Evolving Influence

Last Thursday, I attended IFB‘s Evolving Influence conference in New York City. The conference focused on four main things: making a living with your blog, cultivating a passionate readership, launching your career with your blog, and captivating your audience with compelling content.

For those of you who were unable to attend, or if you are a new blogger just starting out, I’ve decided to quickly sum up what I took away from each speaker’s presentation. Each of the nine speakers had something different to offer. Their success and achievements are inspirations to bloggers everywhere, so being able to hear them speak (and getting to meet some of them) was a great experience. Kudos to IFB for putting together a successful event. If you want to read a full summary of each presentation, visit www.ifb.com.

Mattias Swenson, the charming Swedish Web entrepreneur and co-founder of Bloglovin.com, was the first to speak. For those of you who don’t know what Bloglovin is, it’s an online tool where you can keep track of all of your favorite blogs and know when they have been updated. (Bloggers can see how many Bloglovin followers they have.) I use Bloglovin almost everyday. Mattias called bloggers “Ambassadors 2.0,” and this is why: Basic advertisements have high reach—they can reach millions of people—but they have low trust. Bloggers, on the other hand, can also have high reach and high trust. This explains why some stores sell out of an item after a blogger features it. With many loyal followers, bloggers can recommend or feature a piece of clothing or product and their followers trust them enough that they will purchase the item. The Ambassador 2.0 is a real person who has built a relationship with his/her readers. To maintain the relationship and your integrity, Mattias recommends only featuring brands that you would actually purchase.

Phil Oh is the blogger/photographer behind Street Peeper, a compilation of street fashion from around the world. Phil had the audience laughing many times, and I assumed (and hoped) that would happen, especially after I read his “Who Is Mr Street Peeper” page, where he wrote, “Somehow these are some of the only photos I have of myself where I’m not drunk or doing something ridiculous and/or inappropriate.” Phil said that when he began contacting brands for ads, they started asking for his “accountant” or “agent.” Of course, he was all of those things himself, so he started making up fake email addresses and names for his “staff.” LOL! With 2 million views a month, his blog is still not big enough to be seen by large brands. One topic that came up for discussion during Phil’s talk was bloggers representing brands for free. There are many bloggers who feel strongly against this, mainly because this makes it harder for other bloggers to get paid. Phil has used his skills as a blogger to get a job—he’s now working for Vogue.com.

Yuri Lee started lookbook.nu with her boyfriend. Lookbook.nu is an online community where fashion enthusiasts can post their “street style” fashion looks. Her advice: “Do less and do good.” People will appreciate minimalism. Readers are usually looking for a real human connection with a blogger. If you are good at what you do, people will come to your blog for it.

Gala Darling has been named one of the 10 most influential style bloggers in the world. Rachel Zoe (gasp) said she is “trés chic.” Her blog offers fashion, lifestyle advice, and tips on how to live magically. If you couldn’t tell from her outfit alone, she has quite the personality, and her accent goes great with her occasional swearing. Gala’s message: Be passionate, be honest, and be yourself. Blogs are an antidote to magazines because they are more personal. Not everyone is going to like you. You are judged everywhere you go, so you might as well just be yourself all the time, 24/7. If you’re passionate, people will come to you. Give people what they can’t find somewhere else. Comments are a great way to measure your audience, but they can be a blessing and a curse. Back in the day, comments were the main way for readers to connect to a blog, but now there are so many other outlets: Facebook, Twitter, etc. Gala’s talk was one of my favorites. I got to speak to her during a break—she is such an amazing and down-to-earth person. I cannot wait to start reading her blog regularly.

