You’ve been working hard at crafting your social media presence. Much like Rocky Balboa punching hunks of meat and jogging up and down the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, you’ve been working hard to get your brand in peak physical condition. You have been building your Likes on Facebook, your connections on LinkedIn, and your Followers on Instagram and Twitter. You have been posting on a regular basis, curating a content mix you know your audience will respond to. So why aren’t more people coming to your website?
Because you are not directing them to your original content, written and posted by you, on your own website!
Social media marketing gives you the prime opportunity to not only brand yourself as an expert and quickly generate visibility for your brand, but it also enables you to influence the buying decision of your consumers. What your potential customers are looking for on social media are helpful hints that will help to enhance their lives. Who knows how to do this better than you? Your business fits a need and your expert opinion will help satiate this in your potential and current customer base.
And this is why you need to have a blog.
A blog is beneficial for multiple reasons. First off, it helps cement you as an authority figure in your industry and just adds more and more credibility to your digital presence. But more importantly, a blog is just a pathway back to your website—and it’s a more effective one than a generic, salesy social media post, no matter how well you write it.
Your blog will contain information pertinent to your business and of interest to your target market. If you are an assisted living facility, your blog could be focused around topics that would interest the person searching for elder care. You can obviously write about upcoming events and announcements but go a bit further. Write about aging topics such as dementia and caregiving. Write about healthy food choices for seniors.
Are you a tax attorney? Write about new tax laws and how they affect your target client. Write about how a family of four can easily manage their monthly budget. Write about investment opportunities that people can explore.
Now, write an update on social media and share the link to this article and keep it in your content cycle to repost every so often. Ask your connections to share the article. Now you may say “Ok, I’ve done one…but where’s the traffic?”
Unfortunately posting and sharing one blog is not a strategy. You have to regularly write, post and share these. If you are just getting started and looking for a strong content marketing strategy, I suggest writing at least one blog a day or 4-5 per week. Once you bank a fifty evergreen pieces, then you can slow down to one or two a week.
There is enough content within your industry to generate meaningful posts on a regular basis. Also, imagine the SEO implications of having keyword-packed content being added to your website almost daily. This is a HUGE powerhouse and a wonderful value of having regular blogs done.
“But I don’t know where to start and am not that strong of a writer.”
You don’t have to be! There are people who can do that for you and let you put your name on it in exchange for money. Not even John Grisham writes his own books—he has a team of co- and ghostwriters to do that for him. Hire a content writer or a marketing agency who can churn out well-produced content and formulate blogs seemingly overnight.
Next objection: But no one knows my business like me.
True. But a good copywriter or agency will dedicate the time to interview you and do the research and you’ll have final approval over what gets posted. My point is that if you are trying to make the most out of your social media campaign, a blog is really the cornerstone of success. Beyond social, it is also a powerhouse when trying to enhance the SEO capabilities of your website.
If this is out of your area of expertise, talk with someone who has experience with blogging and writing. They will be able to point you in the right direction. The bottom line is that sometimes it takes a village to raise a blog.
