There’s Enough Room for us ALL to Thrive
This past weekend, I attended my fourth blog conference, Thrive. My two blog-turned-real-life friends, Whitney and Bree put this conference together and it was, without a doubt, one of my favorite blogging events ever! I really had no idea what to expect, but I was completely blown away and refreshed by this conference. I also felt kind of special because I got to be a mentor and moderate a panel. Which means I was kind of official, although I promise I’m not.
The theme of this conference was that all bloggers can thrive together. This really resonated with me. Relationships and connections with other bloggers are so important to me. Community is huge. Having a tribe that gets me inspires me to keep pushing myself.
This got me to thinking about how I can take the idea behind Thrive and really be mindful of how I approach blogging success. As the norm, bloggers leave conferences with all of the ideas and empowerment to help themselves. Oftentimes I have thought, “Muahahaha! I can conquer the blogging world! Watch out, everyone!!!!”
While that is all great, I’ve felt compelled to look at my success from a different angle. You see, the blogging success pie is big enough for everyone to have a slice. You don’t have to be the best ever. We can all be the best. Let’s not be greedy about it. Let’s share. Let’s help each other reach our goals.
Which leads me to my next point.
I’ve compiled a list of 7 ways to support bloggers. It’s essential for your own personal growth in blogging. The more I support others, the more I celebrate for them and for myself. Try one or all of these 7 things. See how it not only helps someone else, but how it helps you.
1. Pin Content
This is very important. Pin content. Don’t just pin your own content. Pin the content from your favorite blogs! You can even set up a board just for this, if you want.
2. Comment and like facebook page updates
Facebook is an evil beast. We are all struggling for our followers to be reached by us on facebook. If you like or comment on your blogging buddies’ facebook fan page updates, you are helping them out tremendously by helping them reach more people. The more likes/comments on facebook posts, the more those posts reach. This is so easy to do, especially when scrolling through your facebook feed.
3. Utilize social media scheduling to share posts with your followers
Do you do your blog reading in the morning and see a plethora of great posts you want to share with your readers on twitter or facebook? Schedule them to go out on facebook and/or twitter throughout the day or week. I use buffer for twitter (and make sure to tag the blogger in my tweets) and I use the native scheduler in facebook. I’ve slacked a lot this week with this, but I can’t wait to fill up my schedule again.
4. Leave comments on blog posts
This seems like a no brainer, but commenting has become some sort of lost art lately. Back when I had far less readers and pageviews, I had more comments. More people are reading quickly on mobile devices, and comments are scarcer than before. People like to click a heart or a thumb to like something because that’s easy. If you take the time out to leave a comment, it means a lot to the blogger. Chances are they will also come back to your blog and comment! Responding to comments is always a good thing to do, too. I am so hot and cold with this, but I am trying to improve here! If your blog friend makes YouTube videos, you should comment on those, too!
5. Share others’ content on facebook and/or twitter
Constant self-promotion gets old to your readers and followers. You are actually doing a disservice to yourself if you are constantly self-promoting. The more often you share other’s content, the more fans you reach, especially on facebook. I am still playing around with this, but I know many bloggers have had success with this method.
6. Follow everywhere on social media
The more places you follow your favorite bloggers, the more you support. It also increases your chances of seeing when a new post up for you to read. Which increases your likelihood to share, which increases the likelihood of them sharing something of yours. If you feel so inclined, all of my social media accounts are linked up above my bio pic at the top of my sidebar. (wink, wink)
7. Subscribe to Blogs
Another no brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many of your readers who are not following you on Bloglovin’ or subscribed to your RSS feed. Many non-bloggers don’t speak these terms and rely on my facebook updates to know when a post is up, even though facebook sucks and doesn’t reach everyone. But if you’re a blogger and you know what Bloglovin’ and a feed is, subscribe already.
There are countless other ways to help support each other, and I would love to hear from you on what you like to do. I hope we can take the core values of Thrive to help us all thrive! Side note: big thanks to Meg Cady for taking the photos I’ve plastered all over this post. You rock, sister.
p.s. Don’t forget to enter the $450 Target giveaway posted earlier this morning!
Thank you for this! I was totally intimidated coming into the conference but I’ve made so many new friends. It’s really uplifting!
