Blogging vs social media: Which is best for your business?

Blogging vs social media: Which is best for your business? Business owners often wonder which option is better for their business: blogging vs social media. Blogging and social media can both help you market your business, grow your audience, and attract potential clients. But they serve different purposes. This means you can’t choose between them like pizza toppings: Blogging is the jalapeño that brings fresh hot leads into your world via Google. These are the people you help when they turn to their phones to search their problems and find… your blog posts. Social media is the BBQ base on which you can build a shopfront and community. By sending streams of voice notes in DMs. Engaging every day. And getting your face out there. In an ideal world, you want both of these things working for your business. That said, many entrepreneurs don’t yet have the time or resources to blog and manage their social media. If this is you, we recommend starting with your blog and introducing social media later. Here’s why. Why blogs beat social media Blogging has changed over time. It’s no longer about writing an online journal. Unlike in the early days of the internet, people don’t sit down with a hot cup of tea to read an entire blog post. However, most of us Google our problems. And when we do, we find solutions in blog posts. Those solutions can lead us to work with or hire the business behind the blog post. Many businesses have become savvy about this. Sure, 77% of businesses use social media to connect with their customers. But 80% have a blog as part of their marketing strategy. These businesses have blogs that hand out VIP invites to dream clients in Google search results. Meanwhile, making social media work requires constant engagements and DMs to weed out randomers and find the people you can really help. Whether you’re new to blogging or your blog needs reviving, these juicy tips can help you work some magic. Let’s dive into: Content length. Content lifespan. Posting frequency. How much time you’ll need to invest in blogging vs social media. How quickly you’ll see results. Search engine optimisation. Targeting audiences. Content control. The key takeaways of blogging vs social media. Blogging vs social media: content length Blogging typically involves longer-form written content. Social media often involves shorter-form content. As a result, blogging is better for getting across more detailed information. For instance, if you wanted to write an in-depth guide to email marketing, you’d be better off sharing it on your blog than on social media. Some social media platforms impose character limits, so you’d struggle to convey the depth needed for a comprehensive guide. Longer-form content like blog posts are fantastic for showcasing your expertise. They can also help you stand out amongst industry competitors. Plus, the more wisdom you share with readers, the more likely they are to see you as their go-to source for knowledge and advice. Level up your blogging skills with our fortnightly content tips, sent straight to your inbox. Blogging vs social media: content lifespan You put a lot of effort into creating your content. Ideally, you want that content to reap rewards for as long as possible. Social media posts have a relatively short lifespan. You’ve got: 48 hours for followers to see your Instagram posts. 24 hours for followers to see your LinkedIn posts. 5–6 hours for followers to see your Facebook posts. 15–18 minutes for followers to see your Tweets. This means you’ll have to update your social media more frequently to stay visible. Blog posts have a longer lifespan, making blogging more suitable for long-term growth. Each blog post can appear in Google search results for years, staying relevant and driving traffic over time. Some top-ranking blog posts have sat at the top of Google results since 2001. That’s more than 20 years of lead generation from one blog post. Talk about a great return on investment (ROI). Blogging vs social media: posting frequency We recommend blogging weekly unless your industry has virtually zero competition. This is an easy way to increase web traffic and attract ideal clients. Blogging infrequently will give you minimal ranking opportunities amongst the businesses that are sharing a constant stream of high-quality info. Google won’t consider your blog a source of consistent, high-quality content compared to your competitors’ unless you prove your worth. (And you’re 100% worth it.) While we appreciate that blogging every week can feel a lot, social media best practice is also to post often. According to Hootsuite, the ideal number of times to post on: Twitter is between two and three times per day. Facebook is between one to two times per day. LinkedIn is between one to two times per day. Instagram is between three and five times per week (and twice a day on Instagram Stories). Blogging vs social media: time investment While we love blogging, we’ll be the first to admit that it can take quite a bit of time and effort. When you factor in the time spent researching a topic and writing, editing, and uploading each blog post, it can add up to several hours. That’s a good chunk of your valuable time, especially if you’re blogging once a week. (On average, we spend around three to four hours creating our weekly posts.) Social media posts can be quicker to produce (but not always). The amount of time you spend per post will vary hugely depending on the type of post and platform. For example, you might dash off a Tweet in under five minutes. But it could take you hours to film, edit, and upload an Instagram reel or YouTube video. And it can be disheartening when that video only gets a few views, likes, or comments. It’s also worth considering how posting frequency impacts the overall time you put into blogging vs social media. Social media requires consistent, frequent updates and engagement, whereas you only need to blog…