3 Reasons To Prioritize Blogs Before Social Media In Your Business
If we haven’t formally met yet, I’m Natalie 👋🏼 and in a world that's obsessed with all of the fun and trendy social media platforms that you can use in your business, I'm obsessed with helping business owners like you commit to the long game content approach through blogs in your business.
Now, let me be clear: I use and love social media as much as the next person, so I’m not saying you should ditch your favorite platforms altogether.
What I am saying is that I believe you should prioritize your blogs BEFORE your social media platforms and I have three main reasons for that.
First, let’s dive into the 3 main reasons I believe you should prioritize blogs before social media in your business.
3 Reasons To Prioritize Blogs Before Social Media
1. The shelf life of social media posts are EXTREMELY low.
Picture this: you spend hours of your time filming the perfect Instagram Reel, you make sure the words are timed perfectly and the caption draws in your ideal audience.
You post it to your feed, a few of your followers like the post and a few hours later... crickets.
This is the reality of the shelf life of your social media posts on some of the most popular platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok.
The Shelf Life of Social Media Posts
The shelf life of a social media post refers to the average amount of time that you can expect your post to receive engagement before it falls off the algorithm.
You probably already know that all social media platforms have algorithms and there’s a high chance that you’re constantly trying to find strategies to beat it. But the truth is that you really can’t.
The most popular social media platforms are constantly changing what they prioritize, so it can be extremely hard for you to keep up.
One day the platforms favors video content, the next they want carousels and the next they just want images.
It’s true insanity! And it can be extremely frustrating if you are primarily running your business via social media.
For a deeper understanding of the shelf life of social media posts, I did some research and discovered that as a whole, most social media posts have a shelf life of 48 hours or less.
You read that correctly - 2 days or LESS. That’s the average amount of time that someone is expected to see your content after you spent hours creating your aesthetically pleasing posts and click-worthy videos.
On a more granular level, I learned that Facebook posts typically last 5 hours or less, Twitter comes in between 15-20 MINUTES and TikTok follows with 2-5 MINUTES. 🤯
I want you to let that sink in.
If you are primarily creating content on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or TikTok, you are taking the risk of your content being lost in the black hole of the Internet in a matter of minutes.
And I don’t know about you, but as a business owner and content creator, I would prefer that the content I spend my time and energy creating is housed in a place that will LAST far beyond the scroll hole of a social media user.
Where would that be you might ask?
BLOGS BABY 👏🏼
The Shelf Life of Blog Posts
Now that you know the shelf life of posts on various social media platforms, let’s take a closer look at how this compares to blog posts.
Because after all, if you’re going to implement something new into your content strategy, you want to make sure that it's going to be worth it, right?!
A study found that blogs typically don’t receive 99% of its impressions until TWO YEARS.
In other words: your blogs keep on giving for literally years to come.
And even after that two year mark, your blog is still easily accessible on your website, which means that as a business owner you can continue to refer your audience to specific blog posts.
So essentially, they never die!
You might be wondering how in the world it’s possible for a blog to remain relevant for up to two years and that’s a great question.
The study explained that blogs undergo three main phases:
Shout - this is when the blog is initially posted and brings in that first spike of impressions through your organic audience (the best way to make sure this happens is by properly promoting your blogs after you press publish)
Echo - this is the second phase that starts shortly after your initial post and usually lasts for a whole month. At this point, over half of the impressions on your blog will be present.
Reverberate - this phase makes up the latter portion of your blog impressions and lasts from month one of your initial posting to YEAR two. This is the long haul phase that I often refer to and the way that this happens is because of our good friend, Google.
Now, I don’t teach on SEO because I believe that blog content in your business should be done for more reasons than just that, but what I will say is that the more consistent you are in publishing fresh content (aka new blogs) to your website, the more favored you will become in the eyes of Google and the higher you can start to populate in search.
(If you want to learn more of the ins and outs of SEO, I encourage you to follow my go-to SEO gals, The Duo Collective.)
Now, back to those three reasons ⬇️
2. You don't own the content you post on social media.
I know what you might be thinking… “Natalie, I created the content! Of course I own it.”
And I really wish it were that simple, friend!
But here’s the thing: just like people say you need to build an email list because you don’t own your followers, your content is the exact same way.
The second you hit 'post' on social media, you are overturning your ownership to the Internet gods and it can be taken from you at literally ANY time.
Instagram proved that to be true when they took Halloween a bit too seriously and did something super spooky – people woke up to missing accounts, lost followers AND lost content.
A literal Nightmare on Elm Street if you ask me! 💀
Blogs on the other hand allow you to OWN your content and have ultimate control over it.
This is why I always encourage people to start with blog content FIRST and then repurpose the content on social media so that you are always driving your audience to a place that you own!
3. Social media isn't organized or searchable.
Lastly, social media isn’t organized or searchable… AT ALL.
Most popular platforms have been designed for people to open the app, scroll and receive quick value or entertainment. It’s NOT designed to be something that they can easily search through and find the exact content they want or need at any given time.
And while that might be perfectly fine for accounts that aren’t trying to build a business via social media, this isn't necessarily ideal for people like you that have goals of growing your audience and ultimately selling your products or services.
As a business owner, you want to make sure that people are able to easily find the content that serves them.
And while your social posts can definitely be a start, the key is that you’re ultimately guiding them to a place where everything is much more organized, searchable and can be easily accessed at any time.
This allows your ideal audience to find the ultimate value of what they really need, when
they need it, which allows them to appreciate YOU much more!
And that's exactly what blogs can do for you. 👏🏼
I follow a ton of creators that post amazing content that really is valuable, but after that initial post, I’m lucky to ever find it again. Each time that happens, I always wish that there was a way that I could search for the post again. On social media, that’s not an option – but with blogs it is!
Is Posting on Social Media Still Important?
What I want you to know is that social media can be an amazing tool for your business and YES, posting on social media is still important if you’ve designed your content strategy that way.
But what I ultimately want you to take away is that making your social media your TOP priority is a risk to the LONGEVITY and long haul of your business.
When you choose to prioritize blogs FIRST, you're able to:
✔️ build an ultimate content bank on your website that your current and FUTURE audience can refer to and find for years to come.
✔️ have an organized and searchable home base for ALL of your best content in a place that you OWN – aka you have complete control
✔️ be seen as an expert, thought leader and go-to source in your industry that people trust and want to learn and buy from
How To Start Blogging In Your Business
If you’re ready to implement blogs in your business, but aren't sure HOW to do it, I’ve got just the thing for you!
The Beginner's Guide to Blogging For Your Business serves as a resource for almost everything you need to know about blogging in your business AND doubles as a workbook to help you put everything you learn into real action.
Launch your blog with ease and confidence when you GRAB YOUR COPY OF THE GUIDE HERE!