Living Positively And Building Brands With Coca-Cola

Earlier last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Conversations With Coca-Cola Blogger Conference in Atlanta, GA.  I attended this event on behalf of Mommy Delicious.  I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. It was truly eye opening and life changing for me. I got to meet some other super awesome bloggers while I was there.  In addition, I had the chance to meet and bond with Coca-Cola staff and partners.  Here's a recap of my experience.

On Day 1 we kicked off the conference with a presentation from the lovely Katherine Stone (@postpartumprog).  She is a former Coca-Cola employee turned mental health advocate/blogger/columnist.  You find her on Postpartum Progress or Fierce & Powerful.  She gave us some great advice on how to successfully build and expand our brands. Check out some of my favorite key points below.

~Bloggers are journalist: Now I know that this is debatable for a lot of people because they feel like you need a journalism degree in order to be a journalist.  However, as Katherine pointed out that's not true.  We're blogging about real events and real facts in real time.  It's our experience in the "field" that makes us just as much of a journalist as Katie Couric.  In fact, in today's society most of the videos, photos and information on major events come from bloggers or social media users who actually lived or witnessed them.

~Everything has meaning... Everything communicates: From the posts we blog to the words we tweet, when building a brand you always have to be mindful of the message you're sending out to readers/supporters.

~Keep your arsenal close and updated:  As Katherine put it, "we're always a work in progress."  Thus, as we evolve so does (or should) our blogs.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that our elevator pitch, media and press kits, business cards and blogs reflect where and who we are currently and not who we were 1 to 5 years ago.

~We're not the only owners of our brand: Although many of us started our blogs as a form of personal and inexpensive therapy, we still have to keep our audience in mind.  Our readers are just as much a part of building our brands as we are.  So, it's important to keep that in mind when creating content and establishing partnerships without other brands.  Also, don't be afraid to reach out to readers and ask them for feedback.



My vision board



The conference really proved that Coca-Cola is more than just a soft drink company.  Unlike many of their counterparts, they actually care about their consumers and work hard to improve our communities as well as make this world a better place.   From balancing family and career to healthy living and conservation, here are some of the tips I learned about living positively.

~Failure is a learning experience: We don't always get things right on the first try.  Sometimes it takes a second, third, or even sixth try to achieve success.  However, with all of our failures there are lessons to be learned and opportunities to be seized.  Don't focus so much on the failure itself but on the experience as a whole and what you can do differently next time.

~"Work the plan that works for you": One of the ladies from our Coca-Cola panel shared this great words of wisdom with us.  We can't do everything or be everywhere for everybody.  Instead, we have to come up with a plan and system tailored specifically for our situations and stick with it.

~It starts at home: As parents and spouses it's our jobs to teach our family how to live positively.  We have to set the examples for healthy eating, make sure our families are being active, show our loved ones how to give back and most importantly make sure we're doing our part to preserve our planet.

I'll share some of the fun facts I learned as well as more pictures from my trip on Facebook.

Disclaimer: This conference was hosted by Coca-Cola.  They provided my food, lodging and transportation.  All opinions expressed are my own.