Blogger Spotlight: Amie, Floralesque

Authored by Amie from the West Coast of Ireland, Floralesque is a lifestyle blog that was created in 2015. Born out of a deep love of writing, Amie uses her blog to talk about the things she is most passionate about – beauty, skincare, healthy living, travel, and design. In this spotlight, Amie chats to about being a newcomer on the blogging scene, how she likes to work with PRs and why video content will be big in the blogosphere this year.

Can you tell us a bit about Floralesque blog, and what made you start your blog? Floralesque is a lifestyle blog that was created in 2015 out of a love of writing and wanting to nurture a corner of the internet into a haven to house my passions and inspirations. It has grown to be a place where you can find out about the latest in design as well as articles on beauty and skincare with a focus on healthy living with a dash of fitness thrown in.

Travel is also a serious passion of mine and I have travelled to places from 5th Avenue in New York to deep into the mountains of Romania and back again to the delights of exploring the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. On Floralesque you will find Travel tips and also what I have learned on my travels (the good and the bad!).

I also firmly believe in highlighting and supporting designers, craftspeople and creatives. For that reason, you will see reviews of recent exhibitions as well as interviews with both established and emerging designers. I love nothing more than finding a new designer who is just after releasing their first collection – you can just sense the feeling of excitement and anticipation.

How do you measure the success of your website? By engagement. Although the number of page views and unique views are important – if you do not have traction with your audience, then in my opinion, they are empty numbers. I am lucky that since I have always grown my blog organically I get great interaction with my readers both on the blog and also on social media.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Just do it – there is no right time to start – there never will be. One of the most important things is to ensure that your name will endure in years to come and that it is available on all social media platforms. You need to be professional if you want your blog to become a brand and I think clarity of name is important – this is why my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are all linked to Floralesque.

Three things that you need to remember:

1. Success may not happen overnight – you need to put the work in
2. Links to number one – be consistent, whether you post once a month or everyday stick on schedule. There will be life things that may throw a spanner in the works but overall be consistent
3. Interact! Talk to other bloggers, read their blogs and leave comments – it is a great community and there are so many amazing people to get to know!

How do you work with marketers and PRs? There are so many blogs at the moment – in so many niches that is is increasingly difficult to get your blog noticed and for that reason I am pro-active with PR agencies. I make contact and send them my latest media kit. If I think I have written a post relevant to the brand that they represent then I will tag them. Again I believe that engagement is important – you should never expect anything and I firmly believe in working hard to achieve your goals

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? I always share my latest posts across Twitter and Facebook though not in the same way. They are different platforms that work in different ways so I treat them differently. Instagram needs the clearest images so I always post the best images to this platform.

The challenges are the constantly changing platforms, with algorithms constantly changing you need to continue to be on top of the changes and the impacts that they have on your audience and your interactions with your followers.

What can PRs do in working better with you? I will not review a product until I have used it – so sometimes I may get a product today but I will not review it for one to two weeks depending on the product. I actually think that this helps the momentum going for a product, however there are times when an agency wants a review immediately.

What has been your blogging highlight? In April, my interview with a top jewellery designer was published in a well know Irish publication. It was a fantastic achievement for my blog and also grew my readership.

Most recently I was at an event and the head of a PR agency mentioned my article about ‘how to write a media kit’ and recommended everyone in the audience to read and base their kit on what I had written. Its moments like that which give you a certain type of validation.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? Snapchat! The platform in Ireland is just exploding and it continues to grow – Facebook Live will also be one to grow. Basically, video content of all types is really starting to shine.