Should I Worry For My Blog, Given the Rise of Social Publishing?

There’s no denying the rise of publishing directly on the major social media platforms. Just consider that:

• Facebook launched Instant Articles last fall to a group of mainstream consumer publications and will be rolling it out to all publishers April 12^th at the F8 Conference. Instant Articles displays the publisher’s owned media and displays it on this Facebook platform.
• LinkedIn launched its long form publishing capabilities in 2014. As of June 2015, approximately 130,000 such posts are generated weekly on the platform. You may have even published a few articles yourself.
• Rumors about long-form tweets (10,000 characters vs. the standard 140) on Twitter started in January. That character count is roughly the equivalent of a blog article.

The not-so-transparent motive for social networks to feature these capabilities is to help keep their users on those sites, rather than bouncing in and out of them (and particularly for Facebook, potential for ad revenue). This is an advantage for users as well, since it makes the overall experience more streamlined.

The appeal for publishers is that the native content they publish in this way stands to gain more exposure than on their own website. However, the downfall for these publishers is that when the content “lives” on the social site traffic to the publishers’ own sites will ultimately decrease and the potential for conversions and additional site interaction wanes.

So, as a B2B marketer, you’re probably thinking: “That’s all interesting and everything, but what does that mean for me and my blogging efforts? Is it time to give it up and just focus on social sharing?”

Implications for B2B Blogs

What the rise of the social publishing doesn’t mean is that you “hurry up and change everything!” What it does mean is that you need to keep abreast of the trend and, for the time being, maintain a bit of status quo.

“What? What do you mean maintain the status quo?”  

What I mean is that organic search will continue to be a “thing” and your blog is a major way for your business to be found online. Plus, you need content to share on social platforms—and you’re creating it for your blog anyway so you may as well take advantage of it. Consequently, you need to continue to pursue best practices when it comes to planning, writing, and publishing your business blog and subsequently sharing it on social media. These include:

Content Planning and Development

If your content isn’t quality, it’s not worth publishing—on any platform. Maintain your focus on the needs your buyers have during their journey through the marketing and sales processes. That way you’ll develop helpful, pertinent and evergreen articles that match your targets’ searches and will catch their attention when shared or published on social. Plus this will help you to position yourself as an industry/thought leader.

Content Publishing

Publishing consistently is a must. Not only is it the best way to develop an audience, but you’ll develop a repository of knowledge for the long-term. (Remember, HubSpot has stated that as much as 70 percent of its traffic each month was generated from previously posted articles.) This principle applies regardless of whether it’s on your business blog or a social publishing platform.

While the trend for social publishing platforms will continue to grow and evolve, it’s important to not freak out. Keep yourself informed and educated about the changes, and switch your strategy away from your business blogging. After all, it’s still the engine that helps drive your online strategy.

Content Sharing

Sharing or publishing your content on different social channels will help you expand your audience beyond your blog as long as you keep the following tips in mind:

• Understand the type(s) of content that will work for your LinkedIn audience, which will be a bit different from your Facebook audience.
• For LinkedIn:
  • Make sure that you have relevant staff members from your company share articles in targeted LinkedIn groups and encourage them to continuously work to grow their networks.
  • Include a targeted keyword phrase or something synonymous in your opening sentence to aid in search.
  • Formatting: use lively, appealing images, include headings to break up text and make it easier to read, include hyperlinks to external data sources (as appropriate), add a CTA image and link it to a landing page to encourage continuation of the “conversation.”
  • If you’re repurposing/republishing a previously published blog, make sure to give credit to the original source and link back to it so search engines know which one to prioritize and index for search. Use something like “This article was previously published on (insert blog name and link).
    

• For Facebook:
  • If Facebook is appropriate for your business, remember that it’s more of a place to create two-way conversations, so use blog content that fits that behavior and may connect a bit more with your potential customers’ personal nature.
  • Also keep in mind that this content should be more “awareness” oriented, so gaining solid leads directly from this platform is a little tougher, so it’s better to think of it as a way to fill the top of your funnel.

While the trend for social publishing platforms will continue to grow and evolve, it’s important to not freak out. Keep yourself informed and educated about the changes, and switch your strategy away from your business blogging. After all, it’s still the engine that helps drive your online strategy.