Businesses are increasingly turning to social media for a quick, inexpensive way to boost site traffic. It’s a great way to generate loyal customers and brand awareness, while making your company seem much more human and relatable.
But aren’t they forgetting something?
Few people talk about blogging as a form of social media, but it is inherently and completely social. It shares the same social attributes of popular networks such as Facebook, allowing for a content rich experience.
It allows seamless communication between the blogger and audience, in a way that Google Plus has struggled to replicate.
Of course, it is also more flexible than Twitter, with its microblogging format.
What is more, blogging offers all of this with an unparalleled level of control over form and function.
So – Why Should You Be Blogging?
Compared to running a social media campaign, running a company blog gathers you more respect for success, and is less ‘risky’ than social media.
Social media that overly pressures people to sell, or is ‘content-light’, is more jarring and less expected. If you mismanage a blog in this way, by contrast, it’s severely sub-optimal, but it’s not a disaster.
People expect a company blog to promote, while they expect all tweets to discuss.
So when a blog discusses, people get happy. When a tweet promotes, well, it’s that much less appealing to Follow the tweeter.
Meet New And Interesting People – Then Convert Them!
Social networks often rely on previous contact with the audience as well.
Wildly following twitter users on your account will not gain you a targeted audience interested in your brand whereas Facebook only allows you to invite people in your own personal network to like your page.
An invite to a stranger will allow people to sense your desperation.
Time spent following the blogs of strangers is seen as more meaningful, though, and leaving thoughtful comments can gain you interested visitors coming back to your site, reading about your brand, and engaging with your articles.
Producing content through a blog also gives you the opportunity to increase traffic to your company website. This can be done either with an on-site blog, or an off-site blog that links back to relevant pages.
This in turn means that the time that you spend sharing links on your social media pages has a direct influence on how much traffic is directed to your site.
This is a way of gaining links back to your site that is seen very favourably by Google. After all, you are producing relevant content for a tailored audience in a place that you would expect to find it.
A Unique Level of Control
Because of the level of customisation when running a blog, you are also able to operate out of any constraints of social media – rather than producing content that has to stand out amongst a hundred updates, and which enjoys only a brief period of time in the limelight, you are able to create content with a more comprehensive aim .
This adds a library of content that if tagged correctly will be found through search engines long after it has disappeared from someone’s timeline.
Sure, social media sites are a great way for companies engage conversation with potential customers and share relevant content. Much of this content, though, is not generated from the companies themselves but from third party sources.
Could you be spending too much time promoting other peoples content?
Generating your own quality blog posts means that you can tweet about them later, invoke them when they’re relevant to a conversation.
You can bring them up to answer questions using the #question hashtag on twitter, for instance – a really useful hashtag for anyone looking to grow a twitter following, incidentally!
Incredible Credibility
Both onsite and in terms of outreach programs, blogging for your company carries serious, long-term social rewards.
Instead of the content being contained within a network, every time the information is shared, there is a direct link back to your company – rather than the often detracted and one way comments fishing for interaction that companies tend to adopt in platforms we usually think of as Social Media, with the big capital letters.
Blogging shows that your company is run by real people, many companies partake in social media just to have a presence – but these networks are favour the constant creation of content and updates, primarily the interactions between individuals that they were built for.
Creating a blog is a much more substantial way of showing to your customers that you care about what you do and gives you an opportunity to show all of your expertise rather relying on word of mouth, repeat custom or reputation.
That’s not to say that you can get away with one monthly update – a key element of running a blog is to build an audience, one that is interested in your content and one that interacts – this is where you should be using social media to promote your posts.
Omnisocial
Much like the traditional fable of the blind men and the elephant, many businesses have been encountering one aspect of blogging, the ‘passive content repository’ aspect, and declaring it to be the complete animal! Blogging is much more than that.
Blogging is the original social media, and it’s the heaviest player in the game. It’s a facebook or G+-style wall, it’s a Scoop.it or Pinterest-style curator, it’s a lengthy tweet, it’s an article, it’s a direct conversation, it’s all of these things and more – in short, it’s flexible.
