HSAY 019 - Sara Broers | Travel Blogger | Social Media Leader
Quote:
“I want people to be smarter and safer online, and from a business perspective which most people tend to forget about”
Background:
Instructor Sara Broers is a Social Media Strategist and travel enthusiast who travels the nation speaking to groups on how to use social media.
Sara has a passion for helping business owners make connections they need to grow their businesses through Social Media. Her Presentation has drawn national acclaim as she introduces new auctioneers to social media and shows them how they can use it to market their businesses in a successful manner. This 'A' personality & top Instructor will inspire you to successfully find your place in the world of social media.
TravelWithSara is where Sara shares passion of her home state of Iowa and anywhere a plane, car, train, or boat would take her. She was a bit of a travel bug at a young age and throughout her lifetime; and developed a deeper love for sharing her travel experiences with others. Sara is the co-founder of the Midwest Travel Bloggers Group in 2015 and the Midwest Travel Twitter Chat. She is the founder of the North Iowa Social Media Breakfast Club. Several clubs have started, based off of the format that she started.
Sara has grown to adore the beaches and people of the Alabama Coastline. Mountains, beaches and the Caribbean are also her favorites. Sara believes that your travel connections begin in your own backyard.
Sara has partnered with several destination partners and helped them grow their tourism base through the use of social media.
Highlights:
- lives in north Iowa
- In 2008, she hopped on the social media train when she started mom blog
- she didn't realize how social media would really change her life from there
- when she started writing, she didn't have a clue as to how people would find out who she was writing or who she was.
- then she hopped on twitter and not facebook
- usually, people would start from Facebook, she did it backward
- she started with twitter and has made more business connections with it than any other media platform
- looking back that was probably the best thing that happened to her
- it's fascinating because she can get to live on a farm in Iowa and travel the world because of the internet and social media
- she has been able to meet so many people she wouldn't have otherwise met in person through social media
- the magic really happens after you meet someone online and then you can get to meet them face-to-face in real life.
- When you can that relationship offline; to face-to-face conversation, that's where partnerships begin and things begin to really happen
- it's a fascinating space to be in
- In June 2013, she started the north Iowa social media breakfast club
- everywhere she went since then in her local community she mentioned the word twitter
- she is a trailblazer without even realizing it
- she's a blogger and a social media influencer
- her motto is, she wants people to be smarter and safer online and from a business perspective which most people tend to forget about
- into blogging, a travel writer
- social media is a part of her life - who she is, and what her life is made of
- She is a farmer's daughter - she has to get that in there
- every place is a huge place for social media
- she didn't think that farmers 10 years ago would have realized that social media would be a part of their lives today.
- Friends with Suzanne stavert - both share a mutual love of blogging and social media
- let's talk a little bit about your various blogs and how you manage to create contents
- she operates 3 different blogs
- com is a social media business
- she was blogging in 2010 and found a job on twitter
- she started managing social media platforms for businesses
- your tweets represents who you are and what you are about
- she grew a social media business out of blogging that she honestly never saw coming
- she has a passion for women and business
- com is where she tends to put things about safety, social media tips and feature some entrepreneurial women in north Iowa
- com actually came out from her previous blog allinaniowamomsday.com which later morphed into travel
- she was a social media influencer but she never realized that
- at this time she started to do more travel stuff and she didn't have a travel platform
- saramomoftwo was on twitter for 5 years and twitter decided to cut it down because of suspicious activities
- that hurt because her 85,100 followers were real people
- she thought maybe this could be her little push to get into travel more
- you can't take your @travelwithsara and move it to that account
- saramomof2 became socialsarab
- she had an engaging community on twitter which meant a lot
- Midwest travel bloggers is a community that Lisa Trudell and Sara are building
- they've been on it for a couple of years, showcasing destinations of Midwest on twitter
- twitter is a big platform that we are using now as we are expanding into other platforms
- from the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month...they do the midwest travel chart
- she came about this because she taught nobody was talking about flyover countries
- Sara sees all this as not work, just doing what she loves
- she has created a brand and a platform off of twitter
- a lot of people just think there's too much noise on social media
- twitter list is a way to funnel down the noise and keeps you organized
- twitter is where she gets most of her News and it is so easy
- a lot of the times people are just afraid to use the twitter list sometimes
- she met Suzanne and they are actually doing a lot together at the women summit
- what she loves about social media is that she can be in 'a room' with people from ages 15 to 80...and everybody has the same interest
- the things that I'm really good at, that 17 years old is good at and the thing that I'm not good at, that 17 years old is really good at something that they can teach me
- it's a win-win with social media from that aspect
- thinks video is huge and everybody is becoming a photographer and videographer
- what scares her is how those pictures and videos are come across sometimes, not so much in the business world but in the personal world
- a lot of people don't realize that when they share these things on social media, they are actually sharing these things with the world wide web
- she has been playing around with the live feature on Facebook
- if you never try it you are never going to know whether it works or not for your audience
- what would be your advice for people out there who are looking to monetize their social media
- what I bring to it is my feet - my boots are in it
- my mind does not work that way - I'm a doer
- the best advice I can give people is getting yourself in front of the CEO, and the business you want to work with
- you need to continue with those face-to-face connections and if you don't I don't see where you'd be
- you may be successful doing this but you're going to leave a lot of money outside your bank account
- tools like this are great but they build on relationships that really matter
- you need to also put contents out there
- As a society, we are less social
- I love social media and it helps me pay my bills
- I see too many people who will not put their phones down
- it is a concern that Sara has and that comes from her wanting to educate people on being safer and smarter online
- I do have concerns for kids too because they are watching their parents and grandparents
- for be being social is to really get out and live your life, having face-to-face conversations with people
- local does matter and we can do big things with that
- what advice would you give to people to be more social with social media?
- have a conversation with people, don't blast whatever your opinion is
- be somebody who is engaging and wants to help
- be a friend of people
- a lot of people on social media are there because they don't have friends
- If you just be a good person online, you can be that person that helps them along the way
- I love to travel and I spend a couple of days at Disney world in Florida with my husband in January
- I spent one whole day without my phone - I left it in the hotel room
- I had to take that day and just leave my phone behind
- I've got a new project started with locally with homegirl social media
- in the Midwest here we are a little slower to embrace things than other parts of the countries
- I also work with auctioneers as the social media instructor
- people say why would auctioneers need social media? really?
- For every profession, there is a place for social media.
Connect:
website: http://travelwithsara.com, www.socialsaraconnections.com
Twitter: @TravelWithSara Instagram: @TravelWithSara Facebook: TravelWithSara, socialconnectionsLLC Pinterest: travelwithsara Google+- Sara Broers Flipboard: @TravelWithSara
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarabroers
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