Back at the beginning of November I was able to go to the WOW Summit that was held by Moms Meet down in Anaheim. This was a fun and unique conference as it was part blogger conference, part mom conference. Held over two days at the Hyatt Regency Orange County, the WOW Summit started off with a day of workshops and networking for bloggers and influencers; then finished on Saturday with speakers focused on parenting and families.

Not only did I finally get to meet some of my blogger buddies in real life (which was so fun), but I also soaked in a ton of information over the two days of round tables and workshops. Now that the craziness of the holidays is over I finally have time to share some of what I learned so if you’re a blogger or influencer (or you’re interested in being one!) then pay attention! And oh yeah, be sure to pin for future reference.

rethink Pinterest as a blogger

Speaking of pinning… the Pinterest workshop with Carolina King of Mama Instincts was definitely one that I was looking forward to the most. This could be a whole series for bloggers but since I’m no expert yet I’ll just touch on some of the main points I found most interesting.

Pinterest is a search engine

First of all, if you’re a blogger forget everything you know about Pinterest. Despite what we often hear, Pinterest is not a social media platform. Repeat with me–Pinterest is a search engine. Which is why numbers truly don’t matter, so relax and let your followers grow organically. Having a million followers on Pinterest won’t necessarily equate to tons of pageviews. Think about how you use Pinterest for your own personal use. If you’re looking for tips for your next Disney vacation you’ll probably search something like “insider secrets to Disney World” or “the best places to eat in Disneyland”. What pins are going to catch your eye? Are you going to care if a pinner has 500k followers? No, and Pinterest doesn’t either.

make your images Pinterest-worthy

Concentrate first on making eye-catching pins that will get repinned. Make sure your images are long rather than landscape. Create at least one image  that’s the best summary of your post with text overlay, but try to keep it free of too much “clutter”. Keep your branding clear too, if your pins have a consistent look then people will be able to spot yours in a sea of pins and know that real, quality content is behind it. Don’t forget–once you have your amazingly beautiful pin make sure you’ve made it easy to repin by having a user-friendly share button.

focus on evergreen content

Chances are you’ve heard of evergreen content. Your evergreen posts are going to be the ones that are always relevant. No matter how good of a rapport you have with your readers how long do you think they’re going to care about what your family did for Thanksgiving? However, add in your Great Aunt Edna’s famous recipe for chocolate pecan pie and BAM! Not only have you created a piece of content that will appeal to a much broader audience, but it’s a post that will be visited over and over, and now people have a good reason to pin it! Always be thinking of how you can put a spin on your post to make it more relevant.

remember the golden rule of writing

What’s the Golden Rule of writing? It’s simple–create GREAT content that provides value or solves a problem for your reader. Then do it better than the competition. If you’re working with Brand X to promote their newest baby gadget along with 20 other bloggers what’s going to make you stand out? Don’t just write another 500 word review, include the item in your favorite baby gear roundup, share five tips for helping your baby sleep through the night, etc. Always ask yourself why you’re sharing this particular post with your readers.

keywords, keywords, keywords

Let’s talk about keywords instead of the dreaded SEO, shall we? Personally, SEO still confuses me at times but keywords take me right back to middle school Honors English and that I can handle just fine.

When thinking about your post think about the keywords that your post is about. Your keywords should be in your URL, in the title, in your images and videos as the ALT tag, and within your body of text.

So how do you find the right keywords to be focusing on? Here are some tips for resources to use from Nicky of Little Family Adventure:

• Google Related Searches
• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• KeySearch
• SEMRush
• Answer the Public

it’s all about balance… eventually

One of the quotes that I loved came from a panel discussion on Friday titled, “Balancing Romance and Motherhood”. As a work at home mom who homeschools and often feels pulled in a million directions at once this really spoke to me. Aaronica Cole of The Crunchy Mommy said, “…balance is achieved over the week, over the month, over the year…”, meaning that achieving balance doesn’t happen everyday but happens with time. I think this applies to any working parent, but especially those of us who struggle with undefined boundaries of work time and family time.

Remember to give yourself some grace, I don’t know any blogger or influencer who is rocking out awesome content everyday and killing it on every social media platform. Find what works for you and be flexible enough to change it up when your needs change.

want some more insight?

These are only five of the many things that I learned during the WOW Summit put on by Moms Meet. If you missed your chance to go don’t worry–you can check out their website here to see future dates!