I’ve had the opportunity to attend several blog conferences this year. Blog conferences are a great way to network with other bloggers and brands, and learn some tips and tricks to improve this little part of the web.
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to attend SoFabCon in Bentonville, Arkansas, a conference organized by Collective Bias. You may recognize Collective Bias as a company that I partner with often — in my experience, they have been the company most interested in providing quality opportunities for bloggers with competitive pay. I was excited for the chance to learn more about Collective Bias, meet some of the employees that I’ve come to know and love online, and, basically, figure out what I could do to better my relationship with them.
In my experience, blog conferences have the tendency to be more about how the blogger can impress brands and the company hosting the conference. It’s all about networking and meeting (and knowing) the right people. I had the expectation that SoFabCon would be the same — a sort-of popularity contest focused on making sure YOU do the right things to impress THEM (whoever “THEY” are).
To my surprise, it was the complete opposite. From the welcome reception at the beautiful Crystal Bridges Museum, it seemed that Collective Bias was there to impress US.
From killer keynotes about how bloggers are transforming the way that brands are perceived online (and the importance of partnering with them), to smaller sessions about ways to improve your photography to enhance your own content, there was not a session I attended at SoFabCon that I felt was a waste. I learned something in every single thing I attended.
The very best session, though, was “SEO: Titles, Tags & Bathrooms, Oh My!” by Dan Morris of Letters from Dan. It blew my mind. I have NEVER understood SEO like I do now. He gave me tangible things on my blog that I could implement right away (and I’m working to do). I’m hoping to write an entire post with my notes on what I learned in that session alone.
Full Disclosure: I did step away for about an hour on Saturday morning to get some work done in my hotel room. So I didn’t attend every single session.
The fabulous Tiffany Romero of the SITS Girls killed it in the opening keynote on Saturday morning. She talked about the importance of setting boundaries between your life online and your “real” life. Learning to power down is something that all bloggers struggle with and her comments hit home with me in particular.
My fabulous roomies made the weekend even more awesome — Courtney from My Crazy Savings and Jamie from Roubinek Reality. Their support made it easy to be myself and I love that I’ve developed a real friendship with these women.
Throughout the conference, Internet Media Labs monitored the #SoFabCon hashtag and measured the real-time influence of those who were participating in the discussion. Boards throughout the conference tracked the influence and top influencers were awarded “Jedi” ranking. It was really awesome to see our own tweets and how they were influencing the stream.
Some of the Social Fabric Community Managers (Kim from Crafty Mama of 4, Mel from MamaBuzz, Brandi from Mama Knows It All, and Kristin from Mama Luvs Books) gave a lunch-time panel on some ways to improve sponsored content. The bottom line of their discussion was that bloggers with great sponsored content take the content and show how it fits THEM. Twist the narrative — turn it on its head. Why does the product fit YOU? What makes YOU want to buy it? The most important thing you can do is be AUTHENTIC and do your best to provide amazing content.
But the closing keynote was where I really saw that Collective Bias “gets” it. The original speaker couldn’t make it, so they asked one of their own, Jasmine from Just Jasmine, to lead a discussion about sharing your authentic self online. It was eye-opening and emotional, and I may have cried several times.
Other community members shared their own stories and Jasmine talked about how you can share pieces of yourself, pieces of your story, and others will connect with it. That is something that I have struggled with for a long time — it is my story to tell? What about others that I might hurt? But then again, what about others I might help? I’m going to do my best to show you pieces of myself and to be authentic here in this space.
The whole conference screamed one big exclamation:
We want you to just be YOU!
No formulas. No equations. No lists of things to include in your sidebar. No promises of “just be like me, and you’ll be successful.”
Collective Bias celebrated each individual member of their community and rejoiced at our differences. They want to enable our successes by embracing our differences. They “get” it.
At the end of the weekend, I walked away with resources and experiences to fill my bucket and help me be a better blogger. To help me celebrate myself. And my investing in me, Collective Bias invested in themselves. This is a conference I will not hesitate to attend again.
They flipped the blogging conference narrative. This conference was not about how I could learn to work with them. It was about how they could learn to work with me. And I’m excited for what the future holds.
Thanks Arena,
I am sop humbled by this post. This is WHY we created Social Fabric as a Community by Community. We appreciate all of the contributions you bring to helping us achieve this vision. Thank You!
You are so welcome, John. It was such a pleasure to meet you at the conference. Thanks for all that you do!
Ditto what John said. We really do our best to live by the credo that it is All About Relationships. Like I tell my daughter’s all the time… “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” ~Dr. Seuss
Thank you so much Arena for letting us know that we accomplished our goal with the first SoFabCon.
I LOVE that quote, Ted! Thanks so much for sharing it and for your thoughtful comment. It means a lot!
Lets do it again! 🙂
Keep being awesome.
Definitely! I can’t wait until next year!
We were so happy to have you there Arena and thank you for writing about your experience! 🙂 I agree, Jasmine blew my mind with her discussion about being authentic and not “stylizing” your life. I have taken many great things from SoFabCon and integrated back into my life as well. Cant wait to see you again next year!
Thanks, Lindsey! Jasmine’s keynote was a highlight of the conference for me.
This post brought happy tears to my eyes. I’ve been managing SoFab for almost 3 years and SoFabCon has been a dream for the last 2 years. I’m so happy it turned out to be exactly, if not more than what the vision we hoped for it to be. I can’t wait for next year when we, the community, can be back together again:-)
YAY, Courtney! You have truly created an amazing community and I’m so thankful to be a (small) part of it! 🙂
So happy that SoFabCon was more than you ever imagined it would be, it was that for us too! We knew what we wanted it to be and it was amazing to see it all come together. Hearing stories like your’s makes it that much more amazing 🙂
Thanks so much, Kim! I learned a lot from our one-on-one session — again, a highlight of the conference for me!
Arena! I am so thrilled that you enjoyed the conference and got a lot out of it! I know even for me as a CB employee, I was able to attend some of the sessions and learn a great deal about blogging. One of the best things about the conference for me, was being able to meet the community members that create such amazing content for my campaigns. We are so lucky to have you be a part of the community and I hope CB can continue to give back to you, like you give to us! Hope you had a great holiday!
Thanks so much, Sydney! That means the world! 🙂
Arena,
I loved reading your perspective on SoFabCon. You’re right, we were trying to make this conference about our SF members. You are the heart of what we do and why we do it. It’s refreshing to read that you all saw that. It was so great to be able to meet you and so many other SF members that we talk to so frequently online. Awesome post!
I love this post. I JUST registered for 2014 SoFabCon – it will be my first SoFab conference and only third blogging conference (last year I did BlogHer). I can not wait to attend and see what SoFab has up its sleeves. So good to hear that you enjoyed yourself. Are you going this year?
Hi. Just found your blog thru the post you did to summarize this event last year. Whew! Anyway, glad I did. I just followed/liked your soc. media so I can keep in touch, too.
I’ve been blogging for 6+ months and will probably wait until next yr. to attend so that my stats can get higher. When you attended, did you feel that most had been blogging for awhile or who already had written sponsored posts? I just went to SITS Bloggy Conf. & had a wonderful experience. I also summarized it and was blown away by the response. What fab means to meet so many awesome people. Thanks!