On the first day of Social Media Week (the UK city this year is Glasgow) I was drafted in at the last minute to be the MC / Compare of Fashion Blogging 101 hosted at the Citizen M Hotel on Renfrew Street. The event was over subscribed with standing room only, 95% female audience and looking very glam (well they would be, fashion blogging and we’re in Glasgow – I’d expect nothing less).
The panel consisted of Jonathan Pryce, Les Garcons de Glasgow – Michelle Haswell, Kingdom of Style – Sarah Fraser, We Shop, Therefore We Are – Hilary Laing, the self titled Print Fashion Designer.
As the title suggests it was about how to get started – what you can expect and what you need to do in order to build momentum – all of our bloggers have been posting for a long time – if I recall Michelle said she started hers in 2006 and she gets up to 250,000 unique visits a month but that’s on the back of posting sometimes 2 and 3 times a day for 5 years… that is serious focus and determination, Michelle holds down a full time job and has no advertising on her site. Jonathan on the back of his blog is now entirely freelance and is about to leave to live in Paris, can we expect his blog title to change to “The Paris Weegies”? I’m sure that’s extremely unlikely but still a conundrum he has to face. Sarah started her blog as a work project and it turned into something altogether bigger than even she anticipated.
Each of our panel use a different platform, whether Blogger, Typepad or WordPress, Jonathan is a street style photographer, Michelle is Editorial and Sarah is High Street shopping – Hilary was on our panel to identify the need of fashion designers and brands to build relationships with well connected sympathetic bloggers and the huge difference it has made to her business.
I know only too well the benefits, the Social Tailor has brought my business countless pieces of work, been given product to talk about and opened doors to opportunities I would never have come across without it.
The buzz in the room after the event was great and really encouraging – it was great to meet the panel and have the opportunity to introduce a Social Media Week event that was trending on Twitter… are you there yet?