I’m so glad you had a blast! 🙂
This is so great!! YES we can all be great, together! Sharing this post now! 😉 xoxo
Thank you, friend!! xoxo
Amen! I love being part of your blogging tribe. 🙂 These are great tips! And they really are the bees knees. It’s all about sharing the love so that love will return to you. That’s how life works, and that’s how blogging works, too. Or at least that’s what I’ve learned. Happy Friday, my love!
Tribe members, hollah!!!! Heart you 🙂
LOVE this post and I agree wholeheartedly! I would not be where I am in this blogging world without the help of my fellow bloggers so it’s a no brainer to give back and help them achieve their goals. Love your outlook! Sharing now 😉
Thank you, friend! Sharing is caring and helps us all grow!!
On point, girl! What great tips. You are the real giving-back deal! Some really successful bloggers eat their young, and we need to collaboratively make sure that does not become the face of bloggers. High five!
Thank you so much! It’s SO so so so important to not “eat our young”! Yes yes!
Love this so much!! Those are some awesome tips, you’re one smart lady.
(I misspelled smart, but spell check caught it)
LOL I heart you
I’m still so bummed I had to miss out on such an awesome conference. I hope they’re doing it again!!
You were missed! I hope they do it again, too! You would have loved it!
So great to have met you and all the other lovely ladies! Love your blog and this post! I can’t wait to grab coffee with you gals and chat! 🙂
You are awesome for being in a room with 4 total strangers and just “getting” us! You are the bomb!!!! Would love to meet again and hang out!
Great post lady!! I love it all! I know I love when all these things happen to me on my blog, so returning them is a no brainer!! Definitely great points!! Lets all be fabulous together!! XO
Thank you so much, friend! Glad to have you a part of my tribe!!!! xoxo
This post is perfect!!! I’m so so happy that you had such an amazing time. Thank you so much for being so awesome!
Heart you! I am STILL SO BLOWN AWAY at you and Bree. You guys are the bestest ever. Can we do it again? Pretty please?????????
Yes!!! Love this post! Totally totally agree. Repinning now….. 🙂
Thank you so much!!!!! xoxo
I’ve never been to a blogging conference but oh boy – it’s on my bucket list.
This was fabulous advice.
Pinning to my Deliberate BLOGGING board.
Thanks so much for sharing.
xoxo
You would LOVE a conference. They really charge you and get you fired up! And thank you so much for pinning. Means a lot to me! Xoxo
Ah mah gah! I made it into the picture. 🙂
I thought it was an AMAZING conference, ESPECIALLY since it was the first year. They have the potential to go really big with it.
I’m still trying to get back into the groove….I’ve been working too much on the redesign this week and not enough blogging & social media.
Yes you did!!! You are fabulous! glad we got to sit together at the conference. Can’t wait to see your redesign and rebrand!!
You’re so right. Thanks for the advice to start commenting on other people’s blogs. I love it when I get comments, so I should share the love.
It’s something I struggle with a lot, but comments are so important! They mean so much to me so I try to do the same for others. So thank you for commenting!
What a great recap; so beautifully well written! Wish I had the opportunity to meet you, I really enjoyed your panel!
Thanks for the giveaway opportunity, just followed everyone! Phew!
Meg – it was so great to meet you at Thrive!!! I really appreciated all of your advice about Google Analytics and the benefits of migrating to Word Press. I was really nervous attending my first blog conference, but you and everyone at our table made me feel so welcome – so thank you for that!! I loved this post and am really going to try and start re-tweeting others posts using a scheduler…
I LOVE this post and your mindset, Meg! This is what got me inspired to start blogging finally, because of all the good people out there. Thank you so much…
I love that you took your Thrive experience and turned it into such a tangible blog post!
Fantastic post. I think so many people are fearful of sharing other people’s content or even commenting. As you said, there is plenty to go around and the more we interact the better for all of us. Thank you.
Love this post!! 🙂 There is a lot of great stuff on here and I totally agree with you. Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving such a sweet comment!! 🙂
I will give it a try. I also have the feeling that people want a quick read often and then move on to the other post or blog, but I’m also building something up which means i have to change my blogging habits too. Great article! Thank you for the tips 🙂
Thank you posting this. I try to do all these things, I’m just not sure it’s being reciprocated. But I still enjoy posting, commenting and sharing.