At New Zealand Fashion Festival tonight, nzgirl’s Jenene Crossan shared her 5 simple steps to becoming an magazine editor – or more precisely – getting an online presence, via blogging, schmoozing and a fair amount of hard work.
After a video presentation about Jenene, she showed a clip from The Devil Wears Prada – where Miranda (Meryl Streep) recounts how fashion is decided by the editors and ends up as baggy cerulean sweaters – then spoke at some length on how trends start; the move from runway via major bloggers through Twitter, through their blog followers, on Pinterest, and finally into chain stores.
The new nzgirl app perfectly illustrates how content is generated by the audience these days instead of by Editors; her key point, that Influencers are key. Major players, or Influencers, change the world.
Below: The audience watching the video.
So, what are Jenene’s 5 easy to understand steps?
1. Find your subject: Know what it is you influence. There are lots of blogs out there, so be unique and entertaining. Think to yourself, what’s my passion? What do I have a flair for?
2. Set yourself up a blog. You need to write every single day, share the blog with friends, and get them to be very honest. If you’re not good at writing – in a Simon Cowell moment, be brutally honest – and be a Connector instead of a Writer. Find where your key strength lies.
3. Provide your content for free. (This is, as Jenene pointed out, how nzgirl gets its content. Needless to say, this point was a bit controversial.)
4. Make yourself useful. Get to know the PR people; they want you to talk about their brands. Act nicely. Introduce yourself to PRs and be nice to deal with. Tell them what coverage you can give their brands and do that and then send it to them. Connect with social media, and follow them on social media.
5. Repeat. For like, 5 years.
Jenene added that it is vital to get good content first, and the audience numbers follow, then the advertising revenue follows.
A key point she made was not to be afraid of working for free.
She says to be passionate as it’s contagious. Her slogan is, “Love me or hate me, at least I won’t leave you indifferent.”
Jenene said to harness the changes that are happening in the world, as “we’re all making it up as we go along.” She commented that social media is going towards the visual (IPTV, Pinterest and so on) and she wants NZ bandwidth sorted out.
Lastly, we watched a short film of locals (Thread’s Megan Robinson included along with Julie Roulston and three other bloggers) speaking on how online has changed the way people enter the industry and tips for them.
Oh my gosh it’s a giant Megan on the screen. Frightening when you are right underneath.
In all, the seminar wasn’t ground-breaking information but rather a collection of commonsense good advice, from a woman who is an expert at promoting both her brands and herself. I liked that she was honest about how her success has been hard on her personal life and she has had two marriages end and now she’s 33 and single.
Success has never been so attainable to so many with the prolification of blogs. Who will step up to the plate and apply themselves to her recommendations: writing regularly, for free, with a unique voice, bothering PRs until they listen to you and send you invites and free stuff, and with persistence and acting nicely?
I’ll be watching for the next big thing. No doubt we’ll hear about you on Twitter. Or Pinterest. Or whatever’s next…
Words and photos, Megan Robinson
27 February 2012
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