Blogging

Tweets, peeps and hand-dryers: observations from the first ever Aussie Bloggers Conference

by Cellobella on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 · 14 comments

At the dinner dance

So this is me and allconsuming at the dinner dance which followed the first ever Australian Bloggers Conference.

Note the tweeter in the background.

OMG everyone was tweeting.

Except me because my stupid phone stupidly ran out of batteries and then I took it upstairs to charge but stupidly forgot that when you take your passcard key out of the little slot all the electricity is turned off and so the phone ran even further out of batteries. Belief!

Anyway, I tried tweeting during the conference discussions and it was too distracting… so I stopped and then I got told off by Kelley (so glad to have met you even though you scolded me for not replying to your tweets).

Kelley's tattoo

What a biatch.

But I was glad I stopped because I was missing out on some gems because I was too busy coming up with witty comments or trying to, and reading the chatter.

So what did I learn?

Well in the social media part I quite liked the “Twitter Formula” for successful twittering:

20% me

30% flogging your blog

50% retweeting and interesting links

That sounds quite good don’t you think?

Because what I’m liking more and more about twitter is the personal recommendations for other good stuff online… you expect a bit of self-recommendation so that’s okay and I do love a little small talk but a mix is best I think.

And I am now a twitter whore!

I blame Deeleea.

Which is fair because she blames me for getting up to dance the nutbush when she CLEARLY wanted to.

‘Sif she wanted to just sit at the table, drink wine and chat. :)

Anyway in the space of 24 hours I found myself tweeting all sorts of rubbish:  The price of scrambled eggs, the navigation fail on the ferry, the wet wet weather… why does it always come down to weather with me?

And I was checking in to #ausblogcon2011 every few minutes checking in on my new bloggy friends.

Today I’ve noticed that the behaviour has continued.

Facebook?

Oh yeah I remember you.

One of the things to come out of the Social Media section was the thought that creating a page for your blog was better than using your personal profile.

And if you’re using it to add value to your blog well maybe it is.

Do I want to go there?

Maybe. Once the twittermoon is over… *cringes at dreadful mash-up of Twitter and Honeymoon*

So I learned a few things, was inspired to blog some more, and met some fantastic people.

People I hope to keep up with in the future both in person and of course on Twitter.

Hey I met River!  A regular commenter on this blog!

sorry the photo is a bit blurry

And shout outs to Kelly who sat next to me and had magnetic cards (very sexy), Ally who came up and said hi (yay!) and Rebecca who convinced me to have one too many cocktails at the open bar welcome drinkies. But weren’t they delicious!

There is a full list of attendees here.

I can also see myself going to the 2012 conference.

I think the organisers have learned a lot.

Personally, I’d like to see sessions on “form versus content”…  maybe a debate?, “must have widgets”, “effective graphics/banners/images” to name a few.

It would be good to get some concurrent sessions looking at various blogging platforms – blogger, wordpress etc so you can ask questions,  maybe get some tips and tricks, news, how to get the best out of your chosen platform.

Maybe something on cool apps – for both iphone and android.

Maybe there could be breakout socialising sessions for various blogging niches – mummy bloggers, personal bloggers, craft bloggers, dads, food, reviews, fashion – that might also encourage a greater range of bloggers to attend.

Yep I reckon you need two days.

The dinner dance was a revelation.

I thought goodness, whose going to want to go to a practically 100% female dinner dance?

But it was so nice to dress up and chat with all these lovely women.

And to be honest, you bloody blokes don’t dance anyway.

And we did dress up.

Which goes to show that we don’t dress for men.

I wonder if next year there’ll be a more even gender balance?

Gawd I’ve waffled on haven’t I?

Well one last observation for now:

Hand dryer

Have you had a go drying your hands in one of these?

I’m not sure they are as effective as the slogan suggests but they are SUCH good fun!

Tragically your correspondent was seen wetting her hands just so she could dry them again.

So yay.

Great conference, great city, great stories and great fun.

Read more here from Aussie Bloggers

[note that the makers of the hand-dryer did sponsor the dinner dance but this mention is not sponsored at all. I don't have one of their vacuum cleaners and am very happy with the one I have... especially as Groover does the vacuuming anyway]

 

My first ever blog conference

by Cellobella on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 · 3 comments

wine and filing - a perfect combination

Flights – check

Hotel booking – check

Blog cards?  Um… not check

Blog cards were not on my radar for things to take to the Aussie Bloggers Conference in Sydney this weekend (OMG only a few days away!!) so when I read Tiff’s latest post I almost fell off my swivel chair.

