Home > Commerce > Business Articles > Get a Blog: Suzanne Salvo
Get a Blog:
One Photographer’s Insights
By Ethan G. Salwen
Suzanne Salvo
My bloglink is: http://www.salvoatlarge.blogspot.com/.
My husband Chris has been doing research to start a photoblog so this is a hot topic for us. I promise I will update my blog soon — the blogosphere is a cruel mistress; once you start up with her, she is very demanding of attention!
ES: It seems like you really enjoy blogging about the personal and professional adventures of you and your husband and partner, Chris.
SS: I confess, I’m addicted to blogging. I work on our blog to the neglect of our company Web site nowadays. I used to feel bad about the time I spent posting blog entires. It was my guilty secret, like playing video games instead of being productive. I felt I should be working on our company Web site or more traditional marketing pieces. But I was having too much fun blogging, and I just couldn’t stop. At first, I didn’t see any business benefit from a blog. I mean, I was quasi-regularly updating our Web site with new photos and content, so I thought what’s the big deal about a blog? What’s the difference between that and our Web site? But blogging is different. It’s fast and quick and easy. It’s personal and intimate and casual. It’s creatively satisfying and fun. And to my surprise, our clients love it, too.
ES: How did you get into blogging?
SS: I think Chris and I were sort of beta or experimental bloggernauts when we launched our first company Web site into cyperspace in 1996. It just wasn’t called blogging back then. We would regularly post some of Chris’s new images, accompanied by some of my words. I would send out update notices via email to our client list and they would e-mail back with comments. That was the only way to do it back then. For me, the switch from Web site to blog was like getting an airline upgrade from economy to first class. You essentially arrive at the same place with a Web site or a blog, but the blog takes all the elements — photos, graphics, text, and comments — and puts them together in a format that is easier, faster, and more fun for me and the audience.
ES: So you’ve always had dynamic content as part of your online presence?
SS: Yes. We’ve always included storytelling content on our Web site because it fits well with our rather unconventional style of marketing. Many of the photography sites I see are dark and brooding, or uber-serious, and sometimes even pompous sounding. We don’t take ourselves that seriously. Quite the contrary! I enjoy poking fun at life — especially ours, including things that happen in our business. That’s why our Web site is more quirky and eccentric than staid or artistically aloof. The blog is just our Web site on steroids.
ES: Is blogging particularly suited for marketing the services of travel photographers?
SS: Absolutley. Blogging is the perfect communications medium for travel photographers and writers such as ourselves. At first, I thought of the blog as just a way to keep in touch with friends and family from the road. I didn’t link to the blog from our company Web site because I was worried that clients would see it as too personal and that it wouldn’t be of interest to them. Wrong. I believe it’s the personal nature of the blog that makes it a success with our clients. At least 75 percent of our returning blog hits are not family or friends. Now I include a link to our blog as well as our Web site as part of my email signature, no matter to whom I’m writing. Our blog is also featured prominently on the front page of our company Web site.
ES: How do your blog and main Web site work together in terms of marketing?
SS: We designed the main Salvo Photography company Web site to be easy to navigate. It’s more conventional than our blog — at least, as conventional as we ever get. Art directors who access the Salvo Photography Web site are mostly in a hurry and want to get to the image info quickly. They may or may not go back to the site and dig around the content, which is geared to showcase our experience and capabilities in an interactive, unassuming narrative format.
A blog audience is different than a Web site audience. Blog visitors come to a site with leisure time on their hands, looking to be entertained and hopefully informed or — gasp! — even inspired. (I’d settle for occasionally being thought-provoking.) On my blog I feel free to say anything. On the Web site I might hesitate with some material. I don’t have any qualms about posting frivolous personal tidbits I find amusing, like the “There Goes the Neighborhood” posting, which is a silly piece complaining about outsiders moving to our part of Italy.
ES: But this personal nature of the blog actually helps marketing efforts?
SS: Yes. I was surprised at first to hear our clients and potential clients say that the personal nature of the blog is what they find appealing. They feel they are getting an uncensored inside peek into what our lives are like and who we are. It’s a way for them to get to know us personally. Hopefully, they like what they see. And if they do, that builds trust. And trust is really what makes a client choose one photographer over another. That is the real benefit of blogging for us.
ES: And you don’t find that you have to sensor yourself on reporting personal experiences?
SS: Chris and I have worked together for more than 20 years. We can go for days when the only time I don’t see him is when my eyes are closed. So for me there is no line between personal life and professional life. We will discuss projects while cooking dinner or working out and we always find a way to have fun together while on assignment. It’s all just time — and it’s not divided into work time or private time. So it’s all potential fodder for the blog.
ES: But could you focus your blog marketing efforts more if you wanted to?
SS: I don’t think blogs are the right vehicle for someone looking for a hardcore sales and marketing venue. The successful blogs I know are personality driven as opposed to business-centric, and they are void of any kind of direct sales pitch. The great ones are creative and informative without being preachy, arrogant or self-aggrandizing. The bad ones are unedited, both in regards to images and writing. Less is definitely more when it comes to blog postings. I think copy, really good copy, is as important as good images on a photographer’s blog. But rambling, poorly written text is as much of a turn off as bad, unedited images.
ES: What’s the secret to creating great postings?
SS: The Salvo recipe for a full-flavored, richly rewarding blog posting: Take one home-grown, interesting thought; add fresh, attention-grapping photos to taste (that are pre-cropped and well captioned); season with a generous sprinkling of humor. Post until done. For more satisfying results, repeat regularly.
ES: Do you ever feel pressure to post more often?
SS: Our regular blog visitors get fussy when we don’t post for awhile, and they let us know about it. I’m amazed at the number of repeat worldwide readers we have. There are hundreds of them, including many people we’ve never met. We have SalvoAtLarge blog readers from every corner of the globe, including India and Japan.
ES: How do you keep track of blog traffic?
SS: We use a simple tracking site called tracksy.com, which is not too sophisticated but the price is right: free. It gives us basic information about who visits the blog, what visitors look at, where they are in the world, and how they navigated to the site. The blog drives more traffic to our Web site than vice versa. We have an RSS feed that alerts subscribers when we update the blog. When I think a post is worthy, I send an e-mail announcement to a select, targeted group of people that includes a number of clients and potential clients. I know it’s geeky and a bit pretentious, but it’s a great ego-trip to track who and how fast the readership numbers climb after a new post.
ES: When do you find time to write your posts?
SS: Almost every blog post I’ve written has been from an airplane seat or hotel room bed late at night — very late. I feel compelled to blog. Like I said, I’m addicted to blogging. Chris’ great photos are usually my inspiration, triggering some quirky “Deep Thought.” Losing sleep is a small price to pay to get that thought launched into cyperspace. I would post even if no one ever dropped by the blog to see it. But hey, it’s great when they do.
ES: Any final thoughts on blogging?
SS: I am, therefore I blog.