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If there is one area I feel like I deserve a fail in my freshman year of blogging it is in the area of socializing with other bloggers.
Freshman year I spent 15 minutes each day reading and commenting on other blogs, and another 5 minutes of Facebook commenting on the Facebook statuses of those blogs I follow. This got me on the radar of a few bloggers, but created only a small handful of budding online relationships with fellow bloggers.
I went to in(RL) but regret that I let the relationship sparks fizzle out soon after.
Truth is most of my real life friends didn’t even read blogs until I started mine, and all of them give me a blank stare when I start talking bloggy words like SEO and HTML; leaving me craving real life blogging friends.
Four Things I Am Doing My Sophomore Year To Create Closer Blogging Friendships
1. I am going to BEECH retreat. I am hoping to not only acquire a wealth of information that will improve my blogging skills at BEECH but also for several budding blogging friendships, that I intend to keep growing.
2. I jumped into twitter with the goal of attending one twitter party a week with other bloggers.
3. I am attending in(RL) again this year but this year I intend to do all I can do to fan the fire from whatever sparks of blogging friendships I discover there instead of letting them die out.
4. Before attending both events I am taking the time to get to know the attendee’s in advance as much as possible so that I feel like I already know people when I get there. This should help me avoid shutting down socially, which is what I tend to want to do when surrounded by new people, a habit not at all conducive to my goal of friendship making.
I plan to do this by:
a) Following the attendees on twitter and joining any twitter parties hosted by the events before the events takes place.
b) Following attendees’ Facebook page status updates. For BEECH I placed them all in an interest list on Facebook so that they are all in one place for me to check a few times a day for a few minutes at a time. I am leaving relevant comments on status updates and making a mental note of the things they shared about.
c) Spending time reading the attendees’ blogs. I want to know the overall feel of their blog and what topics they write about.
Doing these things should not only help me feel at ease with them when I finally meet them face to face but it should give me several conversation starters.
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Hello! It’s nice to meet you! I’ll be at BEECH, too – and look forward to meeting you there. This was a wonderful post 🙂
I look forward to meeting you too!
Oh man, I’m a total networking failure! I’ve always found it difficult. I’m still in the midst of my first blogging year and have been trying to get better at networking with other bloggers the past few months. I’m hoping BEECH will help me to really connect with some people while I’m there, but like you I’m not always real great in crowds of unfamiliar people. That is when my introverted sign really comes out. Praying I can overcome it though 🙂
I will look forward to meeting you at BEECH!
It’s good to know I won’t be the only fighting an introverted side! Looking forward to meeting you.
So very wise of you to have thought this through and to formulate goals that are realistic and helpful! Please come find me and introduce yourself – love to meet young blogging gals!
Thanks I did have some help from a fellow blogger who was kind enough to take enough time out of her busy day to send me a detailed e-mail of what I should do before and during the conference to get the most out of my families investment. I took her words of advice to heart and made a plan based from her list.
I found myself at Relevant (Allume) and didn’t even know what a blog was, or why I needed to tweet. That weekend was a whirl wind of info. A week later I started my own blog and am just starting my second year of blogging. I am still trying to figure out SEO! Look forward to meeting you 🙂
Looking forward to meeting you too! I am expecting to feel like my brain is going to explode by the end of the weekend but I am so looking forward to meeting bloggers in real life and learning about ways to improve my blog and its blessings for my family.
I too went to Relevant (Allume) and found myself so overwhelmed with the info, the amount of people, and everything that I fizzled out on relationships big time. I stayed connected with a few people, and because of her- I’m going to BEECH. The experience at Allume mad me want to approach BEECH with a different mentality, and what you just wrote captures it perfectly. These are fantastic ideas for being Social in Social Media. Something I wish I would’ve learned bf going to Allume. Can’t wait to meet you at BR.
Thanks and I can’t wait to meet you too! I feel so blessed to go to a conference with relatively small numbers as know it will mean more chances of forming connections.
Michael Hyatt would be proud of you for writing out your goals!
I’m also looking forward to BEECH. I’ve met some amazing ladies through social media and can’t wait to hug ’em IRL! I was doing so well attending weekly Twitter chats/parties, but life has gotten so crazy in the past couple of months that I drifted away from that. Gotta get back on the Twitter wagon myself.
Excited to meet you, Victoria!
Looking forward to meeting you too Kim.
great post…thanks for the ideas. I look forward to meeting you at Beech. See you in a couple weeks
Thank you for this information! I’ve tried my hat at blogging several times, but I’ve never really connected with other bloggers. I think that making “blogger friends” will keep me motivated. I’d love to “meet” others that are interested in the same things.