5 Reasons Why Blogs Still Rock

The humble blog is often left in the shadow of glamorous, sexy social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, however, the power of the blog should never be forgotten. Why? Well read on to find out.

1 – A blog offers you full control

Control, remember that? You don’t have full control on Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube. Those networks hold your user data, some of them allow users to comment without you seeing it first and they can disrupt things whenever they feel like it. That can be nasty. With a blog, you control the content, comments and you can easily open up opportunities to engage with your readers outside of the blog via email subscriptions. You decide when your interface changes, what new features will be added and how the whole thing looks. No brainer.

2 – A blog will add some serious fuel to your search engine footprint

No social network can match the SEO power of a blog. By writing relevant content with strong SEO basics in place (custom URLs, titles, meta descriptions and keywords) you can begin to make a dent on the search engine rankings. This doesn’t only apply to copy, images and videos you include within posts can also be indexed. That all sounds very simple and easy right? Its not rocket surgery, but there are many techniques and rules to consider. For the best advice and SEO news, get reading the SEO Moz blog.

3 – The comments section of a blog can be engagement gold

Interacting with people on a Facebook Page or Twitter can be a little bumpy at times. The comment section of your blog allows you to spark a coversation/debate, add your point of view and allow your readers to have a chat among themselves. The comments are always there for everyone to see, creating a great legacy for your blog. Take the time to answer comments and you will get a great response.

4 – You make the rules

Ever tried to run a competition on Facebook? Don’t even think about it without using an app. On many of the networks you have a strict set of rules to follow. Not on a blog. It’s your space to do with what you please (within reason). Take that flexibility and thrive on it.

5 – A blog is your social hub

No other social platform allows you to share flexible and long form content like a blog. It gives you a place to direct your customers and prospects to at all times and from many places, from social networks to email. And of course, by using social sharing buttons you can enable your blog audience to share your content back out to numerous outposts.

So there you have it, five reasons that blogs still deserve some serious love. What are your favourite things about blogs? Are you using one or considering one for your business?

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http://sproutsocial.com Brittany at Sprout Social

I think you certainly covered the most important points, Mike! Blogs are excellent for SEO and sharing ideas/knowledge in a longer form, instead of in 140 characters or less. The only other thing I’d add would be that a blog is another great place to show your (potential) clients your personality and demonstrate what sets you apart from the competition.

http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

Great point! A real shop window for all.

http://twitter.com/MarcHindley Marc Hindley

Great blog Mike, social media gets all the press, but if you’re doing social media correctly, it will be sending traffic to your blog (the hub), and if I can add one more thing, the blog is infinitely more measurable, and so in turn gives you much more statistical feedback than social media ever can, and when you’re blogging for business, stats are worth their weight in web-gold.

http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

Thanks Marc, of course you must not forget that a blog is absolutely social media, just very different to the networks etc. Love the point about measurement, the data you get back from the like of Google Analytics re your blog is so valuable and can go a long way to telling you what content is really resonating with your audience, which can then be applied across your social activities.

http://www.mynotetakingnerd.com/blog Lewis LaLanne aka Nerd #2

My favorite is #4 – “My house, my rules”. Makes me think of Eddie Murphy’s shtick about his drunken dad that he did in his “Delirious” stand up comedy special . . . “Thisss ithss mah househ, Eddie!” Hahaha I have loved making the rules at my blog house!

http://about.me/mikemcgrail/ Mike McGrail

Hi Lewis,

Thanks for reading and thanks for the comment. Now this is my house, beat it!

All the best!

Mike