Confessions of a Social Media Junkie

There are only 9 sleeps until Blissdom Canada! Okay, well ten sleeps if you don’t include the Kick-off Reception Thursday night.

Like many of my fellow attendees, I am soooo looking forward to this conference. Perhaps you’ve seen us tweeting about it for the past year? 😉

For those of you who don’t know, Blissdom Canada is a two-day conference for women who love blogging, social media and other digital media goodness. It’s all about networking and learning. And fun!

Last year’s conference was the first of its kind in Canada, and I was lucky enough to win a ticket. It was an amazing experience. I was all Ooh! Gee! Wow! at every session I attended. (For real…I could gush on and on.)

Light bulb moments galore

I came away with a broader understanding about how to find my voice, my niche, my twist. I learned something else important too. That when it came to writing for my blog, I was letting fear hold me back. Fear of failure, fear of sucking, fear of expressing too much of myself.

I learned that these other women who joined me at the conference all faced the same fear at one point or another. But here they were sharing these amazing personal stories of success and community, and yes, of failure too.

Giddy-up, I’m ready to go!

This year I’ve already planned what I want to get out of the conference.

Here are my goals:

• talk to other attendees about migrating to a self-hosted blog – how they did it, where to start, etc. (I’ve been sitting on my own domain for months!)
• figure out how I want to work with brands and PR
• ditto on monetizing my blog (I don’t think I do but I want to learn more about it before finally deciding)
• discuss digital media trends with other attendees – video, mobile and more – I love it all!
• find my tribe(s) and network with women interested in the same topics as me (specifically, lifestyle blogging, social media, technology and writing)
• see the screening of Missrepresentation!
• meet and reunite with women i’ve talked to on Twitter who are all looking forward to this conference for different reasons – and learn what those reasons are

For those of you attending Blissdom Canada for the first time, you are going to be amazed at how inclusive the conference is. People are warm, friendly and genuinely interested in getting to know you.

From the speakers to the attendees, there is this openness, this willingness to help you grow. It’s sounds so corny but I guarantee, you will find the experience inspirational.

And if you’re shy, well just read Sara’s post here and Sharon’s post here to realize you’re not alone, and that others will be feeling the same way as you.

For the record, I’d love to chat with you so please say hi. And don’t be surprised if I walk up and say hi first. 🙂

See you in TO!

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Photo credit to fashioncentral.ca