Feeling the Love at the #JoziMeetUp 2016

Something special was happening on Saturday at blogger meetups both Jozi (the #JoziMeetUp) and Cape Town (#CTMeetUp).  It wasn’t only about learning about blogging or enjoying the overflowing goody bags (although that was nice too).

I think I just felt an overflow of good vibes. People who cared for each other and made the effort to make the event a success. Bloggers contributing to the goody bag (thanks Wenchy and Gail!). Bloggers pitching up early to help (thanks Wenchy and Gail again! And Shaney!). Jolene did not know what she was in for hitching a ride with me. It was many trips up to the venue from the car! Bloggers speaking about their experiences in a way that was useful and applicable to us (thanks Sharon! And Shaney!) Laura and I even got a gift, not that we asked for it, or anything (thanks Wenchy!) Salome was a total star, on her feet the whole time taking awesome pics of our bloggers. I used her pics for the main graphic on this post but go ahead and look at the larger ones here.

Our goody bags were overflowing, but I can’t just say it was me. Or just Laura. Mandy from Pregnant in Cape Town helped us a lot. Lots of PR people helped us and were very generous. After Anele from Gullan and Gullan gave us two big Snowflake items we made the decision to use another bag.

You want to know how generous people were? Check out the pictures of my car, stuffed with goodies. And this was not all…

The room was all decked out with goodies and our platters were ready. People arrived and had coffee and drinks. So nice to see everyone chatting and catching up.

Our first speaker was Sharon from The Blessed Barrenness, and her speech was about Blogging and Ethics, and also about how to handle a post that goes viral. She has very helpfully summarised her speech here. I think what stood out for me is the fine line we have to balance as bloggers: to enjoy writing passionately about a subject you enjoy versus being paid to talk about certain brands. Blogging, as she points out, does cost money (we have just forked out an arm and a leg for our hosting) and does take up your time (and time is money, people) so we do need to make some money to cover those costs. How we go about it though, will show your readers your true self and that is worth more than anything a brand can pay you.

Another thing worth learning from Sharon is not to take yourself too seriously, as you see from this fun pic of us!

Shan from You, Baby and I had a lot to say about Blogging and Facebook.  Facebook is about engagement and interaction with your audience. You won’t get that from posting a series of links (yip, I’m super guilty of that for One Step at a Time).  Check your insights and find out the best time to share your posts.

Shan gave us an example of what she shares in a day: a question, a picture, a quote and one or two blog posts (and they don’t have to be yours – apparently if you share Huffington Post and Scary Mommy these get good positions and also you can share the love by linking a fellow blogger). She suggests 5-6 and a maximum of 10 posts in a day. You can schedule them.

Since Facebook will only let people see your posts if there is interaction with it (particularly comments) you need to check out what will get a reaction. Videos do well, as do kid’s pictures and quotes. Test things out and see for yourself.

You have to think: what will people share? Personal posts and competitions do well.

Shan cautions against Facebook ads (although she has used them, particularly for certain brand campaigns) and prefers organic growth. Don’t spend too much if you do go that route, she says. Sometimes the ads attract spammers and the type of readers you don’t want as well.

Something very useful that I learnt from her talk is to share your post from your blog post (using the social sharing buttons) into the Facebook groups: this will increase your reach more than just copying and pasting the links (yip, I have so been doing that).

Our last speaker was Moira Gerszt from the Smile Foundation. We normally have some sort of charity drive at our events (The Grace Factory is a favourite one) but this time we supported Hamley’s drive to take fluffy toys to children in hospitals. Moira shared how an ordinary mom from PE started the organisation in an effort  to help her child have a normal face. She wrote 9 letters to Nelson Mandela and he responded to that ninth one. Persistence pays!

After all that we dished out some prizes, very happily drawn by Funso’s child. We had hampers from Baby Sense, Kelloggs, Absolutely Awesome books and Bell Jars.

You can see by Samantha’s expression in this pic that we were suitably spoilt.

I have to mention the Oreo goody bag. This was probably one of the most creative offerings. I did appreciate the speakers which plug into my phone very nicely.  We had fun building the different phone and cookie holders. Nicky took the binoculars out to breakfast the next day -he loved them.

Oreo is offering us bloggers R5000 to write a blog post to promote their competition to win one of three family trips to New York City.  In order to stand a chance to win the trip you need to buy a box of Oreos (the 176g or 429g one) and sms the last 5 digits of the barcode to 40185 or enter online at the address above. The site is  http://www.letwonderout.co.za/. Email your links to laura@samomblogs.co.za and she will make sure that the relevant person gets it! Closing date is 16 April.

Thank you to all the bloggers who attended and supported us, you are stars! Go over and discover their blogs: Natalie (On Sabbatical in Sandton), Jolene (Monsters Ed), Funso (Raindrops of Hope), Sindiso and her sister Lehlogonolo (Sindiso’s Diary), Jenna (Faith Plus Mom), Ursula (Skimming Stones), Amanda (Baby Yum Yum), Susann (Goddess), MeeA (Mama MeeA), Sam (Communique), Lindi (A Well Heeled Woman), Mariette (Little Interiors), Olerato (Mommy and Baby Approved), Lebo (For His Love), Marcia (Organising Queen), Wenchy (The Nocturnal Wenchy), Gail (The Art of Learning to Live), Janice (Working Mothers Expo), Trisha Cornelius, Kirsten (Ramblings of a Nutt), Belinda (Being Belle), Lyndsay (Average Old Insanity).

I also want to give a shout out to all the brands that filled our goody bags and thanks to Sharon for her beautiful photographs of the goodies which I have reproduced here. I am putting social media links on these names. Go and show them some love by liking their Facebook pages or following them on Twitter.

Stationery (Gumtree), Coffee (Jacob’s Coffee), Sample (Glamore Cosmetics), Coconut Water (Vita Coco) Colour and Dirt Collector (Dr Beckmann), Dry Shampoo (Batiste), Hand wash (Dettol), Wipes and nappy sacks (Cherubs), Vouchers (Always On Wifi), Cupcake kit and muffin mix (Snowflake), Vouchers (Uber), Jewelry (Oh Voila), Goody bag (Oreo), Lotion and cream (Enjoy), Wine (Tangled Tree), Crown cut out (Little Interiors) Voucher (Aramex Global Shopper).

 

We look forward to our next meetup! Stay tuned!

Read other posts about the meetups:

Cindy Alfino The #CTMeetup 2016

Natalie wrote about our #JoziMeetup venue area Maboneng

Celeste Saturday at the #CTMeetup

Jolene SA Mom Blogs #JoziMeetUp

Lyndsay / Love Made Me: #CTMeetup 2016