Attending creative conferences may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they are mine. Learning about marketing, social media or blogging and making connections with creative, nice people fills me up. There is something about being surrounded by people with similar goals and dreams that make creative conferences so empowering and inspiring. This was my second time attending Thrive Conference in Austin and it gets better every year.
About Thrive Conference
Thrive Conference began 5 years ago by Bree Pear with a mission to help educate, inspire, and motivate bloggers to find their success. Along with an offiline conference, Thrive is also an online platform for bloggers and social media influences with blogs, podcasts, and a Facebook group. This year, the conference was a 2- day conference at Trinity Hall in Austin with an opening night kickoff party at the Refinery
Day one
The day began with Miranda Anderson from Live Free Creative talking about growth and engagement. She recorded her entire talk into a podcast episode and I highly recommend taking 50 minutes of your day to listen to her podcast episode.
Through sharing personal and funny anecdotes, she challenged the idea of growth and engagement being defined by follower count, likes, page views, or comments. She began by looking at the dictionary definitions of growth and engagement She believes that:
- The idea of “You’re either growing or you’re dying” is not true. Death is inevitable, growth is optional.
- Growth is uncomfortable. Growth is not a straight line, there are peaks, valleys, and plateaus and in order to continue expanding and moving forward, you need to ask yourself: what do I want to do, even if it is uncomfortable?
- Engagement is being committed to someone or something, a life long commitment and she asked- how engaged are you to the content that you are creating? You can’t control how other people react to your content, but you can definitely control how excited and engaged you are.
Pinterest with Enid Hwang
Pinterest is a search engine. Enid Hwang from Pinterest by explaining to keep in mind why a person visits Pinterest. Most people visit Pinterest to be inspired, create a life they love, and are considering new ideas with an open mind.
To be successful in Pinterest:
- Think longterm- Pins do not have an expiration date.
- Consistency is key, pinning 10-15 pins per day is a good starting point. By using tailwind, a Pinterest scheduling app you can schedule your pins for the week.
- The key to Pinterest is to pin beautiful images with a text overlay that is mobile friendly (80% of pinners are mobile)
- Be descriptive in your pins and your boards- write 1-2 sentences with good keywords and hashtags that relate to your pin.
Instagram Panel with Erin Kern, Holly Lauritzen, and Natalie Kolter
To be successful in Instagram:
- Find your support group of other bloggers looking to grow and share their content.
- Be Kind, comment on other profiles and support other people
- Share the behind the scenes of your business and talk to your followers on stories. Show your authentic self and your personality
- Post on a time that works for you, a time where you can sit down and engage with other accounts before and after posting.
- “Stories are the future of Instagram”- Erin Kern
Working with Brands with Alice Kerley and Pam Del
The first step with working with brands is to create a media kit, with a brief bio, links + social media handles, noteworthy stats, highlight past sponsorships. Then create a second page explaining your niche, examples of deliverables or gives and finish with a rate card.
A good way to find a brand’s influencer relations employee is to DM them on Instagram by asking for the email of the person who handles influences. Then email that person by introducing yourself, explaining why you are a good fit, what you can do, and any closing remarks (with a call to action). Also, be sure to attach your media kit.
Do not expect all pitches to hire you or even respond back to your email, but do not let that discourage you. Pitch yourself, you are not bothering the influencer relations person- in fact you’re making their job easier by highlighting why you are a good fit and the value that you can bring.
Daily use of Affiliates with Ashley Lastovica
Affiliate programs like amazon affiliate program, Rewardstyle, and Shopstyle are programs that allow you to earn a commission based on products that you promote and sell.
- If you have a blog, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be using affiliate links
- Make it as easy as possible for people to shop your link
- Create a landing page for your Instagram that includes links to your blog, affiliate links, and anything you might be promoting.
Day Two
The Sunday Session was a workshop style day focused on setting goals and a strategic workbook to fill out. The day started with thinking about why you started a blog. What
These started points served as a guide to work through the rest of the workbook in creating a 5-year goal, a 1-year goal, quarterly goals, monthly goals, logistics, and marketing.
The Sunday session was SO helpful, I wish I would have found and taken a workshop similar years ago! Overall, attending Thrive was such a great experience that is completely worth the investment.
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