I will be attending the BlogHer conference in August. The perks are obvious. It is in my favorite city in the world. I can go and stay for free with my family in Long Island but more importantly I have a chance to be around like minded individuals.
As your business evolves so do your motives for networking...it is important to find organizations that bring you a good stream of referrals and new business, but how do you network for your passion? I feel like this is just as important. Because when you are a blogger, you teeter between having a hobby, making it a dream and it is endlessly tiring trying to explain it all to your non blogging peeps what and more importantly why you spend time blogging. Is it because you have something to say? You have dreams of being an official source on your blog topic? Do you have visions of money and fame? Is it the start of your book? Is the internet your only outlet for letting people hear what you have to say, or a combination of all of these?
In Daytona where I live, it is interesting. I sum it up to the beach life mentality but the full scope of social media (blogging, Twitter, etc.) hasn't really caught on. The upside is that I sit in a very convenient position with many people to teach the joys of these tools. It is also kind of nice to learn as much as you can without really having the masses get in and ruin it. I can actually still use outlets like Twitter to vent my mean reds for the day and it isn't as personal. But it can get a little lonely...my friend BeautyMommy talk about trying to find out who in this town is an active blogger and is there a way we can get together and network? Initiating some support for one another on a local level could be very helpful. While I am all about blazing trails in this little town of mine...I feel like it would be of great benefit and consciously rewarding to find like minded local individuals.
When you are in a city that isn't as social as you would like to be, how do you connect locally?
Visiting from NaBloPoMo
ReplyDeleteGood Question! I really don't. So busy! I would like to go to that conference too - thinking about it...