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One year of #cfbloggers (and tips for hosting your own Twitter chat)

I can't remember the exact date of very first #cfbloggers chat. But I remember chatting about it in February with Tilly and Charlotte, and we were going for a spring launch date (I looked back through my archives and it was the 20th of February, so not March). And this being #BeCrueltyFree week seems like the perfect time to chat about the past year and churn out some advice for anyone wishing to set up their own Twitter chat.

The idea of hosting a Twitter chat had been in me for a while but the usual reasons held me back: time, would anyone take part, someone could do it better etc. But then I got chatting to Tilly and Charlotte and we decided to go at it as a three. It has grown a lot since then and I'm also the only original mod left, and I now run it with Louise and Lizzie. So lot's of twist and turns.

But I am really proud of how far the chat has come. I said in my 2014 wrap-up post, 2014 was a game-changing year for cruelty-free blogging. It's been so exciting to watch it become a niché within it's own right which is separate from beauty blogging. And along with some of the lovely people who are part of this community and the fantastic people I've met through the chat (some of who I have now met in real-life!).

Whilst it's been busy, I'm glad I started the chat up. Twitter chats are already established as a great way to promote your blog and get involved in the blogging community. However hosting a Twitter chat has grown my blog's readership more than just taking part in Twitter chats has. So if you really enjoy a good old natter on Twitter then maybe hosting a Twitter chat is for you. Here's some of my tips.

Be committed

First off, understand that hosting a Twitter chat takes commitment. Not raising a child or obtaining a degree commitment but you have to dedicate time to it and understand it won't magically take off. For example, I keep my Thursdays clear the best I can (no late night shopping for me!) as taking part isn't exactly optional for me...

Once I was going to a gig on a Thursday and I knew I had to host from my phone. Unfortunately the venue didn't get much signal so I had to go outside and host it from my phone (in December).

Team-up

Even in full hind-sight I'm glad I didn't start this myself, as running a chat is a lot of work. There's usually three mods but sometimes there's been two as some mods have moved on to do other things. Between us we split the work - someone organises who guest hosts, someone looks after the Facebook page, someone looks after the account on the night etc.

It also helps when a moderator decides to move on. I'm still enjoying hosting the chat but I know the day will come when I choose to focus on other things and I want to know it will be left in good hands.

Check out the other chats

It can sometimes feel as though there are hundreds of chats, and I sometimes log-on to Twitter in the evenings and find my timeline full of tweets relating to four different chats at the same time. When we started one of my worries that we were adding yet another chat to an already saturated Twitter timetable. However no chat closely resembled ours - and to my knowledge there still isn't - so it was something that was different. But with all the chats going on make sure you're idea isn't already taken (and ask about to see if there's a demand for it).

Announce it ahead of time

We gave ourselves about three weeks of promotion before starting. This gave us enough time to promote, enough time to brainstorm topic ideas, enough time to set all technical aspects up, enough time to delegate...you get the idea. It was also enough time to gage whether there was the demand for this kind of chat.

Get a Twitter client
I use Tweetdeck, and I have columns set up for notifications to my personal account and the #cfbloggers account, a column for all tweets with the tag #cfbloggers, a column for all tweets with the misspelled #cfblogger, a column to show all tweets tagged #crueltyfree, and one for messages from both my accounts (plus others for personal use).

Keep track of what works, and act on it

When you have a great idea, it's really easy to become stubborn and ignore the signs its not working. The chat has evolved differently to how I originally envisioned it but we had to go with what was working. We were never planning to make it 100% guest-hosted - we only did guest slots to give ourselves a breather, however these chats had a higher rate of participation and now the mods have only hosted once since the start of the year (from their personal account).

It's community driven, not moderator driven

Similar to above. But it's important to remember that blogging has a strong community aspect and you should bare it in mind when building a chat or a blog. When we began to let go and hand more power back to the community (such as allowing guest slots) the engagement increased.

Rome wasn't built in a day

At the start there would be chats where no one would show up. I once continued asking questions from the CF Twitter account and answering them from my personal Twitter, so essentially was having a conversation with myself (yeah). I felt stupid but people eventually began joining in and that chat went on until 11pm! Thankfully we haven't had an empty chat in some time now but be prepared in the beginning that it will happen. As with all projects be patient and persevere.

