I go to a lot of business events around the city. Sometimes I’m there as and attendee and other times I’ve been invited to speak. Either way, without fail, there is always someone there who asks about the death of blogging. At this point, I have to lovingly say to them that no, blogging isn’t dead.
The truth it’s more important than ever to have a blog. It’s also extremely important to truly understand how blogging works in your overall marketing strategy. Here are four reasons why blogging isn’t dead and how you can start using one for your business.
You don’t own social media.
The biggest reason why blogging isn’t dead is that none of us own social media. That means we have zero control over any of the changes social media companies decide to make.
Here are just a few examples:
- Changing algorithms
- Banning certain types of ads
- Shadow banning
- Increase in ad prices
- Shutting down accounts (sometimes for no reason or by accident)
Seriously, how many times are we going to have to hear small business owners groan about Facebook changing an algorithm? If they’d built their own website which they used to grow an email list they wouldn’t be as affected.
Blogging = content marketing
Another reason why blogging isn’t dead is that blogging is just another term for content marketing. As a business owner, you need content marketing in order to sustain yourself online. It’s how you build trust, and more importantly, get found.
The problem is people still think blogging is where someone details what they did that day. What they fail to realize that a blog is a marketing tool. One that allows you to establish yourself as an expert and then monetize that expertise.
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Once business owners see blogging as a marketing tool, their perception of it changes. They see it as an opportunity to connect with their audiences while providing them with valuable resources they can use to solve a specific problem.
It helps with SEO strategy.
No one is going to hire you if they can’t find you, period. That’s why blogging is an important part of your SEO strategy, because your content actually shows up on search engines.
Social media can’t do that for you. Period. And so, if you’re focused on SEO (which every business owner should be), then blogging isn’t dead for you.
A blog allows you to be everywhere.
Pat Flynn often talks about the idea of being everywhere online. Fortunately, you can easily accomplish this with a blog, which is why blogging isn’t dead.
For example, I have a podcast which I publish on my blog. I then use social media to drive traffic to said podcast. Additionally, I repurpose the content into a blog post for SEO and put the audio on YouTube with a link back to my site.
The reality is people consume content in different ways, and a blog is just one part of your strategy to reach your audience.
Final Thoughts
Blogging isn’t dead. Period. Perhaps what changes is the definition which is a natural part of the online landscape. However, but blogging as a marketing tool isn’t going anywhere. As of right now, it’s still the only content you actually own.