As a follow up to my previous article 'Do Bloggers Need to Go Geek to be Chic? #getmygeekon', on Thurs 13th Dec, 3pm UK Time, chloédigital and BuyMyWardrobe, an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-loved designer fashion, teamed up for BuyMyWardrobe's weekly #stylenetworkchat, to talk Bloggers and Technology!
There were 22 unique authors from countries including Australia, the Philippines and the UK, comprised mostly of bloggers, along with some brands who work with them. In the chat, they tweeted a total of 300 times, and retweeted 48 times making 435,574 impressions (potential number of readers of a tweet), reaching an audience of 36,605. The most used keywords included blog, bloggers, domain and tech. Top twitter handles by tweets were BuyMyWardrobe (76 tweets), chloedigital (63 tweets), and arraabella (27 tweets); top twitter handles by impressions were BuyMyWardrobe (198, 208 impressions), geekisnewchic (122,384 impressions) and chloedigital (24, 255 impressions). - Stats from socialmention.com and www.hashtracking.com
Below is a summary of the main questions and points made from the chat, the complete transcript including all asked questions can be found here.
Do Bloggers need to go Geek to be Chic?
LDNbloggers: Need to combine good content and great tech tips to make a great blog!
RT2310: If you're doing anything internet-enabled, should get to grips with tech.
LDNbloggers: As soon as you know you want to be a professional blogger, invest in great tech tips.
LDNbloggers: Sometimes it also depends what part of your blog's life timeline you are in.
StyleNibble: It's important to realise what engages your audience. Post relevant content and see what gets reactions.
Marts_A: I think that the content of the blog is the most important part and then the technical side or aesthetic comes second.
geekisnewchic: It's important for me personally to learn how to do things for myself.
LDNbloggers: Have a clear idea of what you want to do! Ok to make mistakes.
StyleNibble: Making mistakes is fundamental! Don't be afraid of them :)
geekisnewchic: I get frustrated by the lack of straightforward tutorials online. They don't need so much jargon.
LaurenLavene: I'm still learning all the tech bits, I will confess it does scare me
EmpireofThings: It can be frustrating, but the sense of achievement if you do manage to learn it is great
chloedigital: One good thing, once you get how to do something you know it for life and can keep reapplying it in different instances!
chikdotcom: Our biggest tech tip is talk to people and learn from others its a massive community and the experts all had to start somewhere!
albatrossltd: You have to have a bit of an inner geek/creative to create something gorgeous that people are drawn in to.
sabrinajohnson: It's a necessary evil. It takes time learning to engage with the technical side of a blog.
TamaraKalinic: As a fashion blogger you need to know about web design, photography, photoshop, PR skills and must follow the trends
Are there ever any tech things you want to do but get frustrated when its not working?!
LDNbloggers: Most common problem highlighted to us, is migration of a blog to a self hosted website.
EmpireofThings: I built my online shop, it has been known to break! There have been struggles.
arraabella: I do get frustrated but the thing is the frustration actually helps me to want to learn more.
What's your favourite platform - Blogger, Wordpress or Other?
MsDriftedSW: I think for beginners Blogger is brilliantly easy to work with. For Pros, It's got to be Wordpress
rag_magpie: Blogger is simpler to use but wordpress looks much more professional
ajhairport: Wordpress by far! I needed something more robust so I'm working with WP multisite
albatrossltd: Wordpress is great, so dynamic, you can literally do anything on it with the right know how!
chloedigital: I'm a wordpress girl, I use it for blogs and regular websites alike.
arraabella: If you want the basics, go for Blogger. If you want to explore the CSS world, go with Wordpress.
chloedigital: Watch out with plugin OVERLOAD with Wordpress though! As you update, sometimes your plugins are no longer compatible!
geekisnewchic: I have blogs on both platforms but heart is with Blogger as is where I began.
arraabella: If you are more on photography, tumblr is the perfect platform
LDNbloggers: Choose the platform for your content.
rag_magpie: I didn't think tumblr was very popular anymore
arraabella: I think tumblr still does have impact but more on the visual art. It actually brings a lot of traffic
sabrinajohnson: I'm using tumblr, the fashion community on it is extensive and loyal
StellaAlf1: We're a Blogger fan, with a little self taught HTML coding, simple and chic
StyleNibble: We use tumblr - for it's ease, but I'd say wordpress can do a very pro job!
TheMotherGeek: Typedock is a new blogging platform with free hosting, even if you use your own domain.
EmpireofThings: I use wordpress, just started with that so carried on.
chloedigital: The wordpress codex is a God Send for working out Wordpress issues.
sabrinajohnson: Once you outgrow tumblr, Wordpress is the next step.
Do you think having your own domain name for your blog is important?
chloedigital: Anyone who knows me will know I say it is! I never like a hotmail on a business card!
LDNbloggers: VERY VERY important to have your own domain name. #stylenetworkchat
arraabella: It does because there are more features offered.
arraabella: It also make yours legit seeing that it stands out on all the blogspot.coms, etc.
MsDriftedSW: Being hosted on blogspot affects SEO rating as well (even with own domain!)
asummerfull: Having a domain (not just a vanity URL from blogger or wordpress) is THE most important thing.
On behalf of BuyMyWardrobe and chloédigital, I would like to thank the participants for taking the time to join in. For the full transcript click here.
Find @BuyMyWardrobe on twitter with their weekly talk using the hashtag #stylenetworkchat - Thursday's at 3pm.
For more #GetMyGeekOn fun email bloggers@chloedigital.com