Your social media campaign needs business blogging as its hub
Facebook is the social media network of choice today. Everyone wants to get into Facebook and hand over the keys to them. If Facebook one day made everyone angry and the new kid shows up, what happens to all the content you shared? This is why we usually recommend having a business blog.
"Social media networks come and go, but your business blog is forever."
One question that gets asked a lot by new clients is "Should we start with a blog or should I start with building social media profiles?"
Some social media experts say this is a bad idea because a blog is worthless without a network to read it. They argue you'll get more eyes by guest blogging on a bigger website. They'll say that you need to develop relationships with "influentials" or "A-List" bloggers.
And they are right...
I do agree you need to work on building a social media network. I do agree you should guest blog. I can't agree more that it takes a lot of time to get serious blog traffic.
That said, I disagree with putting off blogging for several reasons:
1. Getting your organization on a cadence to keep up with posting new content is hard to do and takes time to get right. The first 90 days of blogging rarely are the hardest. It's hard to get used to having something to say every day. And it's hard to find the time to say it.
2. You need more than a few articles to be credible. People know what they are getting when they go to a blog with two posts. And they leave. And they don't comment. And they don't "reblog".
3. Getting the message right on your blog takes a little time. You have to learn how to converse with your readers. It's hard to learn to converse with your readers if you don't have anywhere to talk. I've seen it take days and I've seen it take months for conversation to develop. Once it does, though, it's amazing what happens.
Which leads me to the great chicken and egg of internet marketing:
Content doesn't work without traffic.
Traffic isn't useful without content.
You have to have both content and traffic for a website to work. Blogs are no exception to this.
Paul is the President of Professional Blog Service. PBS works with clients making strategic investments into business blogging, social media and search engine optimization.