What a good idea.

But I’m heading to Bunbury for two days for work and then I’m off to Sydney so when can I get blog cards made?!

Then I remembered a packet of business card printy thingys that I bought a hundred years ago.

Could I find them amongst all the bills and wine in my office/wine storage unit?

Of course I could.

But then…

What to write?

Do I just write my handle?  Or my real name? Or both?

Facebook profile?

Twitter?

When did life get so complicated??

At least I have got some new boots to wear and I hear the weather will be cool.

Loving the idea of rain.

What a novelty!

Update: Pretty much FAIL. Ah well. Who needs blog cards anyway – you know who I am.

Oh and if you want to see who is coming along to the conference on Saturday – check out the list below:

We are going! Are you?

Brenda at MummyTime The Mother Media
Veronica at Sleepless Nights, Veronica Foale, Veronica does Food
Nicole at Planning with Kids
Tina at Tina Gray {dot} Me
Karen at Miscellaneous Mum
Kate at Picklebums
Caveat Calcei
Zoey at Good Goog
Sarah at Ah, the possibilities!
Woogsworld
Nellbe at Nellbe’s Gluten Free Kitchen
Marita at Stuff with Thing
Sam at Learn. Create. Do
Toushka at Ramblings from Toushka
Ally at Acting like a Mama
Bells at Bellsknits
The Not Drowning Mother (The NDM)
Cath at Squiggle Mum
Kim at Frog Ponds Rock
Tiff at My Three Ring Circus
Susan at Mummy Daze
Beth at Baby Mac
Mama K at Levis Genes
Lucy at Diminishing Lucy
Susan at Reading Upside Down
Meredith at Oh, the Thinks You Can Think
Corinne at A Day in the Life
Shae at Yay for Home
Yvette at Happy Child
Cooking with too much salt
Rebecca at Crazy Lady Ramblings
Nikki at Styling You
Christie at Childhood 101
Holly at Good Golly Miss Holly!
Bronnie at Maid In Australia
Belinda at Save Mum’s Sanity
Amanda at HomeAge
Sarah at Just Me
Frances at CoAstY’s Journal
Megan at Mothers Matter
Liss at Frills in The Hills
Michelle at Farmers Wifey
Marilyn at Live First, Write Later
Allison at Life In A Pink Fibro
Multiple Mum at And Then There Were Four
Bern at So Now What?
Naomi at Under The Yardarm
Kakka at Menopausal Mumma
Princess TrueLove at My Kid Is Too Funny
Fox In Flats
Mum/Toddler/Babe
Megan at Writing Out Loud
Naomi at Seven Cherubs
A Cajun Down Under
Kim at allconsuming
Sunny Side Up
Jacki at More Than A Mummy
Ann at Likes To Write
Lori at Random Ramblings of a SAHM
Jodie at Mummy Mayhem
River at Drifting Through Life
Aimee at The Best Boy in the Whole Wide World
Katrina at The Organised Housewife
Danimezza at Danimezza.com
Peskypixies at Peskypixie’s Blog
Ms Dovic at Small acts of kindness
Sarah at The Super Whites
Katie at Colour Me Katie
CelloBella at Redsultana
Melbourne Mumma
Anne at Forks In The Road
Bakchos at Blak and Black
Aspiring Millionaire
Dana at Hunter Organics
Michelle at Bump
Jen at Jemikaan
Dorothy at Singular Insanity
Louisa at Everything Is Edible
Cat at Wouldn’t It Be Loverly
Mumstrosity at Mumstrosity
Donna at Nappy Daze
Deb at Science @ Home
Melinda at Stop at the Kerb
Corrie at Retro Mummy
Relish, My Relish
Kimberley at Pop Couture
Candy at Candy’s Family
Suzanne at Quilt Sew Scrap
Sophie at Red Dust Love
Eden at Edenland
Catch The Kids
Inner Pickle
Julie at Natural Transition
DaniV at Health & Fitness Mum
Raising Ellyanna
Cristina Romeo
Alisi’s Mummy
Amanda at Calico and Co
SawHole
The best Of All Possible Worlds
Mum’s Gone 2 Aus
Carly at 

The geek within

by Cellobella on Friday, February 25, 2011 · 2 comments

My gorgeous storytelling buddy

No, my gorgeous storytelling buddy is NOT a geek, that’s me.

