Images lensed by Tommy Ton at MBFWA for Style.com
There are some success stories that just instantly inspire you to perform at your peak, to look at your work with fresh eyes and reach your ultimate goals. This is how we all felt when global influencer and one of the original fashion bloggers (launched in 2006), Susannah Lau aka Susie Bubble of Style Bubble came to Melbourne courtesy of Portable.
She spoke of the integral role bloggers now play in a brand’s marketing plan, and how this new relationship can be harnessed for a positive result on both the readers and the fashion industry. But it’s all about getting the balance right, one that is mutually beneficial but doesn’t sacrifice your independence or stifle your self-expression.
One of her top tips was to blog regularly with quality content. In the beginning she blogged 2-3 times a day which really helped with her organic search traffic on Google. Then it was just a matter of it growing slowly from 10,000 uniques a day to 20,000, then 30,000 and 40,000.
“This natural growth comes with time and dedication, ensuring you blog quality vs quantity, understand your readers reactions and your blog audience.”
Susie believes influence is more valuable than numbers and while she admits Style Bubble has less hits per day than some of the other bloggers in the fashion network, her influence is what sets her apart and can’t be measured by numbers alone.
Susie also touched on the ongoing global debate of bloggers vs journalists and she believes the continued comparison in holding bloggers up against journalists or critics is misguided.
“If we look at the dominant personal style category of bloggers, there is no inkling among them to be journalists… instead of fashion critiquing, bloggers are creatives through illustration, photos, styling, modelling, editing and writing, it’s a form of self-expression… there needs to be acceptance that projecting your own image our there is not journalism but a form of self-expression that connects with an audience… give up the comparison, move forward and allow bloggers to flourish in what they do”.
Overall, it is all comes down to one thing, `for the love of it’. Susie believes the blog landscape can be improved by taking pride in content and enjoying the task.
“Blogs should be valued and accepted without added hype or fanfare… treasure the diversity… brands/PR need to look deeper to find voices that are more valuable than established faces.”
It was an incredibly insightful seminar. A big thanks to Portable for inviting Fashion Exposed Blog.
We also had to share these top ten takeways from her chat, put together by LMFF blog;
1. Rise above the clutter – you need to find your niche and standout from the pack.
2. Story is even more important that timing, it is be better to have a story worth telling than race to get something up first.
3. Understand your motivations for blogging.
4. Ask yourself ‘what does your blog stand for‘ and think about how it may be perceived.
5. Think about how you may want to integrate brands into your blog.
6. Content is king – make sure you take charge over the editorial content and find your own voice.
7. Utilise other brands to create useful content for yourself and the brands you work with.
8. Learn to be a spokesperson for a brand – you have the potential to be their megaphone and amplify their message.
9. Remember “Bloggers are not the future of fashion magazines, they are the future of fashion branding” – AdWeek 2011.
10. Once established, consider moving your blog from online to offline and build real life experiences such as in store appearances, editorial styling, curating and more.