Hello Designers and Design Bloggers,

It’s Tobi Fairley and am thrilled to be speaking at the upcoming Design Bloggers Conference in a few weeks. What a priviledge to bring you my case study in growing a design firm through social media.

I began blogging in September 2008 and by November it had already changed my life and my career. I started my blog as a fun place to express my creativity in a way that only had to please me. Or so I thought! In less than 8 weeks I was getting the attention of some of my design blogger idols, getting emails from Southern Accents and Traditional Home and suddenly this little hobby I started was so much more! The following Spring I was named to Traditional Home’s Top 20 Young Designers list and it was no coincidence that my blog gave them such insight into my personality and my work when they were considering candidates for the list.

These wonderful things were just the beginning of the amazing things that have come to me and my firm over the last 2 years. The blog has been such a huge factor in all these successes. Stephen Drucker, editor of Town and Country Magazine and former Editor of House Beautiful, has even said that if it weren’t for my blog and facebook, House Beautiful may have never featured my work on their March 2010 Cover. Wow, is that ever evidence of the power of social media?

Since then, I have brought so many things to fruition through my blog including my online design service, InBox Interiors, and the Tobi Fairley Design Camps. And this month I am launching my fabric collection online that I gave you a sneak peek of at the Richmond Symphony Orchestra Showhouse last Fall. So in just a few days, you will be able to buy my fabrics through my blog and website. And I can honestly say that none of this may have happened if it were not for my blog and social media presence.

So if you are not signed up to hear more of the details of my blogging successes and those of the other amazing speakers at the Design Bloggers Conference, run, don’t walk, to the registration screen and get signed up. The investment is such a small price to pay for the hoards of strategies, tips, and ideas that you will learn. Not to mention the relationships you will build with the other attendees and presenters. Yes, I am excited about speaking, but I am probably more excited about all the things I will learn from my peers. If I take away one good idea from any conference, I feel like it is worth the money and this conference promises to pay for itself several times over!

So just do it! And I’ll see you there.