And my inner geek has been seriously excited by the chance to go to the Aussie Bloggers Conference…

Not that if I’d been organised I couldn’t have gone anyway but I wasn’t so I was on the waiting list and then I get an email yesterday from Fiona, well really from an organiser who cc’d me in on her reply to Fiona, and Fiona couldn’t go so I got her ticket. 

Yay!

I booked flights before I could think things through too quickly (after making of course the requisite checks with spouse and boss) and I’m going to Sydney!

Excitement.

Anyway why is my gorgeous friend in the photo of this post?

Well we’ve been catching up recently on a Friday afternoon down at one of our fave haunts – Havana – and when I told her about the conference she was all ”hey I think I’ll be in Sydney around the same time”.

Awesome!

Because she is a blogger too…

So now the plan is that she’ll come to Sydney the weekend before – we’ll hang out at the dinner with hopefully James as well – and then we’ve got the next couple of days to chillax.

Double yay!

Good things are supposed to come in threes…

Can’t wait to find out what the triple yay thing is.

Media140 Perth

by Cellobella on Thursday, February 25, 2010 · 1 comment

So I’m at the Media140 conference in Perth – a conference about tweeting and facebooking and blogging and the impact of social media on marketing and corporations.

Some of the issues already raised are ones I think most corporations are facing – especially those who already have a social profile – like radio stations etc… you know the whole what people should be able to say online, what if they bring your brand into disrepute one night after consuming a bottle of Tequila…

One of the more interesting speakers this morning was Jared Woods who is the Communications Manager with SKM – an engineering firm.

I guess I never considered that even engineering firms would have to deal with social media.

One of their policies at SKM (which I assume got past the board once the board learned what Facebook was) is that if you say you work for the company you need to abide by the Avatar Dress Code – which is basically you should dress in your picture as you might for work.

Fair enough.

In fact… I think that’s a good policy.

There was a lot of talk of monitoring what staff say about your brand using Google alerts and something called Social Mention.

I’m sitting here listening to a session on brand reputation and it is a vexed issue.

I get that.

But I think it is also a vexed issue for “private” bloggers/tweeters/facebookers.

Increasingly,  work and home life is blurring online.

I’ve been writing this blog for myself since 2002.  

Before Facebook, before twitter, before my work had computers on every desk (okay… not quite that long).

I use a handle rather than my name, I don’t mention where I work (although many of you may have guessed), I have two Facebook accounts – one for work and one for personal stuff.

So does that mean I can write what I like on this blog?

I mean obviously I’m not going to slag off work or my colleagues but maybe I shouldn’t be writing posts about my new underwear policy.

How much do I allow the work filter to affect my choices on this blog – on my twitter feed?

And of course while I can try and control what is in the personal bucket and what is in the work bucket, I can’t control what others do.

For example my personal twitter account has been linked in with other people’s twitter lists – using my work as a tag.

So now my personal profile is linked to work.

Not my doing. 

Does it mean my personal handle is compromised to such an extent that I can’t write what I like?

My feeling is no.

But that could be my heart more than my head.

I love this space to write about things that take my fancy.  To write about my life.

I would hate to lose it and start again.

So have you dealt with this issue?

What is your feeling?

Tweet tweet tweet

by Cellobella on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 · 5 comments

I have broken through the twitter barrier.

It has taken me some time to jump on the twitter bandwagon and I’m not sure why.

It was work that did it.

We were playing with twitter today, working out how to use it, encouraging our team to have a go and I thought… well maybe I should try it.

So I did.

It’s really quite addictive as twitterers out there will know.

I think maybe because it is SO easy.

I think the important things I’ve learned so far are:

  • Change your background ASAP so you look like a real person
  • Follow people who follow you
  • Reply to others by putting an @ symbol before their username
  • Enjoy the ride because it is one!

If you want to follow my tweets go to http://twitter.com/cellobella

I’d love to see you and follow you in return!

The questions I have for bloggers though – does Twitter improve your page accesses or not?

And do you find that you have less time for blogging if you are active on Twitter?

The perfect Christmas card

by Cellobella on Friday, November 28, 2008 · 4 comments

Sent to me by a colleague who knows me too well.

Maybe there’s another that would suit you?

To go with maybe this tee-shirt as a present?

Appreciating the unappreciated

by Cellobella on Friday, October 31, 2008 · 3 comments

Just a quick note to point you towards Chuck Westerbrook’s blog where he is conducting a blogging experiment to highlight and throw some loving towards blogs with great content but perhaps low readership.

I’m intrigued to see who he chooses to support!  

Of course everyone who signs up (including me) hopes it will be them whose selected from among the masses as a fantastic blog who needs to be recognised but the reality is, your blog stands or falls on its content.

