In a recent marketing group there was a big discussion on how many companies use a blog to drive traffic to their website and how successful it is.
This prompted the question ‘I don’t have time for both, isn’t it better just to do social media as it still drives traffic?’.
Whilst I love Facebook and other social media platforms there are a number of reasons I would always be careful in only posting on social media. Here’s why.
It’s not yours
If you build up a large following on social media and then algorithms change or new updates come in (aka Facebook only this year) it could mean your post viability is slashed dramatically. Effectively your content has been placed on someone else’s platform, meaning in real terms it belongs to them, to see fit what they want to do with it. A blog, however, is different. Here the content is totally under your control. This helps me sleep better at night.
Improved Visibility
Social media is a crowded market place and your posts could be viewed and moved over in a matter of seconds (if that long!). A blog will can help your customers learn about you and what you can offer in a more in-depth way. Exactly why my response to a social media post has turned into this blog post!
It’s easy to repurpose
A blog post is really easy to repurpose for social media – the ‘buy one get one free’ of the marketing world. Spend 45 minutes crafting a short blog post and hey presto you have content for social media. If your post is ‘5 reasons you should eat yogurt everyday’ then you have 6 posts you can get out of it. Sharing the link to the whole post and then sharing the 5 reasons separately. So actually, you might well be saving time in the long run.
SEO
If you want to improve your website SEO then a well written blog post using researched keywords will help do this much more effectively than just posting on social media. Many small businesses find that a fabulous blog post gets on the first page of Google for one of their search terms and drives a continuous stream of traffic over time. Something that a Facebook post could probably never compete with.
Converting to leads
After reading your blog post it is likely customers will take a look around your website. Once there it is much easier to ask them to join your mailing list with a simple form or pop up. A well written blog post and a good email marketing list will always convert at a steady rate, that’s quite a tall order for a Facebook post.
A blog will work really hard for any business and is a great way to build rapport with customers. No doubt it is slightly more time consuming than firing off a Facebook image and caption, but used as part of your content strategy, alongside your social media posts, hopefully you’ll see the benefits of both.
If you want to create a content plan that will make the most of your time and effort then a marketing power hour could really help. Give me a call or drop me an email to find out more.