Setting up a blog and building an audience takes patience, and many are disheartened by the big name brands with powerhouse social media accounts and thousands of followers.
Blogging for a business is not a direct popularity contest, though, but an investment that relies heavily on the personal touch. It is about strengthening your brand and converting social interactions into happy, satisfied customers.
The Take-Away
Blogging can function as an incredible social media platform, but it’s not a strictly defined tool. Its social strength lies in its diversity and its permanence, two features that no other social media format can lay claim to.
It’s time for businesses to stop treating blogging as an online content warehouse, and start to engage.
James Duval is a tech blogger for Intercall Europe, writing on behalf of the Intercall Blog about b2b and b2c communication. He discusses the correct ways that businesses should be approaching communication with customers to see real business results.
Hi JamesDuval,
Um, Just gonna say that the post is Awesome and is filled with Great Content and Information that every Blogger must know, we bloggers always look for such Authors who post Awesome and KILLER Content and not think about the Quantity but about the Quality.. Anyway Thanks for the Post, and the awesome tips in the post. 😀
James Duval says
Hi Mairaj Pirzada,
Thanks for the kind comment. I’ve been a fan of probloggingsuccess for a while so it’s great to see my post published up here!
I enjoyed your post on the Thank Me Later plugin too. It’s so important to keep in touch with the people who read your blog.
Oh, you read my blog post, thank you so much! Great.
Abdallah Al-Hakim says
Very good article. It is always amazing to me when I see article every now and then saying that blogging is dead. I do believe that blogging is still the one of the best social media tools available to build your brand and become a thought leader. The other tools such as twitter and facebook are there to broadcast your content. Another important point you alluded to is the importance of initiating conversations on blog posts through commenting. This is one of my favourite parts because in some cases, the conversations that go on in the commenting section offer more value than the blog itself. Still, the blog post becomes the destinations for those comments which is beginning of a community.
I should mention that I use Engagio to discover many interesting blogs and conversations and they are constantly adding more social networks to their stream.
James Duval says
“The other tools such as twitter and facebook are there to broadcast your content.” - I think this is a great point. I think of networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as being parts of social media, not necessarily the whole package.
I also like the point you make about the beginning of a community. Having a community built up around your brand, blog or website is invaluable.
Engagio sounds interesting, thanks for the comment!
Abdallah Al-Hakim says
Thanks. Let me know what you think of Engagio. I am working closely with them at the moment
JD Meier says
> Time spent following the blogs of strangers is seen as more meaningful, thoughI like that perspective.I think the Web is a great way to stumble on greatness, interesting, or insightful.One pattern I\’ve noticed is that commenting seems to be less vibrant than it used to be — I suspect because of the growth of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ … Thoughts?
James Duval says
I’m not sure what you mean by vibrant exactly, but I cannot think of an interpretation I would disagree with!
I think part of it is not wanting to rock the boat with controversial content. Over time people end up in smaller and smaller bubbles, and I think that frequently results in people being unable to say anything except “I agree” - which doesn’t always make for great comments!
I’m glad you were able to take something interesting from this post, thanks for commenting!
Abdallah Al-Hakim says
I find blogs with commenting systems such as disqus, livefyre, intense debate and other tools to have vibrant communities. One such example of a terrific blog community is avc.com - Fred Wilson blogs everyday and gets an average of 200-300 comments on each blog and most of the comments are conversations between different commentators!! Also, I work for Engagio and one of the things we try and do is unify conversation networks and make the discovery process easier. Try it out and let me know what you think
Manoj says
Very good article,,blogging is a very powerful tool,a good blogger can persuade or sow a seed in a readers mind,,i still remember how i came in contact with prpblogger.net,,and it was it
James Duval says
Thanks for your comment!
A good blogger can also make you laugh, cry, anything that a mainstream writer can do. I remember the first time I came across cracked.com. That’s my favourite blog at the moment — except probloggingsuccess, of course. 😉
JD Meier says
@ James — I like your point about non-controversial.
