Why You Need a Blog to Win on Social Media

Social media and blogging go together like tacos and Tuesdays but some artists and entrepreneurs struggle to see the benefit of investing time into a professional blog.

Before we get into reasons WHY you need a blog…

We first need to explain the purpose of social media and the purpose of a website. Once you understand the importance of leading social media users to your website, the benefits of a blog will seem more obvious.

Let’s think of marketing and sales strategy as a funnel.

• The top of your funnel is the largest portion of your funnel and is full of people who are aware you exist.
• The middle of your funnel is medium-sized and contains people who are considering purchasing goods or services from you.
• The bottom of your funnel is the smallest, most valuable portion of your funnel because bottom-funnel people are converting (i.e. actually buying goods or services).

Social media and blogging strategies can support each aspect of the funnel but typically…

• Social media fills the top (awareness) end of your funnel
• Blogs and content marketing push people into the middle (consideration) portion of your funnel.
• Websites and email marketing are your best bottom-funnel (conversion) tools

Your website should act as a “hub” for everything related to your brand. Your website (i.e. “the hub”) should work to convert your visitors into customers, or at the very least, push them further down the funnel. 

Actions that can help audiences move further down your funnel include…

• Following your brand on social media
• Reading a blog
• Signing up for your e-newsletter
• Downloading an EBook
• Contacting you
• Buying your product

Your website should support and encourage your visitors to take these actions through a seamless, straightforward process.

So what about blogs? 

Well, blogs live on your website and they are some of your best opportunities to take people from social media (high funnel) to your website (low funnel). The more blogs you write, the more opportunity you create for people to visit your website, which should be a conversion engine.

5 Reasons Why You Need a Blog to Win on Social Media

Direct more visitors to your website

As we mentioned, a primary goal for your social media efforts should be to direct people to your website. Blogs are a fun, exciting way to engage your audience. Discover topics they find interesting and relate them to the services you provide. 

For example: A professional dancer could write a blog titled “10 Basic Modern Dance Movements You Can Master”. The intriguing “click-bait” blog pulls people off of social media, and onto the dancer’s website – where they have their resume, videos of performances, and contact information. 

Even though our blogs are sneaky ways to talk about products, it is a lot more exciting than simply listing the products we offer over and over again. Blogging gives your audience a reason to visit your website over and over again, making it more likely they will convert.

Keywords are words and phrases your potential customers use when searching for your product on a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Simply put, the more you can mention keywords on your website, the stronger your search engine optimization (SEO). The more SEO-friendly your website is, the more likely you will appear in searches.

For example: A tech startup company offers software that helps farmers track crops with smartphones. The more times this startup can include the words “farmer, farming, crops, agriculture, agrotech, etc.” on their website, the better chance they have at appearing in searches. They decide to create blog content so they can mention their usage of these keywords.

Blogs allow you to mention your products, industries, and target customers multiple times. You also will score SEO points for having fresh content on your website. 

Advanced Advice: Once you are a little more sophisticated with your marketing strategy, you can maximize SEO rankings and new website visitors with paid social media. Have you ever clicked on a website and related ads follow you on social media? This is an advanced social media advertising tactic in which a pixel tracks visitors from a website, and identifies them on social media. Creepy? You betcha. Effective for selling products? Uh-huh! The more new people you can draw to your website through SEO, the more you can remarket to them with social media advertising. (Does this sound complicated? Consider hiring a paid social media expert to help you.) 

Sharing content from other industry experts is a great source of social media content for your business. However, a blog will allow you to speak with authority on topics relating to your brand.

For example: A voice teacher shares social media posts linking to other websites that offer singing tips. The voice teacher decides to start their blog. Now, they can share articles they have written about “Healthy Habits for Vocal Health”, “Basic Vocal Warmups for All Singing Levels”, and “Must-Have Products for Professional Singers”. 

Another thing that is great about blogs is they are editable. Make a point to regularly revisit your blogs and update any outdated references or ideas. 

Let’s start with the definition of “evergreen content”.

Evergreen Content (v): Marketing content that can be shared any time of the year, year after year. The topic of the content is always relevant.

For example: A FinTech startup company is noticing their blogs about the “Biggest Stories in Finance This Week” draw in a fair amount of clicks, but the content is no longer relevant after 7 days. The FinTech startup decides to write more evergreen blogs such as “Rules of Finance that Every Person Should Know”, “3 Reasons Why Our Product Ensures Financial Success for Your Business”, and “Common Finance Mistakes You’re Probably Making Right Now”.

When you are thinking about what topics you want to write for your blog, the more evergreen topics, the better. Trust us, this will make your life so much easier when it comes to creating posts for social media because evergreen blogs can be shared over and over again. 

At the risk of sounding too meta – social media can drive blog visitors, and blogs can drive engagement on social media. When we regularly share posts on social media, patterns start to emerge. Certain topics, locations, people, or services are frequently featured. Use your blog to “curate” this social media content into one cohesive piece.

For example: An art museum regularly shares pictures of its collection on Instagram. They decide to create blogs that feature this content such as “10 Close-Up Pictures of Works by Rembrandt”, “12 Mind-Bending Photos of Contemporary Art”, and “8 Pics of Dogs in Classic Art Paintings”. 

Blogs are also excellent places to embed YouTube videos, share user-generated content, and even Pinterest boards.

Ultimately it’s important to remember…

Blogs are extremely powerful marketing tools. Even so, the burden of blogging is real. It’s time-consuming and difficult to fully maximize if you do not have the time. 

Upward Anthems is here to help!

If you would love to blog but don’t have the time, schedule a free Discovery Call to learn about our blog writing services. You can also skim the rest of the Upward Anthems blog for more social media marketing tips!