I had a whirlwind weekend.

Five straight shifts at the restaurant. Two of them closing. Two of them Mother’s Day.

I was so relieved to sleep in a little this morning and just throw on my yoga pants once I finally rolled out of bed.

But somewhere in between the craziness, I managed to sneak off to the Unique Space in downtown L.A. to get some killer advice on social media from the boss of bloggers in the social media world – Bri Emery of designlovefest.

(yes, i asked to take a picture with her.  i even sat in the front row and asked lots of questions.  i was in super-nerd mode and she was amazing. i am entirely more starstruck by my blogging inspirations than by big movie stars.)

Bri confessed to us that she is an absolute shareaholic, which makes it easy (and fun!) for her to manage her own social media presence.  She even demonstrated for us how she shoots and edits the perfect pics for Instagram.  I was relieved at how normal it made my pre-dinner photo shoots look.

Of course, I had to take a few pictures, myself.

It was such an amazing space, I just kept thinking about how inspired I would be if I got to work on The Key of Kels from there every single day.

I even asked a girl to take a picture of me in front of this awesome wallpaper…

…and she turned it into a full out photo shoot with direction and angles and everything.

I loved it.  These are my people!

But I was there to learn.  And to Instagram.  So off to class I went.

Bri gave us a very real perspective on sharing, on making it look consistent and professional, and on having a good time with it!

My five favorite take-aways from the workshop?

1. Don’t feel awkward standing on your chair or taking your subject a few blocks down to that adorable little coffee shot to get the best pic.  If this is your brand, you sometimes need to go above and beyond to get the vibe or feel or shot you’re looking for.  Plus, who cares what the table next to you thinks?  Tell them you write a blog and give them the website!  Maybe they’ll be your next big fan!

2.  For Instagram – Take a ton of pictures with different angles and composition. Scroll through the thumbnails to see which one stands out the most.  That’s the one that will stand out when people are scrolling through their feed.

3.  Make every feed completely unique.  Otherwise, people get sick of you just saying the same thing over and over again in five different places.  Use different pictures and text.  Post at different times throughout the day.  Give them a reason to follow you in all those places!!  But take the extra five minutes to edit links/pics/whatever to make sure your posts show up the way you intended on each individual forum.  The picture that looks great on Facebook probably won’t be the one that looks the best on Twitter or Pinterest.

4. Speaking of getting photos right, it’s not the worst thing to scroll through your feed and see which pictures stick out like sore thumbs.  Delete pictures that aren’t consistent or are just kind of bad.  They take attention away from the great pictures!  Good riddance!

5. Create your own unique hashtags so you can easily find pictures.  For instance, my friend Sarah started #funwithproduce, and it’s my new favorite place to post funny produce pictures.  I am thinking about starting one like #tkokfavefoodspots or #tkokbakes to easily “list” my favorite restaurants or recipes for anyone who wants to see.  I’ll keep you updated.

(ps! i found this picture through the #dlfworkshop hashtag later that afternoon. i am pretty proud of my front and center super-nerdom for all to see.)

6. One extra bonus takeaway: Most importantly – have fun!  For my blog, my social media is all about my amazing adventures around this wild town.  I love sharing my daily life and the beautiful things I see with all of you, so it’s naturally fun.  I hope it shines through!

DesignLoveFest is always holding workshops for subjects from photoshop to florals to mixology to calligraphy.  Check out the schedule and sign up for one that interests you.  You won’t regret it – and maybe I’ll see you there!

xoxo