Susie Lau started her blog Style Bubble in March 2006. She’s a perfect example of how to use your blog as an outlet to do other things. She landed a job as commissioning editor of Dazed Digital, the online component to Dazed & Confused magazine. In 2007, Chanel (yes, CHANEL!!) flew her to Paris to sample new fragrances. She’s received tons of press and acclaim for her blog. Leaving her job at Dazed was one of the hardest things she’s had to do. However, she said the job consumed almost all of her time, and she wanted to turn her blog into a business. If you think being your own business is stressful, it is. Susie has only been writing her blog full time for a few months, and she said it’s been crazy and expects it to get even crazier. She’s working on a lot of side projects, including being the stylist for the Ting Tings. To help her out, she has an agent for monetizing projects. What I love about Susie is that she doesn’t write about everything, just what inspires her. Overall, she seems like an extremely genuine and humble person. Blogging is very self-indulgent, and for her to admit that in one of the first things she said, I totally respect her for that.

Bryan Boy started blogging at the age of 17 when he was still living in the Philippines. His blog has gained him international acclaim. I found myself relating to him when he said that his fashion experience came from being a consumer. He believes “trends are a marketing tool.” Calling himself a “hot mess,” he described his outfit—it was a mix of random pieces from all over (Germany, SoHo, Chanel, Prada), so when he said he doesn’t ever plan his outfits, I completely believed him. He watches Jersey Shore to unplug, his dream collaboration would be a Bryan Boy doll, and his beauty tips are “Drink water, don’t eat (just kidding!), and exercise.” He lives an exciting life, so it was no wonder someone in the audience asked if he’d consider having his own reality show. He said not until he gets a nose job and lipo.

Emily Schuman, of Cupcakes & Cashmere, walked onto the stage and camera flashes went off all over the place. I’ve been reading her blog regularly for almost a year, and I have a sort of love-hate relationship with it, mainly because everything about her blog and her life is seemingly so damn perfect! Emily blogs for a living, shopping is part of her job, she was approached by Coach to design a handbag for them, she lives with her boyfriend in Beverly Hills, and her boyfriend takes all of her outfit photos (seriously, how many boyfriends and husbands are willing to do that?). However, after listening to her talk, I realized that everything looks so perfect because she spends a countless amount of time overanalyzing everything and anything she puts on her blog. Now, knowing what a perfectionist she is, it’s no wonder she had her entire presentation memorized, so I was really looking forward to the Q&As at the end. Emily says that the keys to having a successful blog are compelling content, good photos, and a clean layout—I couldn’t agree more.

Amy Odell is the founding editor and writer of The Cut, New York Magazine‘s fashion blog. Amy went to college to be a journalist and to make this her career, so she is certainly in a different realm than the other speakers. Having majored in creative writing and minored in magazine journalism, I could definitely appreciate Amy’s perspective. Amy never considered herself a fashion expert, but when she was working as an intern at the Observer, her topics started leaning toward fashion. She said, “Fashion is not that hard to learn. It’s all about knowing who everyone is and why they are important.” At The Cut, Amy reports the news but puts in her own comments to keep things amusing. She’s even written some things that have gotten her banned from shows! While many other speakers at the conference stressed the importance of not blogging what everyone else is blogging about, Amy said the opposite: Don’t be afraid to blog about something just because everyone else is covering it. Put your own angle and style to it, and people will want to read it.

The last speaker of the day, Rumi Neely, is the blogger behind Fashion Toast, one of the most popular fashion blogs, with over 35,000 readers flocking to the site each day. (I missed the first couple of minutes of her talk because after Amy’s presentation, IFB Evolving Influence sponsor TheFind announced the winner of their iPad giveaway–ME!! I’ll be posting more about that later!) Rumi gave her talk from the couch on the stage (the first and only speaker to do so), accompanied by her boyfriend, Colin, who, yes, takes her pictures. Rumi was shy on stage and public speaking is not her forte, but that just reinforced the fact that many of these bloggers cannot explain why their blogs are so popular. She’s just living in the moment and enjoying the ride.

Lobby of the Hudson Hotel

Driving through Central Park

Off to LaGuardia – NYC skyline through cab window

Tagged as: blogging tips, IFB Evolving Influence