Recently, USA Today published an article revealing that more and more companies are abandoning their blogs in favor of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. According to their statistics, the percentage of companies that maintain blogs went from 50% in 2010 to just 37% in 2011.
Furthermore, only 23% of Fortune 500 companies maintained a blog in 2011. Instead of blogging, these companies are focusing their efforts on Facebook and other social networks.
But why? A number of reasons are given, including:
- It takes more time and effort to blog.
- There are risks with blogging—liability issues, defamation, etc.
- Everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, etc. so it makes sense to be where the customers are.
Why You Need to Keep Your Blog
While I understand the temptation to ditch your blog for Facebook (and Twitter, Google+, etc.), I strongly advise against it. Why?
1) There’s value in long-form content —
How can you expect to establish yourself as a thought leader and a credible industry expert when you’re only posting short updates that are a few sentences long? That’s not the type of content that builds credibility on its own, and it’s not the type of content that has lasting value.
Status updates are fleeting. They get lost in the conversation within minutes.
There is value in the long-form content you can create on your blog. It lets you demonstrate your expertise and gives you more room to spread your messages. Furthermore, blog posts stand the test of time far better than status updates. People reference blog posts for years; status updates…not so much.
2) Social networks are filled with noise —
When you rely solely on Facebook or any other social network for communicating with your audience, you’re in for a huge battle to get their attention. There is so much noise that you have to cut through in order to make your posts stand out.
Think about the way you browse Facebook. How many posts really capture your attention? Probably not all that many.
3) Social networking done right also takes time and effort —
The idea that social media doesn’t require much work is ridiculous and shows a lack of understanding of how complex social media marketing really is. Building an engaged audience, creating quality content, and getting measurable results from Facebook (and other social networks) takes careful planning and a heck of a lot of time and energy.
If you think ditching your blog will make your life much easier,
you’re mistaken or you’re doing it wrong.
4) Your blog is a hub you own —
When you don’t have a blog, you don’t really have a hub to funnel your audience into. Your online presence becomes scattered, making it difficult for you to convert visitors into leads and sales.
Furthermore, you don’t really own the content that you’re posting on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. It’s not your hub; it’s on a third-party site that you don’t really have much control over.
What do you think?
Should companies be ditching their blogs for Facebook?
Why or why not? Share your thoughts by commenting below.
I still believe in the good old blog and would never recommend giving it up in favor of facebook.
I guess those companies who ditched their blogs in favor of facebook are only looking for name or brand recognition. Being actively present in facebook for a considerable time is very effective for brand recognition purposes. But facebook is not the best place to present long content forms like articles or long sales pitches as most facebook users don’t have that much patience or attention span.
And what about future changes that facebook might implement? The only motivation for facebook is to maximize their own monetary returns, not yours. So, the next changes might not necessarily be very helpful to your business. Or, worse, what if a new social site comes along and make facebook go the way of friendster?
I completely agree with you. Relying solely on Facebook (or any other site that you don’t have control over) is incredibly dangerous, plus, like you said, it’s just not suited to the long-form content. It’s all about balance.