It’s interesting.  I started writing this blog for myself I guess, as a record of our lives… it was public, then it wasn’t, now it is again.

I didn’t realise how much I appreciated you, dear reader, until earlier this year I lost my site for three days. OMG I was bereft!

My virtual community had become real.

Blogging has become more important to me in recent years, I think possibly because I don’t have that regular connection with a radio community anymore.  I love the interaction.  I love reading other people’s blogs and getting an insight into their lives.  I love being part of a virtual community.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying thank you.  Thanks for visiting (you know how I love the drop in) and thanks for commenting and (for those of you who do) thanks for letting me in to your life.

And if you are new to redsultana – welcome – and please check out my Linky Love page.

My family

by Cellobella on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 · 5 comments


This is my family at the party we had on Saturday night for my Dad (70) and my little sister (40).

Make sure you keep the length, said my sister as we uploaded this photo today, we don’t want to look any fatter than necessary.  No worries I thought, that suits me!

Ah.  This website seems to be working again sans multi-level navigation and automatic WordPress upgrade plugins.  Meh who needs them.

A fast loading site is all I want.  Or in fact a loading site.

I’m sitting here on the couch with my sister – over from the US -showing her how to blog on WordPress.  It’s very exciting.  The sun is warming our hands and laps as we type away.

Tonight she goes back to the States.

I feel like I’ve only just had time to say hi and she’s gone again.

At the birthday she had us all in tears talking about Dad.  She spoke of someone who could do anything – and that’s what he’s like.  But that’s also what she’s like. 

She’s told me to stop now… but it’s my blog and I will write what I like.  So there!

(you can get me back on your blog if you want.)

Domain dilemmas and other problems of modern life

by Cellobella on Monday, September 1, 2008 · 5 comments

[The title of this post is a homage to one of my favourite albums: Christine Lavin's Beau Woes and Other Problems of Modern Life. An album with such classics as Prince Charles, Air Conditioning, Ballad of a Ballgame and Doris and Edwin The Movie.]

A shag in a tree

So you might have noticed that my domain name expired and redsultana.com was out of commission for a day or so over the weekend.

I can’t believe how bad it made me feel. Like a shag on a rock… or possibly a tree. :)

Apart from feeling like my whole arm was chopped off it really took from me the power to communicate. It felt as if someone was compressing the oxygen tube. Yes. I was gasping.

Ironically, just the night before (at the clever dinner) I was chatting with Silvertongue about this very blog. She was asking me why I did it and didn’t it feel a bit like an invasion of privacy and how did I feel about complete strangers knowing about my life…

I told her that it was almost compulsive now. That I’ve never had success in keeping a diary but for the last five years have blogged nearly every week, lately every day. My theory is that I need you to read it to validate writing it. Which at the time felt a bit sad but then when you think about it why write a diary at all unless you want it to be read – possibly by your ancestors but at the very least by yourself.

So my obsessive compulsive blogging justified I jumped online at the first opportunity on Saturday and uploaded the photos from our dinner.

Five minutes later my site had disappeared.

What the hell happened to my website?!

Here’s what happened. I wanted to transfer my domain name over and when I did I noticed that the administrative email was some random one I’d never seen before. So I emailed the address thinking they would give me the codes to transfer the name. And forgot about it.

Turns out that that random email was supposed to be my email address. (I know… n00b!)

So my domain name expires and my website disappears and I work out (pretty quickly at that point) that I needed to change the administrative email address to mine and did so but then of course I couldn’t transfer my domain for 60 days under the rules. WTF!

I decided to renew my domain name with my old provider for another year, and then I find out that because it was expired it will take 24-72 hours to restore.

Well at least that’s shorter than 60 days.

At that point, I took a deep breath. There was absolutely nothing more I could do. I breathed in. I breathed out. I got a large glass of wine and watched Doctor Who and Australian Idol.

I set my alarm. I went to bed.

Today my site came back. I am whole.

Lessons Learned

Make sure the administrative email associated with your domain name is actually yours. If it isn’t, change it now. Just do it.

Where is my billionaire?

by Cellobella on Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Today it’s a bit of a bits and bobs post…

I learned that 62% of billionaires marry brunettes. Where’s mine? Or are you not telling me something Groover?

Groover's 40th

I had some fun live blogging while on radio… someone was sick and I got to play!

I’m loving Angela’s Ashes. I thought it would be depressing but in fact I find it inspiring.

And I’m thinking about doing this. Just thinking mind…

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