Blogger Tutorial w/ DisneyRollerGirl at The Village Westfield
On Saturday I was lucky enough to have won a place on one of Westfield's series of Blogger Tutorials.
I attended one of the tutorials with DisneyRollerGirl (DRG) and seven bloggers, who, as I was, were all keen on learning about how to make better use of their blogs and make a name for themselves in the blogosphere.
I whisked in late, but had tweeted Navaz before, letting her know that I nearly blinded myself with hair treatment chemicals and that the Central Line was nobody's friend that afternoon. Once I had introduced myself and this new little blog, we got started properly.
This year, DRG moved from disneyrollergirl.blogspot.com to disneyrollergirl.net and from Blogger to Wordpress. With some swanky new design and a complete move from a simple, dark layout to a large, clean, white layout DRG's revamp went down well. It's something she says she didn't want to make "too corporate, but there definitely needed to be a change, the old blog was a bit too clunky." She also revealed her identity and ceased being anonymous.
The Creative: DisneyRollerGirl blogger, stylist, fashion insider.
In terms of helping us, Navaz was on hand to answer any questions and go over areas which could help us to enhance our blogs even further.
She looked into USPs (Unique Selling Point) asking us what she thought made our blogs different and how we should carve those things out early and definitively.
For some bloggers in the room who were blogging on the side and had a full-time job, she advised that they remember that being an insider gives people a niche and said "sometimes when you're in a job, you forget what you know, if you make it known that you are a professional in your field it gives your blog more personality." This is true, because people read DisneyRollerGirl in the beginning because she was an insider, not knowing who she was or even what she did. This helps to be seen as not just a blogger but somebody who specialises in said field, giving more leverage to the blogger.
Although she claims to not know about every gadget, social networking tool and plug-in out there, DRG's resounding bit of advice was: keep afloat and aware of new technology. "There is a mass of technology out there that makes getting your blog noticed much easier, Facebook can be used to 'add more value' to your site by consolidating your existing content and Twitter is a no-brainer. If you're not on Twitter you're doing something wrong."
She also believes that with the internet and this new form of self-publishing comes the lure of PRs, free clothes, sponsorship and Top-100 lists. She says she is not that competitive with other bloggers and tends to steer clear of the hype stressing that we must retain our "editorial voice" above anything else.
She believes that always writing everything a PR person emails over makes bloggers lose their Unique Special Point-of-view (another USP) and it's easily intercepted by the loyal reader.
One thing that stuck out to me was her advice to not get too hung up on figures and instead carve out a personal niche with the blog. She said; "It's not about numbers it's about influence and reach." She does not talk much about her statistics because what's important is cultivating good content that reaches people but also that influences them to share it, tweet it, "like" it.
At this point I was just happy to see her, as herself and as Disney Roller Girl, so I asked if it was better whilst she was anonymous or whilst she is "out". There is no difference, she thinks it's better for people to know because most fashion insiders knew (hell even I knew!) and that this way it would make attending events easier too.
Her final words were on publicising yourself and how one should reach out to brands to collaborate. This thought hasn't even crossed my mind yet because I'm all about finding the people that are making the brand ideas and that are making the brand/label etc a success.
Alas, people do blogger/brand collabos all the time and so this may come in handy one day. She recommended that we write a small press release for our blog, charting our success, history, aims and perhaps even the Top 10 brands you'd like to work with.
"Don't just stay behind the computer and be a remote blogger, don't just go to events, take notes, some pictures, go home and write it up. Or just go down to have drinks with your mates like I do, actually report, get quotes off of people you meet, be proactive and it'll all come together."
Well that's sound advice to me!
http://www.disneyrollergirl.net/
http://twitter.com/#!/disneyrollrgirl
http://uk.westfield.com/london/fashion/
http://twitter.com/#!/westfieldlondon
