These days a blog is a fundamental addition to your business. Think of it as your direct link of communication both with your current customers and potential customers of the future. It’s a platform on which you, as a knowledgeable entrepreneur, can share your experience and comment on current, relevant news topics.
People want to be associated with a brand that has personality, and you should think of your blog as a tool in which to make your personality shine. Indeed, a survey conducted by Hubspot actually estimated that those companies who blog can improve sales by 60%.
Essentially, there is absolutely no doubt that a new business should implement a blog on their website, but the real question is whether your blog needs social media in order to gain a readership. Especially when social media can be so time consuming to manage.
Can Blogs Become Successful Without Any Social Media?
True, not every blog that has become a success has utilized social media. Take Footballeconomy.com a blog so popular that it’s been included in a list of the most successful UK football blogs, yet it has no Facebook presence and only a few hundred Twitter followers. Does this mean that social media isn’t really needed?
Well, take a minute to consider this website, there are two main reasons why this blog didn’t need social media in order to become a success. Firstly, Footballeconomy.com is the second blog from the owner, which means that a readership could already have been established. Secondly, football opinion is a very social subject, if a reader finds they agree or disagree they are likely to post your blog on their own personal social media thus increasing the blog’s reach. Also, as this is the blog of predominately one football fan you also need to consider whether their own personal social media pages were used rather than using a business account.
It’s very unlikely that your business will be as lucky as this blog without utilizing some form of social media – especially in a day-and-age where a high percentage of the adults actively use social media. Even the older generations are getting involved with 49% of adults online aged 65 or over using social media too, making social media marketing relevant to all ages.
Social Media Wouldn’t Work for my Business
A lack of social media compatibility is a common misconception in start-ups. Yes, perhaps a vending machine company would gain very little from a Facebook page, but it’s all about choosing the correct social media platform for your business.
If you are predominantly B2B or an entrepreneur, LinkedIn or Twitter are very useful social media platforms. Twitter especially has many local business communities who will champion other businesses to their own followers. LinkedIn is a great tool to open communications with other business owners too. Take the vending machine example, you could cold-call a local business and not get past the receptionist or you could connect with the actual owner on LinkedIn – it might just gain you a sales lead.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are suited to very visual businesses. Perfect for restaurants to post photographs of meals, product-based companies to showcase what they sell in video or photograph form and for any business to build up a brand personality.
Take Jack Monroe, who has made a very successful budget recipe website through blogging about hunger relief, poverty and her journey coming out as non-binary transgender. By having such a personality on Facebook, which people shared and liked with their friends, Monroe has gained over 60 thousand likes – just imagine how many of these people actively read Monroe’s blog and from that purchase her recipe books.
Entrepreneur Gini Trapani, one of the top 10 highest earning bloggers, is another example, founder of Lifehacker her business was perfect for the Facebook market due to its shareable content. She now has over 2 million likes on her page due to successful use of social media.
Inspired? Get Researching and Planning
Now that you know social media is essential for your startup and blog readership, you should begin by creating your own social media strategy. This will outline your goals – whether that be increased sales, a customer service platform or creating brand personality – and allow you to match your target audience with the most suited social media platform.
Always remember that social media is fun, and at its core, social. Use your new social media page to engage and get to know your target audience. It will do your business wonders.