It's been a lot of work and sometimes I've had a few tantrums but it's been heartwarming to watch it grow and it always feels wonderful when we have particularly good natter on a Thursday evening. And thank you to everyone who takes part, even if it's only now and then and also thank you to the people who had supported it (included IRL friends who has understood that Thursday nights are out for me). 100% love.

mòrag

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Introducing my food, drink and indie shopping map of Scotland

A little blog trend I've spotted over the past year has been bloggers creating maps of their favourite places to eat, drink and shop (or anything else) in their chosen city. One of the questions I frequently get asked is where I like to eat in some of the places I know well, especially by other vegetarians/vegans. So I thought as a new 'feature' for 2015 I would created my own map where I visually round-up all my reviews (plus a few other cheeky mentions).

My own map includes food, shops and bars, but it is mainly a food map (as if you couldn't have predicted that?). And because I'm not really sure which Scottish city I would consider 'home' and have lived in three different places during this blog's existence I've not kept my recommendations contained to one city. Primarily it will be Dundee and Glasgow as this is where I split most of my time but I've thrown in the reviews I've done for places in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and even one or two rural places.

The map is now live on my new map page which includes some guidance on how to use it, and I've also added a little graphic to my sidebar which links to the page. This has taken me a long time to put together and I'd appreciate any feedback (especially pointing out spelling mistakes!) and any general thoughts on it. I'd also appreciate if you could forward this on to any people who know who live in these places. Or even let me know what places I should consider adding on next!

Morag x

mòrag

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Other favourites from 2014

In Sunday's post I had originally planned to write up a list of my favourite cruelty-free products of this year but it ended up being a reflection on what cruelty-free blogging had become over the past twelve months. I did however make a YouTube video for anyone interested in my favourite beauty brands of the year. However this post isn't going slip that far away from it's original idea where I round-up my other favourites from 2014 in the world of blogs, tv, fashion, food and music.

Fashion wise, I've been making a more conscious effort to buy from independent designers however my graduate budget does mean that I buy only independent if I really adore it and know I couldn't find similar on the high street. My favourite fashion purchases were my cat bag in this outfit photo (which made it's way round blog land) and my dinosaur dress in this post which was the highest quality piece I've bought off Etsy. Then there was also my Marvel skirt (seen above and in this post). I also really liked the Eco-Chic Boutique in Merchant City but I visited recently and it's had a re-brand (and really doesn't feel like the same shop).

Musically I've been to more gigs this year than all previous years combined. I don't have the time to list them all and then put them in some kind of order but if you're a fan (even a semi one) of any of these bands you really should get yourself a long to one of their shows: Limp Bizkit, Jurassic 5, Arliss Nancy, Backstreet Boys, Fall Out Boy and Red City Radio. Remember to check out my music tag for quick gig reviews and my monthly playlists. I also said earlier that I wouldn't be doing a December playlist, but I have put together a 2014 one on Spotify (contains the bands above as well as some Eurovision because why no?).

As with every year that passes I was ate as much food as I could. The stand out new food find for me in 2014 was definitely Foodstory Café in my home city of Aberdeen and the only place I know of in the Granite City which marks out its vegan offerings. And whilst I don't get to eat out in Aberdeen very often every place I did this year is worth a recommendation and makes the 2014 cut. The place my parents took me to in the Aberdeenshire countryside for my birthday, Tiger Lily, was a great little place worth the trip to Oldmeldrum. As was Cup Cafe on Little Belmont Street and Terrior Deli in Cults (mainly for the shop part, the sit-in menu is small), Back in Glasgow Akbar's where I went with my friends for my 24th is definitely worth a shout. I also got to check out the West End version of one of my Glasgow favourites, Bar Soba, and it was still as perfect as the city centre version. And whilst I wouldn't rate the restaurant on a whole highly the best naans I've had this year were at Masala Twist on Byres Road.

Notice how long the food paragraph is compared to the others? And mucho apologies to Dundee as none of the places I ate in your fine city made the cut - better luck next year!

I made a resolution to watch more television this year which I know might sound like a unproductive goal but you can read my resolution post to understand my reasoning. I started the new year still working my way through the Buffy and Angel because even though I knew the bulk of the story there were episodes and storylines I had missed. I also revisited Sex and the City and Sabrina the Teenage Witch for similar reasons. Whereas some currently still-on-air shows I started watching were Orange is the New Black (which I'm up-to-date on) and American Horror Story (which I'm still playing a bit of catch-up on). All these shows were/are fantastic and I'd recommend any one of them and they've all made the cut this year.

