Do you remember Myspace and Bebo? They were huge social media platforms in their day but have since become largely obsolete. In fact, Bebo no longer exists! And while that’s not to say that you should never post on social media because one day Facebook or Insta might topple and fall from the face of the earth; it does reinforce the importance of having a primary content hub that you own outright.
Not convinced? Read on and we’ll highlight the importance of having a main content hub on your very own digital real estate…
What is classed as ‘digital real estate that you own’?
By digital real estate, we are referring to a web domain that you own outright (i.e., your business website). And while you likely already have a website, how much in the way of content do you have on your blog? Are you utilizing it to its full advantage?
We’ll go into this in greater detail shortly, but first, let’s go through a few reasons why making your business website and blog your primary content hub is so important…
1. Social media isn’t ‘free’
While technically speaking, social media is free for everyone to use, in order for businesses to get the most out of each platform, they need to be prepared to spend a little money.
Gone are the days when creating a Facebook post had the potential to reach tens of thousands of users without spending a penny.
Sure, you could well create a piece of content that happens to go viral, but the chances are very slim – and even then, most viral posts will likely have had some form of initial paid boosting in order to get the ball rolling.
Yes, you can start a social media account for free and develop something of a following, but in order to reach your true potential and maintain high volumes of interaction, you will need to invest your money in paid advertising.
By default, you will likely only be able to reach some 5% of your audience on social media organically. As for the other 95%, you’re going to need to get the wallet out!
Again, this does not mean that there is no value in posting on social media. There is a tremendous amount of value in being active on social media and investing in a paid strategy. However, the point is that you should not put all of your eggs into one basket…
Related: Best AI Marketing Tools 2023: Know How to Automate with AI.
2. Having your own content hub encourages organic traffic
In the long run, if you are consistently posting awesome and high-value content on your blog, you’ll invariably attract more organic visitors online.
When someone does a Google search, they aren’t going to find your Tweets or Facebook statuses coming up at #1. However, if you do your keyword research, understand the intent behind those focus keywords, and build in-depth content around those keywords, your blog will be far more likely to show up in a SERP (search engine results page).
Of course, that is oversimplifying SEO tremendously. It takes so much more than simply writing awesome content:
- Your website must be optimized accordingly.
- Your technical SEO and website performance must be on point.
- You’ll need a solid backlink profile.
- (To name a few).
However, if you commit to a proper SEO campaign and remain consistent in your content creation, you will invariably get more organic traffic to your website – much more than you would by simply posting on social media without paying for boosted ads.
3. You can significantly improve your brand awareness online
Look at developing content for your primary content hub as an investment in the future of your brand. Just as you will invariably attract more organic traffic, you are also increasing the “searchability” of your website as well. The more content you produce (high-value of course), the more likely your brand name is to show up online.
In fact, some businesses can Google their business name to this day and will not show up on the first page of Google. This stands testament to the importance of creating and sharing content on your blog consistently; to establish your brand awareness.
4. Google encourages the creation of fresh content
“Let your ideas flow freely like a river, as Google eagerly awaits to quench its thirst for originality and freshness.” – as astonishingly quoted by Mez Homayunfard, the co-founder and the head of partnerships & sales of onlinemarketinggurus.sg, in his recent article.
If you don’t create fresh content for your blog and website, your rankings will stagnate. You’ll never climb the SERPs and overtake your biggest competitors if you create three or four blog posts and then give up.
The key is to be consistent and to continually create fresh and relevant content for your audience to engage with. The more you create, the greater the chance of Google rewarding your efforts with more visibility.
5. You have TOTAL control over the user experience
You do not own your social media profiles outright and you have to work within their rules and parameters. However, when working with your own website and blog, you have total control over the user experience, from start to finish.
If you are a bit of a control freak like me and wish to have total autonomy over the content that you create, you’ll have no issues when publishing articles on your own turf!
That and some social media platforms (as great as they are) can feel a little restrictive in terms of UX and accessibility. With your own website, however, you can utilize everything at your disposal to create a highly accessible and intuitive on-page experience.
See also: Artificial Intelligence in PR and Marketing: The Future Trends.
6. Social media can be restrictive with language use and subject matter
While I imagine you aren’t regularly using foul language in your social media posts or creating in-depth analyses of the most controversial topics of our modern time, it doesn’t change the fact that social media can be very restrictive in terms of what you talk about and how you talk about it.
In most cases, so long as you have a solid social media strategy, you understand your audience, and you play by the rules, you won’t run into any problems. However, the top social media platforms can change the rules at any time which means that there’s always a slight chance that you could accidentally violate them and end up with a suspension – or even a lifetime ban from the platform.
Again, this really is not the be-all and end-all, however, it does highlight the importance of having a central hub for your content that is entirely in your control.
7. “All roads lead to Rome”
We are definitely using the age-old saying in the wrong context, but it sounds awesome, right?
What we mean by this is that having a central hub for your content creation is great because you can direct all of your social media followers to one rental location.
More and more business owners are opting to use social media alone and neglect to have a website built. This is a mistake. Sure, it is a viable enough short-term solution while they get things up and running, but every business should have a website and it is as simple as that.
That way, even if you have an Instagram store/checkout, your users can still head over to your website to confirm your authenticity. And when they find a blog post filled with dozens and dozens of high-value, long-form content, they’ll feel far more confident making a purchase.
8. If all else fails…
Finally, if in the highly unlikely (but entirely plausible) event that all your social media accounts get shut down – or the platforms tumble – you’ll still have a solid central foundation to rely upon, your very own digital real estate.
Think of your website like an Octopus and your social media profiles as being its many limbs. If one of those limbs happens to be lopped off, not only will the Octopus survive, but over time, that limb will grow back.
Get it?
Related: Which Digital Marketing Methods Work Best Together and Why?
Final thoughts
And that about sums it up! If you have a website and a blog that you haven’t used much yet, now is the time to get posting.
Develop a content creation strategy and start populating your blog with industry-relevant, high-value content that your audience will love.
The best part? For every blog post you create, you can repurpose it into a multitude of different social media posts. For example:
- Write a blog post.
- Share the blog post on your Facebook page.
- Turn each key point in the blog post into Tweets.
- Screenshot those Tweets and make an Insta carousel.
- Transcribe the blog post into a podcast for YouTube.
- And so on…
This is a highly effective way to not only never run out of social media content ideas, but to ensure that all your efforts are recorded and saved in a central location that you own.
Remember; the key takeaway from this article is not to give up on social media. In fact, we highly recommend that you invest in social media advertising services. Just make sure that your main priority is to optimize your website for SEO and create regular content to share on your blog.
Safeguard the future of your business and treat your website like your main fortress, with your social media profiles being the outposts.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
