A team member asked me yesterday, “Should I get a blog or should I just post and send people to my content on Facebook?”
If Facebook and your blog got in a fight, your blog would get a KO in the first round.
Here’s why.
- It’s your platform.
Mark Zuckerberg can never take it away from you because you said the wrong thing or made the wrong post.
I’ve lost several social media accounts (YouTube) and even a 3rd party blog with stacks and stacks of content – I’ve never lost my self hosted Wordpress blog.
- Over time, your posts can get search engine traffic. Organic leads & sales that you would not get from Facebook posts.. Same work – better result.
(Your fan page posts seems to be searchable on Google, but not your profile posts.)
- You control what happens there.
You can advertise whatever you want to your readers and subscribers.
I’ve had team Facebook groups where I’ve seen competitors running ads to my downline right inside my team Facebook group. (Thanks Facebook!)
On your blog, you control what people see.
- It’s better for credibility
“Hi my name is Paul and I write Facebook posts” or “Hi, my name is Paul and I’m a blogger.” – which is better?
Not to mention when you have your own website/blog – you can control the story (with no social media distractions) – that people hear about you.
- It’s archived & organized.
Your readers/prospects can search your content via category and learn all about you from your past content.
This is powerful for allowing people to get to know/like & trust you on auto-pilot.
- You can develop a consistent reader base & audience with a blog.
Are there any blogs or websites you visit regularly to check for new content?
For me, there’s a short list that I check constantly for updates.
I never search people out on Facebook and say… “Hmmm.. has this person made any new Facebook posts lately?”
- Blogs are way better for list building
When someone finds my posts on social media the only way they can subscribe is by going to my profile and finding my website links. (sure I could put my links in my posts, but Facebook tends to hate that and hide your posts when you do it.)
When someone comes to my blog, they can opt in via…
- My newsletter subscription bar to the top right.
- Banner ads in the side bar ( I currently have 2)
- Site wide pop up capture page
- Newsletter signups and opt in forms at the bottom of each post, page or even mid – content… wherever the heck you want to put opt in forms.
A blog is like a lead net, loaded up for list building on steroids.
Way more opportunities for opt in.
For all of these reasons I believe that blogging is smart.
It’s more work, yes, but it’s an investment in the future.
PS – Having a blog doesn’t mean you can’t use Facebook too…
I’ve been posting links directly to my fan page… (if people search me on Facebook, they can find my blog posts, get value and hopefully become a subscriber.)
*The reason for not posting my post content directly on the fan page is to avoid duplicate content penalties as fan page content and blog content both seem to be searchable on Google and other search engines.
I’ve been testing posting my blog links directly to my Facebook profile vs. copy pasting the content to my Facebook profile.
Over all, copy / pasting the content directly into the Facebook profile (vs sharing the link) seems to get way more traction on social media and from what I’ve read, does not trigger duplicate content penalties because your profile posts are not searchable on Google.
Only problem is – there is no link for people to subscribe to… so the only way new viewers can subscribe is by searching me out and finding my links on my profile – which does tend to happen.