Why You Can’t Fully Rely on Social Media for Your Blog

Hey there! Today I want to talk about the reliability of social media for blog traffic. Social media should be an integral part of your blog marketing strategy. However, you should not put all of your eggs into one basket meaning just social media, or worse just one social media platform!

Social media should be a piece of your blog/content marketing strategy, but it shouldn’t be the end all be all for you. I know what you’re thinking, I spread myself across multiple platforms, I’m not relying on just one. But the thing is all of these social media companies are all private business. You’re subject to their terms and conditions, and if they block you or your site from their platform then that’s it. They can do that! Now, that is a worst-case scenario, but it’s something you should be aware of.

I’m not telling you this to steer you away from social media, I just want you to make sure you’re also investing your time, and money, into something that isn’t going to just up and disappear or mark your blog as spam, therefore, tanking your traffic.

What’s wrong with social media?

So, as I mentioned, there’s nothing wrong with using social media in your marketing strategy. Social media is actually a great place to share your posts and help grow your traffic. It’s also a good place to build a community. The only thing is, you don’t own any of the social media sites that you’re sharing your posts to, or building your community on. Whatever social media site can shut you down, or shut your group down, with little or no notice. Or, they can mark your site as spam and block your links.

There have been stories of bloggers having their links marked as spam, whether it’s by Pinterest themselves or someone marking their blog as spam. When that happens, it’s hard to get them to unblock your site, but it is possible. Support is hard to come by with these big social media sites when things like this happen, you’re really at their mercy. So it’s important to make sure you’re on the up-and-up with them and following their terms of service.

What should I be doing then?

One thing that you should be doing outside of social media is curating an email list. To start your email list, you’ll want to create an opt-in freebie on your blog and have a place for someone to leave their email in exchange for your freebie. I know what you’re probably thinking, but I have to use a company to store these emails for me, don’t I? Yes, yes you do, but you can download those emails from your email service provider so you have them and can upload them to another provider if you need to. So, you own your email list.

These people signed up because they like what you have to offer, and you have a direct way to send information, blog posts, sales, new products, etc to them because they want to hear that from you. They like you and what you have to offer. But, you have to nurture and care for your email list. You can’t just email them when you have something to sell, because nobody wants to just be sold to. You have to provide them free and valuable information so you can build trust with them, and then when you build that trust they’ll be more likely to buy from you.

Final Thoughts…

Social media is not the enemy, I use and love social media for sharing blog posts and updates with Creatively Lauren. But, I’ve also learned recently that it’s very important to build an email list. Social media can leave us at any minute, can change the rules on us, and we’re at the mercy of the algorithm. With an email list, you’re in control with what you send, you communicate directly with your audience, and you own that list. It’s yours, period. So, make sure you’re putting time into creating an email list as well as share your posts on social media.

Let’s chat in the comments! Do you have an email list? What’s stopping you from starting one?

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