#NBNWorkshop: A day in the East End of London with the Next Blogger Network

At the dawn of 2013 I had a list of New Year’s resolutions for blog my Tiger Tales.  On my resolution list were: redesigning the blog, becoming more social media savvy, building content outside of the parent blog sphere, just to mention a few.  It’s been a challenging sticking to my resolutions but I’ve not done too badly. It’s in that vein, I decided to attitude the Next Blogger Network Workshop. It was my aim to find about the new and fantastic things happening in the blogging world outside of parent blogging, along with new technology available to improve how I work. It as also important to me to see the benchmark to know what was next for Tiger Tales. I’m so pleased that I attended the workshop. I’m sure each blogger would have taken away from each session what he/she needed. Personally, I was given a fresh perspective on blogging and some insight into how to proceed with Tiger Tales.  At the Next Blogger Workshop there were three sessions on: SEO and Web Design, Brand and Advertising and Photography and Film.

One may think that some of the key points are common sense but common sense is not common. Here are some tips I noted from the session:

Photography & Film

hosted by Lily from What I Heart Today, Anna from Vivianna Does Makeup Kit from Style Slicker 

• Be patient and engaging in the social media community
• be supportive and interactive with blogging community
• Research content/ see what’s out there what’s being done
• Take lots of photo then you can edit accordingly
• Kitchen foil make a great reflector
• When vlogging consider constructive criticism

SEO & Web Design

 hosted Faye from Fashion Beauty Etc, Diego from Greenlight PR, Gemma from Jam

• Have as many follow options as possible
• Have a share content button
• Have G+1 button
• Keep photo size uniform as much as possible
• Search engines work by: caching, indexing, ranking and search engine results
• Use key words when naming images

Branding & Advertising

Hosted by Emily from Fashion Foie Gras,  Abi from Abimarvel 

• Think Big
• Don’t waste time
• Work in an extraordinary way if you want something extraordinary to happen
• Be Nice
• Don’t approach PRs without having written something about the brand you wish to work with
• Say thank you, be grateful
• Read as many books about managing as you can
• Tag on twitter
• Work the networks

The above is simplified coverage of the content we had access to on the day but it should give you a gist the day’s content.  Due to the amount of delegates we were divided into groups of three. These smaller groups allowed us to ask questions specific to our needs. Hence each group’s experience is bound to have some difference.

OK, enough techy stuff and onto the fashion and images of the day. I went for a practical monochrome look. I wore a black and white strip dress with under layering of black leggings and black ¾ length sleeved t-shirt, on account of the high stormy winds that day. My natural mixed texture hair in a French rolled to the side.  Check out the event pics:

I'm so pleased that I braved the high winds last Monday, and trek to the very trendy Hoxton Hotel for the workshop. I learnt a lot AND I a won a prize for my 'angry Xmas elf' impression. I'm thinking hard how to spend my voucher... almost tempted to get my kids cute woolly things... NOT!  I'm plan to treat me this time around. Also due to the workshop, I've decided to have Tiger Tales professionally redesigned! Exciting times! So stay tuned. 

Many thanks to Next for opening my eyes to the realm possibilities out there.

If you are not already a member of the network have a look at the content, it just might inveigle to join especially if you are a fashion lover. Come on, join the fun!