Draw! Pilgrim does Alt Design Summit – Panels and Parties

Written
by
Jenny Butler
Writer
Jenny Butler
17th of February 2011

After a hard couple of days of being inspired by some of the worlds most impressive bloggers and experts, Pilgrim pops on her colourfully cute dancing shoes and parties the night away! With the choice of parties being hosted by the likes of Kate Spade and Girls with Glasses - and featuring more brightly colored martinis and chocolate fountains that you can poke a stick at - I suspect this might have been a amazing night! - Jenny x

Hello again! Welcome to my coverage of the alt summit conference. Today's panels were advice from the big guns - Heather Armstrong of Dooce shared her thoughts on pitching your blog, and Brenda Dargan - social media strategist for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia - showed how such a big company maintains a human social media presence.

image from alt summit flickr

THE ART OF THE PITCH

Panelists: Heather Armstrong of Dooce, Neil Chase of Federated Media

Personalise your pitch. Know the site you're pitching to and approach them with a product that fits the blog author and their audience.

Maintain a current press kit. Include site metrics such as unique visits, total page views and return visitors. Outline top traffic sources.

Show your work. Sponsors want to know how many page views you get per month, and your monthly revenue.

Be authentic. Is your site you? Treat your readers as your best friends. Best friends know when you're not being authentic.

Be transparent. Make sure you disclose sponsorships and freebies. Are these things bringing value to your readers?

Do you enjoy it? If you don't, it's time to stop.

image from alt summit flickr

CREATIVE COMPANIES & SOCIAL MEDIA

Panelists: Brenda Dargan from Martha Stewart, Molly Peterson from Dwell Studio, Summer Allen of Design Is Mine

Be authentic. The goal is to connect, not sell. Maintain a consistent voice across your social media strategy.

Deal with the negative. Acknowledge the problem and pass it on to the relevant customer service department.

Don't over-promote. Reward followers with special deals instead.

Don't over-post. Don't flood Twitter and Facebook feeds with too many updates.

Pose questions to build content. Your readers will tell you what they want to read about.

image from alt summit flickr

Tomorrow I'll share highlights from the exciting closing keynote, but first - let's party! On Friday night sponsors held parties in varying suites. I can't lie, my favourite was the colorful bash thrown by Kate Spade and those adorable Girls with Glasses.

See you tomorrow, - pilgrim x

image from pilgrim and alt summit flickr

image from alt summit flickr and modern kiddo

image from alt summit flickr and modern kiddo

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