Blogging meet ups are always super exciting to go to, but if you’ve never been to one before, it can be far too easy to build it up in your head to something awful – even those of us who have gone to lots of them over the years still get that feeling of dread!
The main thing to remember is that you’re not the only one feeling like this. Even the organiser of the meet up is probably chewing their nails down to stubs the night before! You’re probably going to the meet up because you want to meet new to you bloggers, so you need to be brave and go along, even if your head is saying “No! Stay at home! It’s nice and safe!”
Something that helps with the feeling of being awkward and alone at a meet up is having a buddy to go with. Either arrange with another blogging friend to go together, or chat to others in Twitter (there’s probably a specific event hashtag, so you can easily find people who are going) and meet up with a few of them to head over together. It can be so intimidating to walk into a venue on your own!
To get the best out of the meet up, say hi to everyone. Grab their details so you can check their blogs out later. (If you’re organising an event, it’s a nice touch to send an email either a day or two before, or straight after – as soon as you get home, because you know the attendees are dying to get the deets off you! – with everyone who is attending/who did attend’s blog address and Twitter name)
It might sound very obvious, but be polite to everyone. First impressions count for a lot – do you really want people saying “oh yeah, she was at this meet up, but she was so rude!” If you can, be brave and be the first one to introduce yourself to others.
If you have them (and it’s a good idea to have them for times like this!), bring along your blog business cards. It’s a nice way for the other bloggers to remember who you are, and it makes it nice and easy for everyone to collect each other’s full info (Try to avoid the “throw a few cards into a pile on the table” method of sharing your info – it might seem like an easy way out, but no one has any incentive to take your details, and they won’t remember who you are!
It’s really tempting to stay with your friends at an event, but to get the most out of an event, you need to keep moving around. Catch up with your blogging besties afterwards – find new people to talk to, and you might just find a new BBFF (blogging best friend forever, of course!)
What are your tips for blogging meet ups?
Aww this is great, even though I’ve been to lots of meet ups now, I still find it a bit nerve wracking sometimes! But it’s always fun once you’re there :) looking forward to Saturday! x
Eeep – excited and nervous about Saturday!! Armed wit hcake and tea…. :)
Great advice – I completely agree about the business cards. The very first meet up I went to last year I seemed to be the only one there with no cards, needless to say it was the very first thing I organised when I got home :-)
Is there any chance of an article or advice about organising blogger meet ups? Apologies if you’ve already covered this before :-) x
It’s on the long list of posts to do!