I mentioned on Wednesday that I was headed to Asheville, NC for the business portion of the Type A Parent Conference and that my guys would be left to fend for themselves. They did so well. My husband had all the dishes clean and JDaniel is still talking about the fun they had together.
If you have been following the conference on Twitter, you have heard people raving about the speakers during the business section as well as the conference sessions. I left with pages of notes and a head swimming with new ideas and things to work on after just one day. I am not sure what would have happened with I had stayed longer.
Feeling Welcomed
As soon as I arrived ran into Blue Violet and her roommate walking across the parking lot. She truly is amazing. She can make you feel like you just saw her even if it has been months.
In the lobby I ran into Liz of a belle, a bean, and a Chicago dog, KLZ of Taming Insanity, and Shell of Things She Can’t Say. I love these ladies blogs and they are amazing in person. It was great to chat with them and hear about their trips to Asheville. By the time I got up to my room to call my husband, I felt like I had seen almost every blogging friend I had hoped to see. I told Jdaniel3 is was like God had placed them in my path to help me feel like I belonged at the conference.
My exciting Wednesday night wasn’t over yet though. I called Audrey Rose of In the Kitchen with Audrey to see about meeting up and found she was staying in the room right next to mine. We sat up for several hours and chatting about our families and our blogs.
Thursday started off by meeting Varunner 7 of Two Bears Farm met me for breakfast. We have been blogging buddies for long time, but have never met. She is so kind and just plain wonderful.
What I Learned
Oh! I did go to amazing sessions too. I started out in a session on Facebook lead by Melanie Nelson and quickly realized that my Facebook page is not set up a fan page. When I reach 2,000 fans I will not be able to add more. I am not close to that number yet, but I may have to do something about that. We were also walked through using a website called shortstack.com that can help you add wonderful features to your Facebook page. The presenter also pointed out the need for a Facebook page to educate, entertain, or solve problems. It shouldn’t just be a place to add links to your post. I also learned you should never have a giveaway entry that asks your readers to follow or like you on Facebook. Facebook has rule against doing it.
The second session was called Traffic Bootcamp. Heather Solas was the presented and she was awesome. She pointed out the need for bloggers to know their value, be professional, provide access and ways to communicate and disclose. She also talked about the need to have a call of action for your readers. It is important she told us to engage your readers and provide ways for them to engage with you and your blog.
The last session I went to was called Clueless is not an Excuse: Numbers Matter lead by Shelly Kramer. She really hit home the need to know your stats and what they are telling you about your blog.I will be look at getclicky.com and tynt.com to see what they will teach me about my blog.
The final event I attended was a “speed dating” session with the sponsors. I was able to talk to amazing reps that love their products and shared wonderful samples with me. JDaniel loved a motorized toy truck I picked up. There are a number of other wonderful things I gathered and you will be seeing them in upcoming posts.
I truly loved attending this conference. I learned tons. The bloggers I met were friendly and welcoming. I so hope I will be able to so again.
It was so wonderful to meet you, and I enjoyed our chats! I’ve got the first (of probably 2-3) post going up tomorrow and you’ll be on there!
Great to meet you and glad to see you had a positive conference experience! This was my first conference and I loved it! 🙂
Wow sounds like you had an awesome time…and can’t believe you ran into to all those bloggers in person. Small world isn’t it?
Sounds like so much fun. I am happy you had the chance to experience it.
Promos on Facebook. You CAN condition entry into a promotion that they LIKE your page. Here are the rules: https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
I stay up to date on these regularly as this is part of my job from home. I’m an administrator for FB pages for authors. Also, there is a new option for you to SWITCH your FB profile into a page. Very easy. Here is the info regarding that: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18918
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks for sharing! I’ll be checking out the resources you mentioned.
Glad you had a wonderful time.
Sounds like a great time! I’m glad you got to go and learn so many new things.
It all sounds so awesome! I am happy for you for you and, this post made me itch to attend a blogging conference!
Ooooh, I wish I could have been there. The mountains in June and great bloggers sounds like a great weekend. Thanks for sharing what you learned!
Thanks for sharing! I hope one day I can to go a conference!
So glad you got to go to the conference even if it wasn’t for the whole things. Sounds like you learned a lot and have a lot of things to do now. Thanks for sharing some of what you learned.
SO glad you had fun!! Reading about all the Type A fun is getting me super excited for BlogHer. =)
oh, I totally adore Blueviolet. She is AMAZING.
Thanks so much for the info, I’m glad you had fun. One of these days I will get to a conference and meet you!
Sounds like a great conference, if for no other reason than you got ran into Blue Violet! How awesome is that?!
I am so happy we met right off the bat like that! I love spending time with you, and speaking of that, even though we sat together in a couple of sessions, I would have loved to hang out even more!
It was sooooo great to see you! I’m so glad you came for the day!
I just added GetClicky today!
I know it doesn’t sound fun, but it looks like you need to start a new FB page.
It was so nice to get to see you again!
so glad you went..
and so jealous!
can not wait to hear more about it
I SO wish I could’ve gone to a blog conference. I am supposed to go to Bloggy Boot Camp in Chicago in August, but life has gotten in the way and I may not be able to go. Working on 1-2 sponsor emails so we’ll see if something can happen!
I think running into these ladies (you included) I would either: scream like a crazed fan and run over and start hugging them (and freaking them out in the process) or feeling utterly inadequate with how popular and well love dyou are and not say a thing. =)
~Mimi
this stuff is way over my head. I still don’t know what Klout is, and I am not 100% sure about pinetrest. I just (last week) realized I had only halfway set up my feedburner. Or whatever it’s called. Now I’m wondering what a bot is. It sounds frightening.
I’m glad you had fun though!
What a cool thing! Although it makes me realize I really, truly know nothing!
I wish I was there ;(