To Blog or Not to Blog?
I came across this interesting post on Social Media Today 'To Blog or Not to Blog: Are Social Tools Ready To Replace Them?' http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/blog-or-not-blog-are-social-tools-ready-replace-them-0
I understand why many people would want to give up their blogs opting for just posting on social media for its ease, speed and simplicity. It's sort of a commitment to keep your blog alive, think what to blog about next let alone thinking even to have your own blog. I have the same issues.I believe social media posting is great if it's a short message, image, idea, article link, photo or thought to portray to your audience with a relevant comment to complete the picture but when it comes to real content it just doesn't work.Reading the above article motivated me to blog about this summarizing the benefits of keeping your blog alive and motivating others to create their own purposeful blogs:
"The first and most important reason to keep your blog is because publishing there gives you control over your content. You can choose exactly when and how it's displayed, what images go next to it, what your blog looks like overall,"... "In other words, you'll always be able to decide what goes on your blog,"... but you can't know or control what any company is going to do with its social media platform in the future.
"It gives more power and value to your existing content. The more relevant information you add to your site, the more there is to be indexed and discovered. It's easier for users to bookmark and locate old posts again later on your site than in social media."I have seen very lengthy social media posts on Instagram and others, for users with real causes and messages to portray, which in the long run will not serve in having a database of searchable relevant content with value to the user and their followers. Eventually all gets lost in their pool of posts with no easy locating of information besides the tags which are endless and hard to trace.
"You can post your material to your blog, share to social, which links to the post from your social accounts." By this you are achieving the best of both worlds, having your content safe all in one relevant place and sharing it freely on any social media you desire. By this you are attracting more people to your blog eventually creating your real community of faithful followers who are interested in your content sharing common interests. These are the real people with the real value to you and/or your business.
Last but not least, you get to have your own space for your brand, presence, identity on the Internet. An image reflecting your ideas and beliefs making you unique in every way. What more can a dedicated blogger need :)
Of course, maintaining a blog can take an investment in terms of effort, time and patience but the rewards make it well worth it. Please drop me a line in the comments if you need any help.See u later in more posts about blogs. In the meantime, keep blogging! ;)