To blog or not to blog? Earlier this year, I wrote that business blogging is something that is here to stay and only grow. However, it is important to take into account that the traditional definition of a blog just won't do justice. It's important to peel back the definition of the blog to truly understand why I think it is only going to become more relevant.
My definition of blogging is simply the publishing of digital content. I see it as a verb or something that you do rather than a noun. The content can be audio, video, written or even an image. The argument against business blogging is that it is seen as just publishing a post with 1,000 words on Blogger or WordPress. That is a mistake which is also refuted by Gary Vaynerchuk. Here's some “out of the box” examples of business blogging.
- Publishing a blog post about digital marketing on LinkedIn Pulse
- Posting a short testimonial from a client on Snapchat
- Tweeting a motivational quote with a hashtag on Twitter
- Pinning a recipe on Pinterest
- Recording an interview on Blab and posting it on your podcast and YouTube channel
It's a different mindset but it is important to try and change your mindset to strategizing. Often this means owning your content just like you own your business instead of renting that content out on these other platforms in order to reach specific audiences. As Gary Vee always says, it's important to understand how to “blog” or “speak the language” on the native sites because while it's good to post on platforms like LinkedIn, Medium or Facebook (e.g. Instant Articles), you don't actually own that platform. You are renting space.
While it typically varies on each post, I personally prefer to post on a dedicated blog with a domain I “own” and then repost with attribution on other sites like LinkedIn or even Medium. The attribution is important not just for transparency but even for search engines which “ding” sites for duplicate content. However, it's not a bad thing to post content natively on a site or to guest post with original content. Just remember what you are doing. Even in these occasions, I will usually post back to my site and other platforms.
I believe that setting up and managing a blog is the single most important part to your marketing strategy. However, it's important to understand exactly what blogging is and leverage the other platforms and sites for their strengths.