and activities designed to get your guard down while media and your peers snap away at sharing stations. If you expect to visit a blog conference and walk away without permanent evidence in the Cloud you are in for a surprise, my friend!
What happens at a blog conference stays at blog conference, right?
It's actually quite the opposite, right? If there is any conference where people are encouraged to dish every moment, including the down and dirty, it's at a conference designed entirely for social networking and amplification. Sure you go to COMIC Con or D23 and you take a million pictures and Facebook yourself next to R2D2 and Jack Sparrow, but at a blog conference you're not the only one sharing photos of you. There's the thrill of spotting a blogger you've been reading for several years and finally get to gush to in person, *cough Lena Burkut, Way 2 Goodlife* and there's the sponsors who stage elaborate events and activities designed to get your guard down while media and your peers snap away at sharing stations. If you expect to visit a blog conference and walk away without permanent evidence in the Cloud you are in for a surprise, my friend!
It took me 4 years, blogging every day, sometimes twice a day, to get my but to a blog conference. Why? Because I fall into that large margin of bloggers with social anxieties that enjoy being seen and heard from the other side of a computer screen. Let's face it, blogging is a controlled world- it's intended to be a glimpse into our lives, but at the end of the day we decide how raw that glimpse truly is. I can talk up storms in Google Chat or Facebook Groups, but I'm hesitant to own myself in public crowds. It's something blogging has actually helped me with tremendously.
I won't lie, however, when I won a scholarship to #SoFabCon14, in Arkansas, this past Spring I was more terrified than excited. The group of bloggers attending was much smaller than, say, BlogHer, but they seemed much more outgoing and active in general. People were grouping up to plan costumes for parties months in advance, and even sharing their suitcase wardrobes online. I half anticipated I'd die on the first day and never leave my hotel room. Luckily, Alyssa of Giveaway Overload, was my roommate and the perfect match for me anxious personality. While I don't have kids yet, we had a lot in common and spend the majority of the event awkwardly growing together.
Prompt for Week 4: (8/14) Blogging Nightmares- Okay, it's time to dish about that sponsored post, blog hop, complicated recipe, or just generally rocking post that almost didn't happen. We want to hear about computer mishaps, missed flights, Blogger mysteries and that time when your perfect post was much more of a quest to tackle than anyone could have ever known!
