Sheila Scarborough (FamilyTravelLogue, Perceptive Travel blog, EveryDotConnects) and Pam Mandel (Nerdseyeview, Worldhum) led an engaging discussion with a PACKED room at SXSW. They shared some practical insights about travel blogging a high quality group of people of Travel Tweeters and bloggers that I’ve tried to list below.
Packed room including Todd Lucier, Wendy Perrin, Tom Loftus
Sheila: “Focus on the small…the soda straw view…and bring light to it”
Sheila offered a number of key tips via retelling a story about her recent trip to New York. She was extremely rushed on this trip, but was able to quickly generate pictures, video, and content for 5-6 blog posts for her blogs. The secret is to “focus on the small.” A successful blogger can see the details of their travel that can become the basis of a memorable experience for their readers and and thus “bring a place to life.”
Examples she offered included public art, details of a subway station, a few restaurants along the way, and a quick stop to New York’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The key insight she shared was for bloggers to develop a keen eye for interesting details, and to capture them in multiple forms in real time as you are passing through them. Elliott’s takeaway: New bloggers should first get in the habit of continuously capturing (“lifestreaming”) their experiences in pictures, video, and words. Then they should focus on efficiently generating blog posts out of that stream of content.
Sheila: Embrace video even if you are not comfortable with it: “blogging is NOT all about you”
One tool that Sheila embraced reluctantly at first, but now with increasing enthusiasm, is video. She gave several examples where she simply did not have time to write a post about a topic, but was able to share a short video snippet with her readers. Many bloggers (including myself) and writers resist video because it is not a medium that we like to consume or feel comfortable producing. However, Sheila emphasized that blogging professionally requires one to embrace the idea that “blogging is NOT all about you” and some readers might like video. Travel bloggers and social media communicators need to explore various media to see how readers (and viewers) want to engage with your content. You might be surprised. Elliott’s takeaway: Suck it up and try video and podcasting. Yikes.
Pam: 9 Tips to Better Travel Blogging
I captured 9 tips that Pam shared to the audience.
- Your blog should be easy to read visually. No yellow text on white. Consider the font size and colors that your readers can read. Don’t clutter your blog with chicklets and distracting widgets. (Elliott comment: except the UpTake badge if you are fortunate enough to deserve one!).
- Readers don’t want to read your itinerary. They want to read about details that “draw a picture of a place.” Elliott’s comment: selectively use details to draw people into a travel experience, then provide useful details that help them with travel.
- Readers want to know what you look like. Use pictures with you in the picture. Elliott: blogging is about personal voice and personal story. It helps to have pictures of yourself…it helps readers feel like they know you better.
- Use your own blog on your own URL, not on a LiveJournal, Blogger or other blog service provider. Elliott: Generally agree that you need a home-base. However, disagree that travel blogging platforms are a bad idea for a casual blogger. BootsAll is especially powerful from a standpoint of SEO strength and overall discoverability, and you should consider that if you are not planning on blogging professionally or not trying to make money on your blog. You will get readers and traffic faster than on your own. Also, guest post on as many reputable bigger blogs as possible, like the UpTake blogs!
- Photography: Use photography liberally to tell your story. (Elliott: I missed most of this point. What was this again, Pam?)
- Be careful with negativity, especially cultural imperialism or superiority.
- Being overly introspective can be dangerous. Don’t talk about your relationship troubles or about how homesick you are. You’re in Burma so I want to hear about Burma. Elliott: Personal sharing can be a powerful tool to build a sense of story around your blogging but should be used in an intentional manner. Consider some of your more personal, introspective posts as “off topic” for your readers and then just make sure you stay “on topic” for most of your posts.
- Details. Find the memorable details of your trip and share them. This point is similar to Sheila’s points above.
- Try to convey your experiences in a way that your readers can own them.
Case Study of Social Media Amplification
The event was also a great demonstration of how social media can amplify one’s voice across the world. Todd Lucier livestreamed a QIK video of the panel. Via Twitter, a global community of Travel Tweeters connected through the #sxswtravel tag.
Screenshot of #sxswtravel tweetstream
A great way to get a feel of the dialogue is to search the #sxswtravel tag on Twitter Search. Click here to see the results and scroll backwards.
Building community through an event and the #sxswtravel hashtag
This tag also provided a great way to connect with other Travel-interested bloggers and Twitterers including about 70 Twitterers like these:
http://twitter.com/nerdseyeview
http://twitter.com/infotectravel2
http://twitter.com/authenticcoast
http://twitter.com/JennaEloise
http://twitter.com/HappyHotelier
http://twitter.com/travellious
http://twitter.com/TravelSavvyKayt
http://twitter.com/wendyperrin
http://twitter.com/soultravelers3
http://twitter.com/KimMoldofsky
http://twitter.com/krista_parry
http://twitter.com/travelingmamas
http://twitter.com/Katie_Green
http://twitter.com/adamlschaeffer
http://twitter.com/autismfamily
http://twitter.com/thursty_thurst
http://twitter.com/DianaScimone
http://twitter.com/MissExpatria
http://twitter.com/barrelandbrew
http://twitter.com/motherofalltrip
http://twitter.com/marilyn_res
http://twitter.com/BeckyMcCray
http://twitter.com/LolaChickenpant
http://twitter.com/Krista_Parry
http://twitter.com/BryanPerson
- If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Share
- Prev/Next
5 Responses
Excellent recap of the SXSW Travel blog discussion. I watched “live” twitters of the event. Lots of important take-aways. Thanks.
Donna Hull’s last blog post..Saturday’s scene: Sunrise at Mesa Arch
Great summary, Elliott. And thanks for capturing the excitement of the event with your tweets. Even though we were not in the room, we’re still riding a high from the energy you all generated. Glad to see you focus on Sheila’s “blogging is NOT all about you” comment. With all the discussion about conversation, engagement and relationships at #sxswtravel and #smstravel her timing in delivering that message could not have been better. Thanks to you all for creating such a memorable event.
Thanks for the summary! I wasn’t able to follow along live, so this is most helpful.
Cheers!
Angela K. Nickerson’s last blog post..I Heart… the Sacramento River
Great re-cap of SXSW Travel blogging panel. Even though I wasn’t able to attend, I felt like I was able to experience a bit of the conference thanks to the twitter stream and Todd Lucier’s video coverage. Of course, the pictures such as the one above, and the photo of a group of bloggers out to dinner with Pam and Sheila brought the event even further to life.
Nancy D. Brown’s last blog post..Sexy Walking Shoes for Wide Feet – What a Trip
[...] our packed travel blogging panel at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference in Austin, my co-presenter Pam Mandel [...]