On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Minneapolis Techmunch, an all day conference for food bloggers. We were lucky enough to have some really amazing speakers who were just as excited about food as all of us were.
It was a day packed full of sessions covering topics like Eating Your Way to the Top, Being Relevant, SEO, Design & Page Optimization. From speakers like Andrew Zimmern (from Bizarre Foods and other Travel Channel Shows), Jason DeRusha (a local news reporter) to SEO experts and the Geek Girls (2 woman who own a web development company and could be stand up comedians!)
Top 5 Tips from the Day
- Point of view and expertise is essential. Figure out who you are and learn all about it! Find that area and keep doing that and only that.
- Learn how to be good but authentic, present consistently across all channels.
- 20% knowledge. 80% entertainment, it seems contradictory but people read blogs and watch food entertainment for the stories.
- Instead of using ——> click here, use actually words for the link.
- Be delightful. Surprises are nice.
It all comes down to finding your voice, showing some honesty and vulnerability through your writing and finding a topic that you are passionate about. Yes a good design helps but people come for the content. These all seem so simple but they can be very difficult to institute, write the blog you want to read and keep doing that. The best part of food blogging is the bond that you develop through cooking and food. You may be completely different people but you can come together and share a simple common bond.
It couldn’t be a blog conference without delicious food, we had catering and donations by Kitchen in the Market, Whole Foods, Driscoll’s Berries and such a great open space to learn and collaborate in. It was a truly fantastic and I am thankful that there were volunteers who worked so incredibly hard to put this together.
I love being part of the Minnesota Food Bloggers community, who just so happen to have a new name, fortify. A great name to showcase a group of engaged foodies who want to make a difference, try delicious food, and celebrate that common bond.