That resonates because I see how echo chambers tend create comments, while controversy tends to converge, along the lines of “I agree.”
@ Abdallah — I do see some good examples. I wonder if the right commenting system though is necessary, but not sufficient … or actually a herring hiding another factor or shift in the landscape.
I think a couple cutting questions might be:
1. Why /how would the commenting systems create or contribute to a vibrant community?
2. Would we notice a significant impact if, for example, Problogger had a different commenting system? (In the past, I noticed a more vibrant community — it doesn’t feel the same in terms of engagement I used to see.)
James Duval says
In response to your second point:
It’s strange, I agree about Problogger, I’m not sure why it has happened, but I do think there would be an impact .
I think some of it is that everyone is replying to the Original Post now, instead of to each other. I see this a lot on sites like problogger.net which have their own commenting system, whereas if you look at the Telegraph’s comment section, run by Disqus, people mostly reply to each other to the extent that entire comment threads get completely derailed.
Note that I don’t think derailing is a bad thing! It can be very interesting, much more interesting than reading the same 2-3 opinions responding to the blog post over and over.
Abdallah Al-Hakim says
JD Meier, I think the example I gave earlier about Fred Wilson’s blog demonstrates how a vibrate community could be built around commenting and conversations. There are other good examples of blogs with solid commenting systems such as Chris Dixon and Brand Feld (foundry group).
I think commenting systems that make it easy to login and keep track of your conversations might nudge someone to comment. I prefer disqus and feel more inclined to comment when it is used. However, that doesn’t stop me from commenting elsewhere (such as this blog) but I don’t know how it affects other people. Also, since I heavily use Engagio for managing my social networks, I do find myself driven more to comment on systems that integrate with Engagio. Having said that, Engagio is constantly adding new networks and already covers most of mine.
ayesha says
I like concept of this post. Blogging really like elephant in social media. As it’s very big in size, unique level of control and meet new people all points are very basic. Interest in blogging increases day by day and this article is very helpful.
James Duval says
Glad you found the article helpful!
Blogging is indeed huge, but seems to be ignored by many social media companies and even by some businesses. I find that bizarre!
Thanks for your comment.
Hi James,
very nice analogy here. Blogging surely stands out and all serious businesses have started to use blogging as a promotion tool some time ago. Social media is great but more risky as you said, partly because people are engaging there on a more personal level.
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James Duval says
Thanks! I was very proud of that analogy ;).
There are still some businesses that don’t use blogging as a promotional tool - but as you said, maybe they being as serious about online promotion as they should be.
People certainly engage on a more personal level with social media networks like Twitter. It makes it much harder to control and predict responses to campaigns.
Thanks for the comment!
Aj Williams says
Thanks for the awesome blog topic James! I personally think blogging is way better than social media for drawing relevant traffic to your website, especially a business blog. If you can find out the right type of content that appeals to your target market and also find out where that target market is hanging out at on the internet, then you have a recipe for the a large blog following! That is what I am hoping for with my blog anyway.
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James Duval says
I completely agree with you. A good blog can impact your search, social media presence and brand image, as well as being fun for you and your customers to engage with.
I wish you all the best with your blog! Good luck!
I find blogging to the a really nice place to share and express my views freely as compared to the social medias. On a blog, I can easily get people of the same view, create a solid connection with them and I find that to be fun. It is indeed the elephant in the media room.
James Duval says
It’s true, you get a much more solid readership on a blog than on social media sites.
Thanks for giving your opinion! I don’t know anything about Kim Kardashian, so I didn’t understand your blog, but maybe there will be some fans here who really like it.
Shalu Sharma says
You have a good point, blogging can also be seen as a social media tool in its own right. Social media is about social engagement which can be done through the use of blogs as you mention. This is why most businesses should blog. Many net savvy business owners are realising this.
Shalu Sharma recently posted..Are cabs in Delhi safe for tourists?
James Duval says
Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted to say.
Thanks for the comment.
I hope to visit India one day, your site looks very informative — I’m sure it’ll come in very handy!
