Why You Need a Blog EVEN If You Got Social Media Followers

Blog or Facebook?

Now a days is quite easy to set up and establish at least “some visibility” on a social media network. I do believe if you have no idea how to do this it is definitely useful to take a quick tutorial first, and seriously, there are MANY social media experts out there today that do this for free. From Facebook experts to Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and anything in between.

It's not super easy to create a huge following and it does require that you are offering something of value that people want. In order to do that, you must establish credibility. Sure, there are many pages out there full of “fake followers”. They buy clicks and followers based on the pretense of value. I guess that's a form of marketing. Seems to work to get people there and Facebook surely has its share of “who-knows-where-these-accounts-came-from” type of clicks that NEVER interact with anything. I am telling you, this is real. But you can pretty much gage that these pages are only trying to sell you affiliate items with zero valuable content by simply looking at what they post.

I digressed a bit. Back to getting followers. You can learn how to attract followers by taking a course from a credible source and applying its learning. However, social media followers ARE NOT YOURS. Those clicks you might advertise for on Facebook to get a likes to your page (for example), are not yours. They are Facebook's. Should they change their algorithm, like the have MANY times, and those followers won't see your posts and sometimes you won't even realize it (until you look at your Insights).

In fact, you can place an ad for “likes” to your Facebook page and drop a couple hundred bucks and then start posting to that same audience you just paid to get and NO ONE WILL BE SHOWN YOUR POST… unless you pay again for them to see it. Crazy right? The very people I just paid to acquire don't ever see anything I share unless I pay again. And even that “pay again” (aka “boost”) is not guaranteed. It simply displays on their feed and THEN it is prioritized according to THAT USER'S personal privacy selection. LOL.

Why You Need a Blog EVEN If You Got Social Media Followers

Of course I am not suggesting Facebook ads or investing in getting likes is worthless. It's quite expensive (or can be), but not necessarily worthless. However, I feel that to make it worth your while you truly should follow this ad marketing strategy with leading your new fans to an OPTIN to your own private list. A list you can control, where you don't have to pay every time to send a message and you can send WHATEVER YOU WANT, instead of having Facebook “decide” what you can share with your audience. Obviously, your audience will let you know instantly if they want to read what you are sending (some by leaving), but at least it isn't someone else totally unrelated to your business controlling what you share and charging you (again).

Technically, you can create an optin list from a one pager anywhere. You can create a free account with MailChimp, for example, and throw a free page together somewhere (wordpress.com), copy some code and start collecting leads that you send there. I said “technically”. Most people will likely be looking for some value in exchange for that email. And they will be looking for “who you are” and “what you do”. Granted, if you sent them there from Facebook, it is possible you already have built credibility there and that's enough for some. But having a branded blog with your thoughts, your content, your services, your own stuff, will definitely increase the chances of that optin in by a gazillion%.

Do you have to blog every day? No (couple times a month works)

Do you need to be an expert blogger? No (you can hire someone to write, or BETTER, write about what you DO know)

Do you need to spend thousands on a designer? Not at all (if you are a little techy, you can build one yourself for free, or get a quote for a new design from yours truly)

Why You Need a Blog EVEN If You Got Social Media Followers? Because your social media followers belong to the network they are on. Blog subscribers belong to you and it gives you more credibility.

More on writing (this seems like a common concern): You can write blogs and not display dates (called evergreen blogs) and as far as your visitors are concerned they won't know when you wrote it. Dates (or writing often) does affect SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because Google treats freshly consistent content as most relevant, but if you are writing content on a regular basis (at least monthly), then you will be fine (from an organic perspective). AND if you don't care as much for organic traffic because your audience is coming from your social media networks, then write whenever you want. In fact, don't write at all. Set up a blog for your brand only with some static pages of personal info, services and information and be done. Some people don't blog (but how fun is that?).

A blog will wrap up your social presence perfectly. It will add that professional “owned space” that any reputable brand needs to complete their online presence portfolio. And instead of relying on a 3rd party network whose algorithms change often and you could at any moment lose control of your audience (or reduced visibility), with a “self-hosted blog”, you have FULL control. Your content is yours, your subscribers are yours, what you sell is up to you and even the look and feel is your choice too! It's your house!

In a coconut shell, I don't want to encourage you to ditch your social media network(s) just yet, but I DO want to encourage you to LEVERAGE that following with a blog and start carving your own business space online as soon as possible!

If you'd like to learn how to build your own self hosted blog (not a freebie, but a REAL blog that you own), Click Here!