16 Jan Choosing Between Blogging or Social Media When You’re Pressed For Time
Before you start your blog and social media channels, it’s easy to think that you will have plenty of time to get it done right. When you actually get into it, however, it’s a different story. Creating content that is engaging, instructional and fun is a lot more work than people realize.
As an entrepreneur, you’re wearing a lot of hats. Taking the time to write compelling blog posts and schedule eye-catching social media posts fall by the wayside as you’re creating new products and trying to keep your sales going. However, if executed correctly, blog posts can create content that will be accessed over and over again, and social media posts will keep your followers wondering what you’ll be up to next.
Since quite a bit of our business is in creating compelling content and executing social media campaigns, we’ve got a few tips to help you make the most of your limited time and create engaging content.
One of the most common questions we get from our clients is whether they should blog or use social media as a way to reach new customers. In an ideal world, the answer would, of course, be that both are necessary. But, if you’re crunched for time, there’s a way to use both in practical ways that will help you keep current on all of your sites, without putting a lot of extra strain on your already stretched time budget.
The Benefit of Blogging
While it may be one of the oldest forms of social media, the blog is still king when it comes to driving audiences to your site. Blogs, with their diverse format that allows inclusion of instructions, commentary, photographs, and even short videos, are the one place on the web where you don’t have limits on how much content you can include (i.e. character limits, file size limits, etc.). Because of this, you can use your content to show potential customers how you can meet their needs. This also allows you to share more about yourself and your company in an authentic way. With some additional attention to SEO, you can ensure that this content appears first in customer searches as well.
Statistically, blogs are unbeatable when it comes to driving traffic: Social Media Today states that businesses with blogs receive 55% more website visitors. This isn’t surprising considering that 77% of internet users report that they spend their online time reading blogs, or that blogs and social media sites account for 23% of all internet traffic.
So yes, you need a blog, and you should update it on a regular basis. A steady stream of valuable content is key, whether that’s monthly, weekly or daily – just make sure you set a reasonable goal on what you can do, otherwise you will probably get burned out after the first few posts and then your blog will lie dormant. Weekly, is great, but posting once a month is perfectly fine as long as you’re creating high-value content and posting it on a regular schedule.
We recommend focusing on evergreen content; that is, content that won’t expire. While staying abreast of the hot trends is great, creating tutorials on techniques that can be referenced again and again will keep your audience coming back and establish you as a source of valuable knowledge, too. That doesn’t mean you can’t include more timely posts, but if you want your customers to view you as an expert in your field, taking the time to develop content that will be relevant today, tomorrow and next year is where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck.
Social Media
To put it in an analogy, if blogging is the cake you bake, social media is the icing you spread on top. While you have to work within the limits of social media platforms, they are the places where you can connect with potential customers and drive them to your expert content. Social media allows you to post short videos, eye-catching photos and smaller, action-driven posts that can increase your traffic. And if you’ve created high-quality blog content, the materials you need are already there.
For instance, let’s say you created an in-depth video or a photo tutorial. When posting on social media, you can share a short video segment or a photo of the finished product with a brief description of how it will help your customers learn something new along with a link pointing customers directly to this content…
This method allows you to use your blog content in multiple ways by highlighting different aspects from that a single post, which saves you time. While you might be updating your blog once a week or once a month, you can schedule several posts on your social media promoting that content. By staggering your posts, changing your hashtags, content, and keywords in each update, you’ll reach a broader audience. And if you’ve created evergreen content, 6 months or a year from now, you can promote the same content again. The more people access your content over time, the more likely it is to come up towards the top of search results.
Maintaining your blog and social media channels requires some planning and dedication, but is worth the return on investment. Getting started can be the hardest part. If you’re interested in one-on-one consulting or in how Stitchcraft Marketing can help you develop quality evergreen blog content or engaging social media content, please contact us today!
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