Eat Drink Blog 2013

As I usually do when there’s a conference on and I’m not at it, I engaged in some hash tag stalking over the weekend. Eat Drink Blog is a niche conference for – well, it’s pretty obvious: food bloggers.

Even if food blogging isn’t your niche (as I’ve posted about before, it isn’t mine!), the conference still talks about blogging issues, which are usually the same regardless of what you blog about.

EDB13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The same goes for any conference related to what you blog about – there will always be someone live tweeting these days, so why not take full advantage of that and learn! Worst comes to worst, you don’t learn anything new from the hashtag but you find new people to follow on twitter.

Here are the collection of notes I took from reading the #EDB13 hash tag. Please note, these come from a variety of twitter users and a variety of speakers – some are paraphrased & some are quotes.

 

Food tips:

  • Restaurant reviews don’t have to be critical – can be a story with food
  • Urbantrippers are people who only write for Urban Spoon & Trip Advisor
  •  Photos have more impact than a traditional media 600 word review
  • Shopping locally is easy when you’ve tracked down the right places
  • Bloggers can get the word out for small producers by promoting them
  • Bloggers: use your influence to make shopping locally the norm

 

Photography tips:

  • Don’t just show what’s there, show what you want to say.
  • Focus on part of a curry, not the entire dish.
  • Breakfast photos need a yolk bomb!
  • Make photos in restaurants quick by setting up the image before you take out your camera

 

Blogging tips:

  • Bloggers need to remain relevant and not be complacent, otherwise we’ll end up like traditional media
  • Make sure your blog is designed for mobile phones. 70% of Australians have a smart phone
  • Video is still a growth area for bloggers
  • Let your readers consume you in bite sized pieces. On the train, bus, toilet
  • Always assume you need permission – just because you can find things online doesn’t mean you can use them
  • Learn about copyright, trademarks, defamation and moral rights!
  • Develop a terms of use as a way to resolve any complaints.
  • DISCLOSE!
  • E-books more successful when through interest groups
  • Objectivity key to sponsored content
  • Don’t be afraid to say no to PRs
  • Sponsored posts are an investment in a bloggers time
  • Set your PR standards & guidelines in your editorial policy & media kit
  • Key question for sponsored travel: would I do this trip with my own money?
  • Disclosure at the top of a post allows readers to decide if they want to read the post
  • If a sponsored post doesn’t feel right, don’t do it
  • Take time to find the right publisher for you
  • Blogging is mainstream media – popular bloggers are mainstream journalists
  • Social media is for authenticity and artfulness, not selling
  • Messages on social media that are pure marketing fail
  • Hyperlocal blogs: rising niche? no money in them?
  • Don’t blog for money, blog for love
  • Will blogging collapse due to over saturation of blogs?
  • Break through the noise to counter the over saturation of blogs
  • Know your audience
  • Tell your story to your imaginary ideal audience
  • Businesses should be interested in all reviews – comments on blogs included
  • Keep your personality in your blog
  • Be authentic by writing about your passion. Use this to be inspirational
  • Write about what scares you
  • Food blogs are popular because people are bored at work!
  • Blog on Mondays to brighten the day of a miserable corporate worker
  • To be a good writer, you have to read
  • Bloggers are communicators

If you want to see more, check out the hash tag yourself on twitter, or have a look at http://www.noodlies.com/edb13/

Did you go to Eat Drink Blog 2013? Share something you learned!

3 Replies to “Eat Drink Blog 2013”

  1. Wow, you got all this by following the hashtag, that’s incredible. Well done.

    And thanks for linking to noodlies 🙂

    1. Thanks – I love that the internet allows us the opportunity to learn from afar!

  2. […] if you can’t attend. I’m a huge fan of hashtag stalking (I’ve written about it before) and it’s a great way of assessing if a conference should be on your schedule for the next […]

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