Views of Blogher

Notes from the BlogHer Mavens

One of the interesting break-outs I went to was on Managing Information Overload: How to Find Your Blogging Community. I actually got into this one by mistake but figured that there are no accidents, so I stayed and learned.

First on the discussion was figuring your agenda, asking yourself why YOU blog - what do you want to get out of blogging. For some there is a cause centered goal (politics, autism, green children etc) for others it is about getting your art/business out before the buying public, and for others it can be a safe place to say your piece, voice things that you just don't want to say anywhere else.

Whatever your goal/agenda, and it most likely will be a mixture of things, you want your own community. You don't sell bathing suits to Eskimos...well unless global warming accelerates! While most of us are ok with civil discourse on ideas we present, we are usually looking for our own tribe. We look for and need people who resonate with us - somehow. You know the feeling...you scan a new-to-you blog and immediately think...Yeah.. bookmark! Whatever the agenda is for my blog, what I'm doing IS marketing me and I want to find both my own niche audience AND people I want to read.
Geeze, most days still have only 24 hrs, right?

Below are some of the tools that came out of this session. Take what fits and leave the rest. It did get me to get back on Twitter. btw, I'll have to see if I ever got those Boulder pictures up on flickr....


Figure out your agenda
Use Google Reader
Twitter
Stumble Upon
Blogher
Use a kitchen timer to schedule yourself
Think of these tools as marketing tools
Rescuetime.com
Firefox app to aggregate your social media -Shareaholic
Leverage knowledge: spread out the expertise in an organization
COMMONCRAFT a good instructional site to explain tech things

The whole session thread has so much more information. If you read it and still have a Huh? I'll try to answer any questions about points/places they mention.