I’m a self proclaimed social media nerd, so I especially enjoyed listening to Chris Brogan speak at the Disney Social Media Moms conference last week. As the President of Human Business Works, a New York Times best-selling author, a featured columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine and a Twitter following of more than 178,000 it’s safe to say Chris knows a thing or two about the world of social media.
Here are a few highlights –
- Everything is content.
- Good enough is good enough. No one cares if you have a comma in the wrong place. (Amen!)
- YouTube is a must for bloggers. It is the second largest search engine in the world.
- Brevity is key in vlogging. No one wants or has time to watch a six-minute video.
- Brands don’t want to work with bloggers that are continuously breaking others down. Cattiness and negativity isn’t the way to get noticed in social media.
- How many times should bloggers post each day? Depends on how much traffic you want! (Easy enough!)
- WordPress users – implement the WPTouch plugin. It makes your site user-friendly on smartphones. (I already use it!)
- Don’t share the same message at the same time on multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). Most followers usually follow in more than one place. It’s annoying and readers will stop following on other platforms. (I’m bad at this..sorry!)
- Be the connector. Help others, whether it’s providing informative content or raising someone up.
- Go with a whim. Chris makes $4,500 a month (three times his mortgage!) on a whim idea of selling subscribers blog topic ideas for $9.97/month!
And my favorite take-away from his speech? The CRAP model for bloggers –
- Connections – Build your network each day.
- Referrals – Word of mouth marketing means survival for bloggers.
- Attention/Awareness – Be everywhere and do great things.
- Presence – Be everywhere… at all times. It’s the only way readers know how to find you!
What social media tips would you like to share? What works (or doesn’t) work for you?
Did you attend the conference? What were some of your favorite tips from Chris Brogan?
Disclosure: My family and I attended the Disney Social Media Moms conference at a discounted rate. We were provided with special access to activities, some meals, gifts and discounted resort accommodations as part of our conference fees. All opinions here are my own.
Comments
Kara @ The Vacation Gals
Nice recap! However, I beg to differ re: “good enough is good enough.” The copyeditor in me DOES make sure commas are in the right place! Poorly written blogs with spelling mistakes, typos, grammatical errors drive me nuts. Sure, such mistakes don’t turn many readers off, but if your blog is so-so and it could be GREAT, why not work on fixing chronic punctuation/capitalization problems? Or at least use spell check.
Carrie with Children
Kara – Many attendees also disagreed on the “good enough is good enough” statement. I see a little of both sides. I read my posts numerous times before hitting the deadly “Publish” button.. I’m constantly making sure my writing is the best it can be and spell check is my best friend, but I”m not losing sleep at night over an oversight of punctuation.
I’m glad you enjoyed the recap! Thanks for the RT on Twitter too!
Kara @ The Vacation Gals
Totally hear you. Everyone screws up and has typos! It’s the blogs I see that have really, really good info, but perpetual issues (many mistakes in every post) that just make me wonder… is it that the author doesn’t care? Or the author doesn’t know?
Carrie with Children
Oh yes, I know those type of sites very well. It’s a quick turnoff for me when posts have so many issues. How am I supposed to find them a credible source if they don’t even care about the writing.
Tara B
First let me say that I enjoyed all the posts and photos during the conference. I really like Chris’s message. I think that he just gets straight to the point and doesn’t need all the fluff. His simplicity of C.R.A.P. proves that most anyone can be a successful blogger. His message to lift each other up is honestly on of my favorites especially being I was just made aware of the drama and negativity that is sometimes present in the blogging world.(yep I didn’t know it existed) There are so many takeaways from his message and it seems they can be adapted to any blog.
Thanks so much for sharing what you learned and taking us all with you to Disney!
Carrie with Children
I’m so glad you found this post helpful, Tara! It’s baffling to me when I see bloggers and others in social media bashing and bullying others. What’s the point?!
I’ve got some more posts coming on other speakers… hope to have them up within the week!
Tara B
Thanks Carrie. I look forward to your future posts. With just starting a blog (as soon as the design is done that is) the more information I can get the better!
Carrie with Children
How exciting! I’m definitely not a pro, but I’m happy to help if you have any questions or need anything! Blogging is lots of fun!
RoryBore
Very helpful! Was sooo envious of all the moms at Disney, sipping champagne and having a grand time….it’s so nice that you have passed this info to those of us who couldn’t attend. Thanks for sharing!
Carrie with Children
Yay! I’m so glad it was helpful for you! I’ve got another post lined up for next week with tips from some of the other speakers! Stay tuned!
Practical Parenting
Thanks for the great info! I try to keep up with connecting every day, but my time is so limited right now. I often feel like I just can’t keep up with everything. I keep working on my writing schedule to try to free up some time!
Carrie with Children
I know exactly what you mean! It’s a lot of work to juggle everything! Glad these tips were helpful for you!