My Blogging Journey, Anniversaries, Evolution, Social Fabric #cBias

I have been blogging since 1999 when I started a personal journal on Live Journal. I so enjoyed the fits and bouts of writing just for the joy of writing. That led to the launch of Cre8Tiva’s blog in 2006 where I share my adventures of creativity on my search for Cre8Topia. In a few days Cre8Tiva (my muse below) and I will celebrate our 5th year on blogger…a pretty big milestone. A business associate recently introduced me as a “social media maven” to a prospective client. I took that as a major complement and a testament to the hours I have spent over the past 17 years learning the social media ropes.

On January 1, 2010 I launched Cre8tive Compass Magazine as a way to keep connected with the art community I had long served as Editor-in-Chief of The Artistic Stenciler Magazine. What began as a way to help artists learn how to make a living doing what they love soon evolved into the daily dose of inspiration for the creative soul. We are now transforming our lives into art each and every day.

Try as I might, I struggled to turn it into a money-maker. Perhaps that was because there were some growing pains and multiple personalities while finding my groove and defining my mission. That was the intent when I started REP MEdia…to earn a living! Earlier this year my dear friend Jennifer Tuma-Young invited me to join a group called Social Fabric. I didn’t quite understand the concept at first…but I jumped in head first anyway…and slowly I found a way to monetize, work with big brands and grow a loyal following.

Why I am a Member of Social Fabric^®

Social Fabric is an invite- or application-only private online community that is owned by social shopper media company Collective Bias. They connect bloggers with brands through social media campaigns beneficial to both. I am a member because I want to:

1. become a savvy, professional blogger
2. learn from the best
3. grow Cre8tive Compass Magazine’s reach

Since being in soFab, I have had the good fortune to work with such brands as Elmer’s, Kmart, Colgate, MurphyUSA, Hillshire Farm, Mars Candy and many others. On these I was compensated for my insights and I never need to compromise my ideals or the mission of this maga-blog in doing so.

In July I was given the chance to be the campaign lead for a Halloween M&M’s project that became wildly successful. I learned how to work with brands, how to amplify a product through social media and how to lead others while having fun. I managed over 120 bloggers who created such a buzz about the M&M’s that they were selling on eBay ans Amazon for five times the retail price.

Along the way I discovered that people love my food creations, my DIY skills and my Boomer Geek Girl attributes. Now I  blog about food and DIY projects several times each week, while still keeping my hand in digital and new media marketing arena that I love.

My goal is to be the new and social media manager for a large craft, food or DIY magazine brand. I have honed these skills over the past 17 years being active across most of the major social media platforms. I teach others how to connect their small business through relationship marketing to millions of people. I also teach bloggers how to optimize their photographs for their blogs. I have studied and mastered SEO and CSS. I bring all this to soFab with joy.