Shalu Sharma says
James, you are most welcome to come to India any time. Thank you for your complement.
Shalu Sharma recently posted..Lotus Temple – Must see Bahai Temple
James Duval says
Absolutely no problem! It’s a really informative travel blog, it’s got subjects I’ve not seen anywhere else - really interesting!
Social Media will not be as effective without blogging. The content your blog will have will stay on your blog if you don’t use social media, and that is a bad thing. Blogs are marketed through their content. By using social media and having snippets of your posts on every possible social media site, you will be able to attract more people into your blog. So you have to spread the word on social media sites that there is something people will enjoy on your blog.
James Duval says
That’s true in many cases, but you could spend your entire career guest blogging and working on your own blog, and as long as your content is good people will spread your work for you!
This is very difficult though, especially if you’re just starting out — I wouldn’t recommend only blogging and guest blogging unless you’re very prolific and skilled.
Thats an impressive Post. I too agree that Blogging is the biggie Elephant In the social Media. The reason people are opting Blogging is because its too interesting and it Pays you back for your hard work.
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James Duval says
Thanks for the compliment!
I love writing myself, I think I would do it even if it didn’t pay me back.
Hi James Duval,
Its really nice informative post which every blogger must read. You have written it in such a nice way that any one can easily understand what you want to convey.
James Duval says
Thanks sheshnath!
I like your blog too. I had no idea there was such a simple trick to increase torrent download speed!
Cheers.
Romy Singh says
Hello James Duval,
I must say quite interesting post.
Blogosphere still have place for us. If you can inspire others with what you write, what you say, what you do: there is still a place for you in this blogosphere. Still a place for people who think creative, who do extra ordinary things, and also for misfit artist like me.
Blogging is not dead.
Other sites like facebook, twitter, google+ are just to put your words out their in public easily. 
James Duval says
Hi Romy Singh!
I completely agree, blogging is not dead, it’s just a new way of sharing interesting and creative pieces of information. I don’t know if it will ever die!
sandeep kumar says
Hi James….
Nice topic and content…
I like your idea of taking blog above the Social Networking site by comparint its feature and benefit with different Social networking sites.
Looking more such article from you.
James Duval says
Thanks Sandeep!
I’d never really considered that blogging might be a form of social media before I sat down to write this post — now I can’t believe I ever thought of it in a different way!
Becca says
thanks for sharing this valuable piece of information. Very informative and useful post this will help a lot to me as a new one in blogging. Thanks for sharing this and its a very big help for me..
James Duval says
Thanks for the comment Becca! Glad this is helpful.
It does help to think of blogging as social. I’ve not done it here, opting for a more traditional structure, but with blogs you can ask questions of your audience, provoke, inspire, engage…
It’s very important to consider your audience!
Hi james,
Nice article,You raise good points.
I think sometimes people think they have so much catching up to do that they must join everything they see when really they don’t.
It is far better to start slowly, find your feet, and get to know programs you join before moving onto something new.Awesome info graphic buddy.
James Duval says
Thank you Bhushan,
Do you mean that it is more important to master blogging well than to master social media?
Hi James,
Thanks for sharing and stopping by.
I think blogging is better than social media as i know.
Sanjib Saha says
Hi James,
I feel the same about blogging like most of the above ones who commented that blogging is all in one. I have been blogging and could build a good reader base but I love social networking media too. Both are special.
Regards,
Sanjib Saha
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James Duval says
Hi Sanjib, thanks for your thoughtful comment. What do you think about my idea that blogging is already an effective form of social media in and of itself?
Hey James
This is an awesome post on blogging. Many of us neglect this, but blogging surely is the best form of social media. Blogging is a great way to build a reader base and have good personal as well as professional relations with them. Thanks for this wonderful share.
James Duval says
Thanks for the comment Richa!
I agree that blogging is the best form of social media. Close personal relationships gives you an army of sympathetic sharers - who create even more converts along the way!
Cheers for the compliments - I like your site’s layout, by the way! Cutting edge.
