We had a lot of interesting conversations at our #JoziMeetup and one of the topics that came up was engagement. It seems to be something everyone wants, but isn’t quite sure how to get. As it turns out, engagement works both ways but it was satisfying to see so many bloggers, brands and PR having these conversations and chatting to each other and having a good time too.
Laura also spoke a bit about this theme when it comes to Pinterest. You have to pin other people’s pins to get people to pin yours. There’s even a 80/20 rules where 80% should be other people’s pins and 20% should be yours but she says she doesn’t stick to this. However it’s a good concept to understand that you need to be engaging with other people’s content in order for them to do the same for yours.
Pinterest is a search engine Share on X
The interesting thing that Laura said that stuck with me is that Pinterest is a search engine. It does make sense though, now that I think about it. When I am searching for my art activities eg “toddler weather art activities” what pops up first? Pinterest boards. With this in mind Laura suggests actually naming your boards with searchable names with more detail. For instance, having a “dinner” board is a bit useless but “quick dinners for kids” or “chicken dinners” are more searchable.
As far as your actual boards go, make sure that you have at least 6-7 pins on a board as boards with a single pin don’t look so good. You can search on the topic and pin more relevant pins to your board. Also make sure that you’ve filled in all the detail on your board, particularly the category.
To grow your Pinterest account you need to pin! And join groups. You can search on Pinterest for group boards. (If you get Blog By Number Suzy also gives you a whole list).
The topic was brought up about how Pinterest seems to be more of a US audience, and how is this helpful for those of us trying to grow a SA audience. Laura had an interesting take on this. She acknowledges that Pinterest is not really a SA audience and the kinds of pins she puts on there are those that will work internationally rather than locally. We chatted a bit about how SA tends to be a bit behind on a lot of things and how when blogging started, they were her main audience. I also found this as an infertility blogger how other US bloggers supported me.
Having said all that I also do want to put our Pinterest account out there. I am looking for people to join any of the boards that interest you. I know it also needs a lot of work and I will take some tips from Laura’s talk to clean it up!
Laura also shared a site she uses to schedule her pins that works really well: Tailwind. She aims for 20 pins a day, again, some of hers and some of others. You can add it as an extension to your browser. Also in Tailwind you can use it for Instagram; the useful part about that is that it gives you suggested hashtags and tells you if the hashtags are good.
Our panel discussion consisted of the following bloggers and PR ladies: Tanya from Rattle and Mum, Sarah from Mascara and Mimosas, Nicole from Autograph PR, Dominique from Hello Conversations and Belinda from Wellness Warehouse.
Our first question was: How do you get your followers to engage with you?
Everyone on the panel agrees that engagement is more important that your stats. So how?
Sarah had a really good answer to this. She said that you obtain engagement by giving it. She used the example of Instagram, following hashtags that are in your niche. Look at your analytics and see when your followers are online. Instagram also favours posts when you have been active, engaging with other people’s posts 30 min before and 30 min after.
Tanya encourages us to focus on our strengths. For instance, hers is writing good content. So she shares her content and achieves engagement from that. She also looks at how often bloggers post and how many people enter your giveaways.
Nicole asks: how do you engage with people? She checks if bloggers have answered questions their commentators have posed and how they have answered them.
According to Dominique there is even a way you can measure engagement. It’s called “Best practice engagement 2018” and you can google it. She says she works it out on Instagram by looking at the 4th picture onwards for the next ten ones.
You do need to take your blog seriously. You have to have a Business Account for your Instagram and know your stats. Your audience demographics and unique views. Brands do sometimes want stats. Laetitia said that often it depends on what a brand actually wants: sometimes they don’t want sales or engagement, they just want a big reach (awareness). You have to chat to them to figure out what the objectives are.
What percentage of your business comes from brands/agencies approaching you VS you approaching them? If you do approach them to collaborate, would you then send through your rate card?
Sarah says this is pretty much 50/50. She talked about how she would use the brand first, do a post about it and then tag the brand. She said she will then work with them. She will often do some free and some paid work with a brand she likes.
Dominique says she gets her back up when she is sent a rate card. She says you should rather call it a “Info Pack”. Talk about yourself, your interests and what you like. Talk about what you will do if they send you products. Build a conversation with the PR first before sending over a rate card.
How do you find the PR agency for the product you want to work with? There are a number of resources bloggers can use eg bizcomm and PRISA.
It’s important when approaching PR agencies not to just copy and paste what you sent to a previous PR agency says Belinda. Build that personal connection.
Lastly, we had a question about how we protect our children that we write about. The effect that our blogging has on them.
Tanya was asked this question as her boy is older and she told us how he had googled himself and come across her personal blog Dear Max and Rebecca. She explained to him that he knew about this and they were letters to himself and his sister. Nowadays she needs approval to post pictures of him too. She told us the best way to blog is to blog like everyone is looking and to be aware that whatever you post is something you should never be ashamed of.
Laura also chimed in because she has older children and shared how she googles their names every six months or so to check what comes up. Some issues that were raised were: this is what future employers will find and you want to make sure that you have your child’s best interests at heart.
