Category Archives: LearnerBlogger

Wales Blog Awards – I did NOT see that coming!

LearnerBlogger, Wales

Well, knock me sideways with a feather duster. Not that you could find one in this house, but whatever, consider me well and truly knocked…I am a finalist – a FINALIST! – in the Wales Blog Awards!

I genuinely can’t believe this. I actually only entered one night when I was trying to write a post and I’d run out of all other blog related displacement activities. If you’re a blogger, you’ll know the routine – faff about on Twitter, play with your widgets, keep refreshing your stats to see if anyone, anywhere is reading anything you’ve written, decide to change your sidebar around, swear a bit, enter a random competition…I have a vague, now slightly cringeworthy, memory that in answer to the question ‘Why do you think your blog is worthy of a Wales Blog Award’ I wrote something like ‘I’m quite sure it isn’t’!  I wasn’t trying to be clever, I just did not think for a minute that my little corner of the internet would stand a chance…so I pressed ‘send’, tried again to write the post I was writing, probably failed, and forgot all about it.

And then an email popped into my inbox this afternoon from the Wales Blog Awards,  which I assumed to be an invitation to buy tickets for the awards ceremony…so I idly scanned the list to see if I knew any of the finalists, and nearly choked on my daughter’s Friday afternoon Haribos when I saw LearnerMother there in the Best New Blog category!

So. Gobsmacked! I’ve been dipping into some of the other finalists this evening and I’m up there with some pretty fab blogs – so it’s fair to say I’m very, very chuffed. A massive Thank You to the judging team, but an even bigger to you lovely folk who read my shizzle! Mwwwaah!

x

 

OiConf 14

Cardiff Stuff, LearnerBlogger, Work, ,

I’ve always quite enjoyed social media and the opportunities it gives for personal interaction in different ways, but over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to get to grips with how I could be using it to grow our business effectively; and with my ‘day-job’ hat on, exploring its role in sharing, promoting and co-producing good practice throughout the public sector.

One thing I’ve found is that it’s really difficult to find accessible social media learning opportunities at the level I need. I’m beyond the various local courses available which introduce Twitter, Facebook and WordPress; and while there are plenty of higher level, in depth courses which I’d love to sign up to, these require a regular commitment and shedloads of cash (£5k for the Community Building course which I have my eye on!) and as things stand, that’s just not feasible. Of course there are free resources galore available online, but sorting the wheat from the chaff takes a while, and to be totally honest, I seem to remember stuff much better when I’m actually taught it, rather than watching a slideshow or a youtube video.

So I’m pretty excited that the Online Influence Conference (Oiconf 14) is back in Cardiff for the third year running. I was lucky enough to get to the  first Oiconf event back in 2012, and it was absolutely brilliant – I learnt shedloads, and it was the first time that I’d really understood what a powerful business tool social media could be. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to put too much of what I’d learnt into practice straight away because of the specific project I was working on at the time, but I still came away from the day energised and excited, and determined to learn more as and when I could.

And now I can! The lineup for Oiconf  14 is awesome – there are three brilliant keynote speakers lined up, each of whom have achieved a huge amount, with the use of social media being integral to their journeys. Each speaker has an inspirational story to tell, but David Hieatt is someone I’ve long admired from afar for his project to bring jeans manufacturing back to Cardigan, as well as for his vision in creating the Do Lectures.

It’s not just about sitting and listening though – there are masterclasses available for all delegates from experts on Twitter, Brandwatch and Google+. I’m particularly excited about the session on G+ as I just can’t quite get my head around how I should be using it to get the most from it, although I can see that it has the potential to be a very powerful tool for community building. I’m planning to blog what I’ve learnt, so if G+ is a mystery to you too, check back in a few weeks!

However if you work with social media at any level, or even just share a fascination for how it’s changing the way we live our lives on so many levels, I would highly recommend booking yourself a ticket to the event itself. You’ll need to be quick – the last two sold out and my spies tell me that this one is well on the way to doing so also.

Hope to see you there!

tito

 

 

The Husband was right…

LearnerBlogger, LearnerMother, ,

I was TOTALLY going to be cool about this, and pretend it wasn’t happening and all. But it turns out that my inner self is not going to allow that, by any means, so I’m going to do it, but just once. And then we shall never speak about it again.

Yep, I’m on about the Mum and Dad Blog Awards. When I started this shizzle nearly a year ago, I didn’t know there was such a thing as blogging awards. Shortly afterwards the nominations came out for the MADS, and I happened to mention them to the Husband, whereupon he rolled his eyes surreptitiously. But not surreptitiously enough.

‘What?’

‘Nothing!

‘WHAT??’

‘It’s just I can see where this is going. You’re going to get all competitive with this blogging thing of yours, aren’t you? It’ll be another one of your missions, like when you decided you were going to beat Paula Radcliffe at the marathon after 2 weeks at running club, or that you were going to grow a record breaking prize marrow on the basis that you once managed to keep a cactus alive for a couple of weeks.’

Obviously I flounced off muttering something about not being competitive at all and that I was blogging for ME and no-one else and no, I wasn’t interested in awards, thank you very much, and what did he mean anyway, and so on and so forth, while he just smirked in an annoying ‘you know I’m right’  fashion.

I bloody hate it when he’s right.

Obviously I’m not aiming for an actual award – that would be foolish. But I would dearly love to get a nomination – not least because I’d have an excuse to go to a swanky do in London where there will be no kids and lots of beer.

I also bloody hate asking for favours.

So I’m just going to say this quickly and slightly embarrassedly – please please please would you consider nominating me in the ‘Best New Blog’ section? It’d have to be that one because the other categories are all about proper things like craft, or photography, or being entertaining, or heaven forbid BABIES and I am unashamedly rubbish at all those. Which also technically means it’s my only chance, ever, to get nominated because next year I won’t be new any more and *sobs* I’ll STILL be rubbish at craft and photography and I sure as hell ain’t having another baby at my age…Tell you what. I’ll shut up now.

Oh…except to say this – whether you nominate me or not, a massive THANK YOU for reading LearnerMother over the last 12 months 🙂

MAD Blog Awards