Hey James
Thanks for appreciating it, it means a lot…:)
Anton Koekemoer says
Hi James,
I definitely do agree with the conclusion you have. When it comes to diversity and permanence there is no other equivalent online. And with the broad amount of Social and blogging Channels alike offers us a large difference in the type of engagement (if any) is required and different target markets. The key to blogging as you’ve said is not to build a new Wikipedia on your own product or service (even those of others) – it is to engage and pull rather than push clients / users down authoritative sales funnels or specific targeted webpages to have them convert to a sale or loyal follower.
James Duval says
Hi Anton! Brilliantly and succinctly put.
As an example of what you’re saying, the fact that I was interested in your comment when it landed in my inbox pulled me to come to this page to read it in context.
The fact that it engaged with and added to what I have written in an intelligent way pulled me to read your blog. And the fact that your latest post was really interesting caused me to share it on G+!
I’ll definitely come back to read your blog again, and recommend it to others. All because you engaged over here 😉
Hi Jane,
You made some good topic on social media and blogging. As per my point of view blogging is the best form of social media. Blogging is a great method to build a reader. Thank for sharing really great information on that.
James Duval says
Hi Dotnet Developer!
This was actually me writing this post, haha! Blogging is a great form of social media, I agree, and often unfairly overlooked in favour of other social media methods.
Thanks for the comment!
What a clever representation! I love the pictures and how you have linked the two things. That said and done, blogging indeed is hard in the sense it involves tremendous efforts- on a daily basis. You cannot slack, you cannot procrastinate. If you do-you are sure to be left behind in the competitive world. Great post!
James Duval says
Cheers!
Great point, too, which is worthy of a whole series of blog posts — how to cope with the difficulty of blogging as a daily grind.
Personally, I enjoy the writing, but it’s still tough sometimes. As you say, the blogging world really is incredibly competitive!
I definitely do agree with the conclusion you have. When it comes to diversity and permanence there is no other equivalent online. And with the broad amount of Social and blogging Channels alike offers us a large difference in the type of engagement (if any) is required and different target markets.
James Duval says
Absolutely. And I agree that different social media networks offer different results in different markets. Each does have their own value, but blogging is the heavy artillery to social media’s sniper rifle.
Thanks for the comment!
Hey James,
I liked the way you have made such a fine comparison between an elephant and blogging. Indeed blogging is similar to elephant in many aspects. This post is very helpful and enlightening for all sorts of bloggers. Each and every aspect of blogging is presented in a new and refined manner. Thanks for sharing the post.
James Duval says
Hi Aayna,
Thanks for your comment and kind words! I appreciate them.
This blog really is great for interesting and novel takes on how to write a successful blog, all the posts makes for a fascinating read.
Justin Germino says
I like that “Blogging is the original social media” and you are right I think social media compliments a company blog but cannot be a replacement for it due to the transient and temporary nature of social media communications. Good article, and I was wondering about all the elephant pics until I saw the reference to the blind man and the elephant.
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James Duval says
Thanks Justin
I’m a big fan of the dragonblogger.com blog, glad you took the time to comment!
You definitely use your own blogs as a form of social media, I always see you interacting in the comments, and I think that’s a great idea.
Cheers!
Nice to hear about blogging. I have not even imagine that blogging is this much important. Thanks for sharing it’s importance. Liked reading it.
James Duval says
Thanks for the comment, the importance of blogging is definitely central to this article.
Cheers!
social media survives mostly because of blogging or to promote websites
more blogs means more profiles and more sharing
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James Duval says
I think that’s an interesting point that chimes with a lot of what I’ve been saying.
Social media is often used perfectly adequately as a bolt-on to blogging. I’m not saying this is all you can get out of social media platforms, but it’s certainly more important to get a blog up and running first, in my opinion!
This is amazing article, quality is more important than quantity because you can get more link with good article and social media is all about blogging now a days, everyone wants to have a blog to put on their social profile!
James Duval says
That’s true, quality is always more important than quantity.
I enjoyed your post about the concept big screen movie gadget at Entertainment Mesh, too.
Thanks for commenting!