Many businesses, maybe your own as well, are adopting social media marketing strategies. During this adoption process, you may have learned all about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and many other social networking opportunities that allow you to get your content out in front of a bunch of fans and followers.
Now that you’re all wrapped up in the social media landscape, you haven’t forgotten about your blog, have you?
Shiny New Toys
It’s too easy to forget about your web site and blog once you get caught up in the social media buzz. This can be the result of time constraints or just the excitement factor of trying new things.
Twitter caters to your immediate thoughts, Facebook allows you to put info straight in front of an army of friends and fans. Participating in those networks will get you a lot of attention if you are crafty enough to post content that people love or need.
Once you have the attention of your followers and friends on those networks, you need to bring them back home to your web site to show them what you are all about and that your influence on the subjects you post about goes deeper than just the social networks. Bring them to your web site and convert them into customers.
Web-Presence Anatomy 101
You should approach your web site and blog as though it is your online backbone. The social media outlets are your online arms and legs. In the background behind all your Twitter updates, Facebook interactions and YouTube videos, you should have a constantly updated blog or web site that further positions you as an expert in your field and reinforces all the ideas you tackle on the online social media networks.
Sure, those Twitter posts will get attention, but once people to dig deeper and start clicking through to your web site, what do you have to offer them?
Revisit your blogging strategies to make sure that your web site and blog reinforce everything that you post online. For example, if you are posting a lot of links to your Twitter account about some new widget that just hit the market, provide a backbone for it on your site. Write a lengthy blog post that encompasses all the stuff you know about installing or using the new widget. Write more content for your site about this widget including all its uses and pitfalls, if you are able.
People that are following the buzz for the the new widget on the Internet may be following it because of the links that you are posting on your social media profiles. If they click through to your web site, they should instantly see that you are more of an expert on this new widget than your short posts and links might have even led them to believe. This will further reinforce your position as an expert, and can lead to new customers and clients looking for your services related to this awesome new widget.
Content Control
Your web site has the potential to be around longer than the social networks that you participate in. That’s why you should focus on putting the best of your content on your own web site, and use the social networks to drive people there.
Jump back five years ago. Twitter didn’t exist. Facebook wasn’t an online social force. But people still had blogs and web sites that they constantly added great content to.
Now jump to today. Many of those blogs and sites that were in operation five years ago are probably still in operation today. Those sites, blogs, and companies behind them are probably leveraging social media such as Facebook and Twitter to increase the amount of web site visitors they get and the number of customers they have as a result of their web presence.
Leap five years into the future. Some of those same sites, blogs and companies are still going to be around, but the social network landscape might be vastly different. Facebook and Twitter might still be there, but there might be another big force pushing those two out of the way, who knows? Webmasters might be working out ways to publicize their site through new social networks and ways of interacting with people online. The web sites that had existed throughout all the social media landscape upheavals will be reaping the benefits of several online generations of social media interaction.
Look at the past, present and future. What am I trying to get at? After a social network comes and goes, and you spent a lot of time interacting with it, what are you left with? Take that one step further. After your interest in a social network comes and goes, what are you left with?
Standing the Test of Time
If you’ve been focusing on building your web site and it’s content over the long term, you will more than likely have quite a nice web presence in just your web site alone. You’ll have constantly been posting new content and articles on your site over time. You’ll have been driving people to your site and gathering valuable link-backs to your site due to your social media usage. You’ll still have your web site and all it’s content indexed throughout the search engines and probably many recurring site visitors as a result.
If you’d been focused on using a particular social network all that time, but not growing your web site or using the network to grow your site, you won’t have as big of an advantage moving into the future if the social network goes under, drops off in popularity, or you become disinterested in it.
Don’t forget about your web site or blog. Your unique and insightful content, posted to your own web site, has the potential to outlast all your other online activities.
Absolute Marketing Group can help you work towards your online goals if you need help. We have a Fargo-Moorhead based web design team that can help you do everything you read about on our web site. Contact us today if you need help with your next web project.