Yesterday cision published a guest post by Sian To about Cybher and it seems it ruffled a few feathers.
I wanted to express my view on this post as it is impossible in the 140 characters that twitter allows.
I view this post as a self-appraisal by Sian on her own events.
Most jobs require staff to have appraisals in some form – what you are doing well, what you are doing not so well, what they’d like to see more of and then the all important next steps. I see this post as exactly that – she got feedback from people she worked with and changed her product to create Cybher.
As Sian said to me “Each event should have a defining goal” which is so true. There is a place for all these events and I want to go to them all to experience what they have to offer as each is very different. Cybher is for ALL women – whether they are mummy bloggers, fashion bloggers, beauty bloggers, finance bloggers etc. I don’t write about foreign exchange options as that’s not my passion – my kids are and I focus on that. Mums are as welcome as anyone to the event.
I certainly wasn’t an established blogger when I attended Cybher for the first time – in fact my blog was about 8 months old. A lot of what was spoken about went over my head but I did learn a lot and met some amazing people, although it wasn’t as social an event as I believe Britmums is it was good fun too.
My second Cybher event was even better. I had a better knowledge of all things blog and this event helped me build on that knowledge to make my blog better. I learned how to use G+, how to take amazing photographs, how to create MY brand and even how to use a DSLR camera – things that you think are obvious but you don’t actually do them. You can read my post on Cybher 2013 here.
In my opinion what Sian and Cybher are trying to achieve is to give everyone the tools to make their blog better and offer feedback from SEO’s and PR’s etc. They are certainly not dictating the law, just trying to explain the confusing world of Google and best practice – I for one appreciate that.
At the end of the day your blog is YOURS and you can do what you like with it and as for the freebies……are they really freebies? I love this post by Molly from Mothers Always Right as she hits the nail on the head!
You can say one thing for sure…….it has certainly got everyone talking about Cybher and there is no such thing as bad press!
Hmmm. I agree with the sentiment that an event for all bloggers is a great idea. However the post does imply that Mummy bloggers are not welcome at Cybher, and I believe that that message was intentional. In which case, it has done a great disservice to blogging in general, by stirring up animosity. I pray that the fallout over this will be short-lived.
I really didn’t read it like that – I saw it that you leave your “blogging genre” at the door, but I can see how it could get misinterpreted. It did its job though – everyone is talking about it!
Great to hear more personal opinions about Cybher
Interesting post. I’ve been watching this debate from the sidelines. I’ve never been to Cybher and suspect I never will now. I’d love to make my blog more effective, without just working on it even more than I do, but I wouldn’t want to fork out a lot of money and travel a long way to a place I wouldn’t feel welcome/ comfortable. I didn’t learn much at Britmums, but I met some lovely people – and I’m going back next year!
I do think it is a shame in the sense that it was much more what I would expect you to like because it wasn’t about baby’s, there were no baby brands.
In saying that I do think the post drags up the mummy blaggers kind of feel and that this was done intentionally – bad press is press as you say
I’ve never been to CybHer and I have always seen it as a more general blogging event – my interest at this point in life is my kids and that’s why I prefer Britmums, where I met lots of other lovely bloggers with similar interests.
I’d be a bit worried that at CybHer I might feel a bit pidgeonholed as ‘just a mummy blogger’. When actually, I’ve been writing/blogging online now since 2001, well before I had my children!