And obviously I couldn't round-up 2014 without mentioning which blogs I've been loving this year. For this I'm going to give a shout-out to my friend Charlotte of Colours and Carousels who's blog has went from strength to strength this year and I'm so unbelievably proud of her! I became 'IRL' friends with Charlotte back in 2013 but even if we weren't friends and I was some random reader who she never spoke to I'd still come back post after post. You may also know that London-based blogger Zoe made the decision this year to discontinue her beauty blog The London Lipgloss and launch a new lifestyle blog Zoe London, which has now become one of my daily reads. I'm as always, still a massive fan of A Rosie Outlook which is a natural-sounding personal blog by a girl with her feet firmly on the ground. Some brand new finds for me this year have been Last Year's Girl, Wardrobe Conversations and Pretty Confused. And as always Sugar Puff Fish and Logical Harmony are still the top reads for cruelty-free, natural and indie beauty.

And as for YouTube (2014 was the year of YouTube, let's be real) out of all the vloggers reaching one million subscribers I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than Laci Green.

Because feminism has made great gains these past two years there are now several non-patronising online women's magazines - combining fashion, beauty, sex and topics stereotypically covered by women's magazines but with a whole bunch of sassy thrown in. The Indie Chicks, Hello Giggles and Bustle were where I went to get my fix without being patronised. And non-mainstream news sources that I regularly found myself clicking on were Wings Over Scotland, A Thousand Flowers and National Collective.

And my favourite Facebook pages? Well that's Far Left Buffy and Patronising BT Lady for sure!

Let me know your favourites from 2014!

Morag x

mòrag

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Cruelty-free, veganism and blogging in 2014

When I originally started drafting this post I was planning to do a round up of my favourite products of this year (as I did last year and the year before that) with a little bit of a blurb on what a good year it had been for the cruelty-free community. But as I wrote down my ideas, I realised my thoughts on this topic were more substantial than what would fit neatly into two paragraphs.

I went cruelty-free two years ago, and it's a lifestyle choice that now feels natural. This year I got more involved in researching beauty brands first hand and also began switching over my cleaning products. However 2014 was also the year I officially went vegan - no longer 'plant-based' or 'transitioning vegan'. Vegan. It was also a fantastic year for my blog - I ended 2013 not really feeling mo'adore and was frustrated as it wasn't the kind of blog I would read myself. I entered 2014 with a new layout and a new content plan, and I'm now pleased to say I am closing 2014 with no predominant changes needed/planned for 2015.

However it is the intersection between these topics that has made 2014 a game changer. When I went cruelty-free in 2012, there were plenty of American blogs on the topic but across here on the British Isles I only knew of Karris and Louise (the latter of which had only just started blogging herself). Going cruelty-free gave my blog a much required niche, but back then the small handful of us were hanging out amongst the mainstream beauty bloggers. This year I really feel as if cruelty-free bloggers have come out of the water and stood on our own feet, bunched together and formed our own niche that differs from #bbloggers with our own trends, our own unwritten rules and our own hangouts (I'm going to shamelessly plug the @CFbloggerschat I help run).

And as for veganism, well, even people who aren't vegan will know that 2014 was the year veganism went mainstream. There are now mainstream chain restaurants marking out their vegan dishes, beauty companies are now providing lists of their vegan-friendly products and there were more vegan brands popping up in the health shops I frequent (Dundee also got a new health store, Heart Space Whole Foods). Personally, I was only able to make the switch because of the new brands popping up to cater to our growing market. When I first attempted veganism back in 2012 it didn't take me long to discover I had a soya intolerance, which set everything back a few steps. Now there are more vegan but also soya-free brands easily available for me to pick up and replace the final few dairy foods that were still included in my diet (we're talking cheese here).

For the last few days I've read quite a few blog posts on how 2014 was a game changer for blogging in general. And by gosh it was. YouTubers now publishing books and becoming legitimate celebrities. The way blogging has shifted into editorial pieces with great photography and edgy content rather than teenagers just spilling their thoughts out (for better or worse, I still prefer a natural sounding blog). Blogging also played a huge part in the Scottish Independence Referendum and I wouldn't have voted yes had blogs such as Wings Over Scotland, National Collective (which is maybe more a magazine, but I'm going with blog) and even the one-off posts written by my blogging friends who usually don't talk politics didn't provide an alternative voice to the pish in the mainstream media. But for me personally the excitement has been the way in which cruelty-free blogging has become a thing. And how veganism and vegan blogging is now a thing. And that's one of the most exciting things about 2014 for me.

Morag x

P.S. I did actually however filmed a YouTube video on my favourite cruelty-free brands from 2014 if you just want to know about products.

mòrag