I am excited to share with you all some big news. I am one of the featured speakers at the 20SB Summit this weekend at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center in River North. This event is the premier blogging event of the year for 20-something bloggers and Chicago is lucky to be hosting this year. People are traveling from across the planet to learn about harnessing the power of social media from the world’s best bloggers. I am so honored to be featured as a speaker alongside trailblazers like Gala Darling! This conference is for bloggers of ALL kinds, not just fashion bloggers.
I will be on a panel alongside representatives from Groupon, the world’s leading social media discount site, and Klout, one of the premier social media indexing firms. The moderator will be Justine from Brand About Town, the event sponsor. My role will be to represent the position of the “blogger” within the brand-blogger business relationship during this discussion.
Below is the title and official description of my session:
A “Brand” New World: Making Your Blog Work For You
What is social currency and how can it help you pay the rent? Learn how to monetize your passion for blogging from those who know best, as this session welcomes speakers from across the brand spectrum. Hear from Carolyn Tang Kmet of the online phenomenon Groupon, who will speak to their affiliate program, Megan Berry from the influence indexing site Klout and fashion blogger Amy Creyer of Chicago Street Style, who has been featured in tons of places including CNN, NBC Chicago, MTV and the Chicago Tribune. Amy has worked with a number of different brands, including: JBrand, Havaianas, Oliver Peoples and Cynthia Rowley. Moderated by summit sponsor Brand About Town, the team behind blogging advocacy programs for brands such as Nintendo and Gap, this spirited session will share actionable insights on how to attract brands to your blog and how you can leverage their interest into tangible benefits for you and your readers.
Like any other profession, blogging requires skilled time management. This is a skill I’ve slowly been learning over the past year, as what was once a little hobby has blossomed into a demanding job with investment banker hours (with 1% of the pay). As I find myself landing more and more exciting opportunities with my website, I’ve had to re-evaluate the way I allocate my time.
With that being said, I ended my relationship with Racked Chicago yesterday as a contributor. I would like to personally thank the Chicago editor, Jared Hatch, for giving me the opportunity to work with him as a freelancer over the past few months and for his kind parting words and well-wishes. I have also decided to reduce my blogging at PinkMemo from weekly to bi-weekly, so you will see posts from me every other Thursday going forward. I would like to thank the PinkMemo CEO and editor-in-chief, Maxine Trowbridge, for her understanding and flexibility. I will still be submitting street-style photos to Refinery29 as I have since January. I thought long and hard about these decisions over the past month, and they’re the best choices for me.
I think people sometimes forget that I am a graduate student at DePaul earning a Master of Science degree in management. I have my most demanding class this fall; Quantitative Statistics. It’s been a delicate balancing act trying to do well in school, grow my blog, and contribute to other websites. By reducing the energy that is spent elsewhere I can focus exclusively on Chicago Street Style and do well in school.
For me, this is all about refocusing my fashion blogging priorities on the street-style photography. After all, that’s really what it’s all about for me!
My third and final giveaway is a package identical to the first giveaway, which contains an iPod Nano, two pairs of colorful American Apparel socks, and hot pink leggings. These giveaways are designed to get you all excited for the launch of Australian indie rock band Strange Talk’s music video on Monday, August 15th at 10 a.m. Make sure to RSVP on Facebook so you don’t miss a chance to win some more great prizes! The music video has new technology that will give viewers the ability to click on products in the video for a chance to be sent that product as a gift! Several thousand items will be given away during the premiere. Don’t lose out!
The mystery company who is sponsoring all of this – Strange Talk’s new music video and my giveaway – is ALL about color. They’re obsessed with helping consumers preserve color, save color, and highlight color in our lives. My readers know I love color as most of the looks I photograph are full of bright hues. I am also obsessed with brightly colored hair on people like Rhea above, who is probably my favorite person I’ve ever photographed. How do you integrate color into YOUR life?
For a chance to win the iPod Nano, the rules are the same for the previous giveaways:
1. “Like” us on Facebook and write on our wall about why you love color.
2. “Like” Strange Talk on Facebook
3. RSVP for the premiere of Strange Talk’s music video on August 15th at 10 a.m.
My giveaway ends August 22nd at 5pm. I’m letting this one run longer than the others to get you all super excited for the mystery company’s relaunch!
*Previous competition entrants will automatically be included in this final giveaway.
*FTC Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Proctor & Gamble
