OMG, guys, I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having at BlogWorldExpo. I don’t want this to end! Today was filled with more amazing sessions, more introductions and even a World Record.
Yep, that was me after I helped the folks at Gourmet Gift Baskets break a World Record for the largest cup of coffee poured. That monster is 2010 gallons. So crazy! I can’t believe I got to be part of it.
But enough about coffee, here’s a look at some of the sessions I was lucky enough to attend today.
Profiting Off The Brand Of YOU
Mari Smith was our host for this one and gave attendees some great information on how entrepreneurs and business owners can build and profit off creating their own personas. Mari defined a persona has something that has many different factors.
- Your Influence Factor: Do people listen to you? Can you move people action?
- Your Engagement Factor: Numbers: quantity vs engaged. It’s better to have 100 highly engaged Twitter followers than 10,000 who couldn’t give a hoot what you say and never respond. If you focus on quality, the quantity comes.
- Your Reach Factor: When you say something, how far does it reach? You want to grow your platform organically over time.
- Demand Factor: The media wants to interview you because you’re the expert in your field. People want you to beta test their products.
- Known Factor: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Who knows you?
- Monetize Factor: If you’re building a brand around your name, what if something happens to you? How are you going to pass that down or step out of it should you want to?
Your persona is also measured by your reputation. What are you known for? Are you happy with it? What exactly do you do, who do you service, how do you service them? Because we live in an attention-based society, when people see you going by in their stream you want them to instantaneously associate you with whatever you’re known for.
One thing to keep in mind when building your persona is should you be building your NAME or your COMPANY? Your answer will depend on your goals and what you’re trying to create. If you’re building a business you want to one day sell (ala TechCrunch to AOL), then you want to build the company name, as well as your own.
How do you build your brand? By being uniquely you. Stand out with conviction and confidence, innovate instead of looking sideways, and focus on your brand experience. How do you want your customers to feel before, during and after interacting with you/your brand? Mari also spoke about how while it’s okay to recognize fear, you can’t let it stop you or allow you to put people on pedestals. The moment you put someone on a pedestal, you’re saying they’re better than you.
Get a Life!
Outspoken Media is doing amazing. We’re coming up on our two year anniversary and it’s been really special to watch all the growth that has taken place. What is less awesome is the, um, ‘growth’ that I’ve endured spending so much time in front of a computer screen and not enough time hitting the gym. And that’s why I made sure I squeezed by butt into this afternoon’s Get A Life! Session with speakers Leo Babauta, Lisa Johnson, Jonathan Fields and Lewis Howes to pick up some tips (and motivation) for how to stay fit and be a healthy blogger.
Jonathan kicked of the session citing the 2008 New York Times article that essentially said that blogging kills people, referencing some high profile bloggers who had recently suffered heart attacks. Jonathan quoted some research that said the average adult now spends between 8.5-9 hours a day sitting in front of a screen. Even worse, the average child is now spending 7.5 hours in front of a screen, up from 3 hours ten years ago. It’s dangerous because sitting is now matching smoking in terms of risk factor for heart disease. That…was kind of frightening.
How do you commit to a healthier blogging lifestyle?
Carve out the time: Several of the panelists noted that people who work out are actually more efficient in their day than those that do not. That means you’re not using time by working out, you’re actually creating more time for yourself. You need to carve out the time for yourself for when you can work out. If you’re a morning person, do it in the morning. If you’re a night owl, do it then. If you have a family life to balance, plan it inside your existing schedule.
Make yourself accountable: This is a big one for me. It’s easy to say you’re going to work and harder to actually do it. According to Leo and Jonathan, the hardest part of working out is putting on your sneakers. Once you do that, the rest of it is easy. Leo mentioned that what helps him is having a person or class to meet up with to give him that structure. He makes appointments to do things so it doesn’t get pushed back. I think a lot of people are pretty similar to Leo. Without someone to hold us accountable, things don’t get done. Creating more specific goals like, “I want to lose 5lbs this month” instead of “I want to lose 50lbs” can help keep you on track.
Commit: You have to commit to do something and then get rid of the excuses for why you’re not doing it. Make working out a priority so that you’ll stick to it. It also helps if you can find things you actually enjoy doing it. Lewis is big into team sports because he’s found the more competitive activities he adds to his day, the better his mind works.
Use Apps to help: Apps! Yes! Instead of using the technology as an excuse for why you’re not getting your butt in shape, use it to help you. The panelists spoke about how applications like Livestrong, Couch to 5K, the Weight Watches app, Daily Burn and Spark People can help you track workouts and nutrition.
Enticing your readers with mouth-watering content
I ended my second day at BlogWorld looking at what goes into making truly great content with the help of speaker Nathalie Lussier. The heart of Nathalie’s presentation seemed to be that in order to create mouth-watering content you really need to understand end goals – both yours and your audiences. For yourself, you need to know what is going to determine success, what you’re trying to do, and what is your planning to achieve. In terms of your audience, you need to know what they want, what problems they have, and how you can create a menu of content that will help satisfy what they’re craving. You should explore the different types of content available to you, things like audio, video, downloadable content, etc.
Nathalie talked about creating content similar to making a meal – you can either follow a recipe or decide to ‘wing it’. The latter may be a bigger risk, but it can also create big rewards. The recipe approach to writing blog content includes some of the following:
- Crafting a great headline
- Establishing value
- Style (bullets, headers, paragraphs)
- You (people want YOU, that’s why they’re reading)
- Call to actions
Nathalie also stressed the importance of SEO and making sure that your content is search-friendly. You want to use one keyword/topic per post and take advantage of things like that All In One SEO WordPress plugin to make sure your content is as friendly as it can be.
And that sums up Day 2 for BlogWorld. If you’re at the show and we haven’t had a beer yet, make sure to track me down. Otherwise, check back tomorrow evening for the final installment of #bwe10 content and my pitiful whining that I can’t believe it’s already over. See ya then!
