Go Blog Social

This past weekend was full of fun for me, including getting to attend the Go Blog Social pop-up conference in Chicago. I had the pleasure of being a blog ambassador for Go Blog Social and it exceeded my expectations. It was my first time at the conference, which is organized by several bloggers in Kansas City. I took away a lot of blog tips and inspiration, and left feeling like my online friends had turned into real friends. Continue reading to hear about the conference and some of the best tips the experts shared. And if you want to hear more about the conference, please leave me a comment.

The conference was held at City View Loft and the day began with breakfast from LM Catering. After breakfast, Janet Mandell of Fashionaholic held the first discussion about growing an Instagram following. She shared several tips, including:

1. Post on Instagram multiple times a day and be conscious of the time zones your followers may be in. Remember, Instagram is international.
2. Stay true to your brand, but try to focus some posts on trending topics. Be sure to use hashtags about the trends so people searching “explore” can find you.
3. As for your blog, make sure it’s searchable online by installing the Yoast plugin on WordPress. This will help you navigate SEO easily to create a blog that ranks high in searches.

Next up was the day’s keynote speaker and a favorite Chicago blogger of mine, Hallie Wilson, Among Other Things. Hallie recently returned to Chicago from NYC to follow her passion of becoming a SoulCycle instructor. She shared her story as well as tips for us to find our own passion to succeed in the blogging or career world. Some of the things that she said that stuck with me the most were:

1. Cold emailing someone? Make your message memorable. Hallie suggests complimenting the person, finding a common ground (for ex. “I see we both went to the University of Dayton”) and asking for their time to do something as simple as a coffee date.
2. When reaching out to brands, use anecdotes to help prove you’d be a great brand ambassador. For example, if you’re emailing a PR representative for Old Navy say “I live in my Old Navy boyfriend jeans and am constantly getting asked where I got them.”
3. Any other lifestyle bloggers out there? Grow your followers by letting them into your world. You can use each post, whether it’s an outfit, recipe or workout tip, to create a narrative of your life.

Melissa Jones of theCEOofffice held mini-sessions to discuss Creative Chics, a group of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and women who are striving towards taking their creative business full-time. Check out her website to see how you could get involved.

Other speakers included Amanda Boleyn of the podcast She Did It Her Way, Hillary Sawchuk of the blog A Drink With, and Lauren Kelp of the blog Lauren Kelp. I can tell you my table left the conference extremely inspired and vowing to go home and put some of the tips to use. Of course, I just had to share them with you because they were too good to keep a secret!

I want to say thank you to the Go Blog Social organizers for inviting me to the conference and give them props for throwing such a great event. I am amazed at what they coordinated and how worthwhile it was for all of us! Congrats to Kathryn, Katelyn, Sarah and Samantha.

Thank you to all of the sponsors, who sent us home with so many goodies!

I’m so excited to have a new print from CurioPress.

During the day I stayed hydrated and caffeinated (see above) with VitaCoco.