Mari Louise from Just a Mama also shared that she had read a post from an Australian blogger (@notsomumsy) on just this issue on Instagram and Live Chats.
We’re very grateful for the panel and all the bloggers who took part in these discussions. There always seems to be so much to talk about around these topics and we continue to learn how to improve ourselves as bloggers when we engage with these questions and each other.
Making this event possible were some sponsors and goody bag contributors who I would like to mention:
- Stylishi Mama – Haneefa Motani.
Haneefa opened her home to us and we greatly appreciate that. She is the most generous host and everytime I visited she was offering me some curry! (We took some home on Friday night and it was delicious!)
She also happens to be one awesome clothes designer. Perfect for pregnancy, breastfeeding and beyond. Unlike those maternity clothes that sit in the cupboard afterwards you can still wear them later post bump. And so flattering. Haneefa is going to have her clothes in store in Parkhurst soon and a best seller jumpsuit on Amazon too. Stay tuned on her social media: Facebook, Instagram.
2. Fountain Medical
Representing Happy Tot and Child’s Farm, this company had a beautiful display of products. I was also very impressed with Monica being the first to arrive and the last to leave. Thanks for your support! These Happy Tot bars are great to keep in your bag for the dreaded “I’m hungry” kid piping up. Child’s Farm moisturiser is also awesome for skin problems such as eczema.
This group uses the Mattel brands and licenses them into other forms. Eg every time you see a Hot Wheels, Thomas or Barbie T-shirt, they are the ones behind it.
Of course the highlight here from this brand was the launch of their Barbie ice creams from Ola. The bloggers loved the ice creams even in the cold weather and their colourful appearance were a lot of fun as well as their taste. Another interesting thing happening with Barbie is a competition where the dress your child draws may land up designed and made up for real. Check out the latest Barbie magazine May/June 2018 for more details.
Of course in our house Nicky just goes for the cars – he is obsessed with Hot Wheels and builds tracks everywhere. He also liked the Thomas Mini from Mattel and had fun balancing it on his aeroplane made from paper and sticks. This little Thomas had stripes just like a zebra. Of course this was a hit with Nicky because one of his favourite bath toys is a zebra.
4. LucidView Enforcer
I’ve written on this blog before about this device that protects your child from some of the bad stuff on the internet. I wrote an overview and I also wrote about how to set it up.
Andrew spoke about the harmful affects of the bad side of the internet. For instance porn is done in secret and has damaging effects on the brain. Likewise social media addiction is also a problem when people are addicted to affirmation of likes and comments.
The LucidView works by blocking harmful sites e.g. porn and gambling but what is exciting about this product is that it continually developing new add ons. Such as time limits for being on social media. Such as specifiying which IPs can be blocked or not. Although of course you can choose your own normal WiFi network and leave the LucidView for the kids. For the purposes of Fair Share (to make sure bandwidth is equally spread) and Malware blockage, you might want to use it too. Thanks LucidView for the discount voucher for renewal! We will be using that.
5. 
MatsiMela
This is a lovely brand and I’ve written about their range before. We’ve had them at a meetup before but the speaker (Samantha) was unable to attend on the previous occasion. So we had a catch up from her about a new skin care range and we were also lucky enough to receive some delightful hand massages from their therapists using the body butter. Lovely.
6. Mineraline
We received some lovely eye cream which utilises the dead sea minerals. You can read more about this brand in the post I wrote here. Honestly I was very excited about this product and I’m sure moms can relate to tired eyes with young kids in the mix.
I was completely bowled over with the amount of items from this group.
Thank you so much, Wellness Warehouse! You guys really contributed a lot to the goody bag! We have been enjoying the snacks and I have also been using the Buchulife first aid gel on two kids already.
How about these Kombucha drinks? I was nervous to drink the beetroot but honestly I really like it.
8. Prima Toys
These guys really came through at the last minute with a number of various items from lunch boxes, plates, utensils, playing cards, cars and puzzles. The bloggers were very impressed and grateful.
9. Nestle
Ok we love the chocolate. Aeros are devine but the “Fitness” bar is not bad either.
A real useful thing they gave us is this measuring scoop where you can select cups, spoons or ml. This is for all those times where you can’t find your measuring cups and they don’t have such detail either.
10. Hasbro
Hasbro gave us little Transformers which Nicky adores (and has already lost. In fact he woke up this morning wanting to know where his grey car was. I wish we could find it).
They also gave us a number of Little Pony / My Little Pet Shop toys too. These are super cute.
11. Printspace
This was a last minute rescue from Ian, who apart from being the other half of Poppet Patch also runs a printing business. He supplied us with pens and paper as well as bottles of water. Much appreciated, thanks Ian!
Thanks everyone for coming!
Check out this fun video that Laetitia did of the room.
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Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks so much, Heather, for all your hard work! There is always something to learn at a Jozimeetup.
And thank you so much for all the goodies. I am slowly but surely working/eating my way through all of it.