Today I am going to share a few insights on the blogging industry. I used to think that blogging is an individual endeavor where I could chronicle my life, travel stories and food reviews. Now I learn that your blog is a creative platform that allows brands and other bloggers to connect and collaborate with one another, and in turn lending a personal voice to the brands you are working with.
One year into the industry, I am indeed grateful and thankful for the collaborations and brands I have work with and engaged through my writing and photography. I like what Lucy Waring (founder of Blogmeet Sg) once said that instead of being competitive, bloggers should learn to collaborate and help to promote each other. I would definitely extend invites to my blogger friends if I could do so and they would in turn invite me when there is an opportunity. Be a sincere and genuine person as people can feel it and if something happen, word will also spread around as the blogging community is only so small.
Photo courtesy of Lucy Waring.
The Value of Cross-Promotion
In recent years, brands and PR agencies have realized the need for bloggers to be integrated into their marketing strategies and have learned to build relationships with bloggers effectively. You get a lot of social media exposure when bloggers write and share about your brand on their well-established social media platforms.
Working with bloggers can also be mutually beneficial for your business and brand, as bloggers do their own photography which lends more credibility and a personal touch to their reviews. It’s also a time-saving and cost-effective method in spreading the word about your brand.
Companies also allowed the bloggers to keep the products they have reviewed and help to link back to their blogs from the company website and promote the bloggers’ work on their Facebook page. This truly emphasizes the value of cross promotion as many brands have neglected the fact that bloggers are also trying to promote themselves to a larger audience as much as the brands are.
Blogmeet SG Event
Recently, I have the pleasure of attending the Blogmeet Sg event organised by Lucy Waring at The Nail Social, where exciting health and wellness brands meet with bloggers to discuss collaborations and bounce off ideas. Blogmeet Sg is a brainchild of Lucy, who found brands who are willing to sponsor products or services at the event and would in turn meet the bloggers who would write about their brands which could be very good exposure for the companies. Talk about a win-win situation here.
During the event, we had refreshing pure coconut water from Cocoloco and cutesy cake pops from Moofypops.
We also had fun creating our own personal tub of lip balm using beeswax and natural plant oils courtesy of shophousesixtyfive.com.
Ayelli – 100% Cold-pressed Organic Argan Oil from Morocco
Habiba Raffa and Lucy Waring.
I also had the pleasure to meet and chat with Habiba Raffa, CEO and founder of Ayelli. She shared with us on how she used argan oil on her luscious curly hair and flawless skin which has remained her beauty secret for many years. Argan oil is miracle liquid gold and literally food for your skin and hair as it is full of Vitamin E, antioxidants and fatty acids known for their healing properties.
Photo courtesy of healthyfigs.com.
In recent years, Habiba has seen many unscrupulous business people trying to ride on the argan oil gold rush by mixing the argan oils with chemicals or otherwise selling poor quality oils that felt slimy on the skin.
As a Moroccan who hailed from a family with a long-running argan oil business, she felt that she needed to do the right thing to bring the real thing to the masses and people need to be informed about the benefits of argan oil. High quality argan oil is almost impossible to find nowadays.
As there were no organic argan oil producers/companies in Southeast Asia, Habiba saw the business opportunity here and relocated from United States to Singapore and started Ayelli.
All of us received samples (including a clarifying cleanser from Spotless) from the kind sponsors at the Blogmeet Sg event and I love the argan oil sample I received so much after using it on my hair and face for a week that I actually visited Ayelli to buy a 50 ml bottle.
Habiba was very kind to extend a 10% discount for all my readers till 1 November 2015 and shipping is free within Singapore. Please use the discount code “YVETTE”. Do watch this space as Ayelli will be launching other organic and hair care products (based on argan oil) in the next few months.
I was glad to attend the event where I get to meet brands and new friends and discuss about our individual blogs. Remember blogging need not be a solo endeavour, it can be very exciting and rewarding if you would invest time and energy into it, as in any other things as well.
“I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder
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