Should A Blogger Focus On Social Media? (Hint: No!)

Is Blogging and Social Media Inter-Connected?

So, you are a blogger. Are wondering now that since you have started your blog, should you start interacting with social media?

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Well, the answer to whether you should focus on social media isn’t as easy as the title of this post (It was just to entice you to click on this post!). Well, in this article, I shall provide you with an in-depth and complete answer to the interconnection between blogging and social media and whether you should focus on it or not. I shall also put in my experience and stuff from certain books regarding this topic.

But, long answer short; No. Social media shouldn’t be a blogger’s focus.

If you have been blogging for some time, unless you are ignorant or are living under a rock, I presume you have heard of SEO (God! I am going to lose my social media followers after they read this guest post!). SEO, short for Search Engine Optimisation is how you rank in Google and other search engines (Who cares about other search engines?).

SEO is how you get attention and Social Media is how you keep it.

The above sentence is a quote I found on Instagram (I forgot who made the quote!). But, according to this quote, social media does get portrayed as a very prominent feature for a blogger. It showcases that social media is the means by which a blogger can keep his brand awareness.

But wait. Is that entirely true?

Social media is great for brand awareness, but should it concern you? And, is it the main weapon bloggers have to brand their blogs?

Nope.

SEO is what you should focus on. SEO gives a much higher ROI (return on investment) than social media.

Why? Well, frankly because if you are a no-name blogger, your posts shall get viewed only by your friends if you post them on your social media accounts. But one guest post, that gets selected on a high authority website like Shoutmeloud or QuickSprout can bring you loads of traffic to your website for days on end. When I started blogging, as soon as I started guest posting, my daily audience jumped from 50 to 1000 just by landing some guest posts. And that’s why guest posting is the most important strategy, that I follow for WinSavvy, a blog on entrepreneurship, blogging, marketing, and improving oneself.

Which is better? You choose.

Obviously, I look kind of a no-life social media antagonist in my rant above. So let’s get in-depth about social media in the life of a blogger.

Let me be upfront. I am a very ROI, concerned guy. I think of ROI in everything I do. Every minute I spend doing something, I think of the return I’ll be getting out of it. And doing so, I have found social media not very rewarding for the time I spend on it.

Plus, it’s very addictive. So, it can suck out a much higher portion of your time than that you need to share your blog content. Now, if you are already a person with thousands of followers, by all means, use social media to spread your blog’s awareness.

But, if you are like most of us, who want to start out, it isn’t worth it. This is because, first you need an audience for your blog’s content, and that too, is a targetted audience. So, you first need to know the hacks and strategies behind the social media platform that you are using. You also need to know how you can increase your post’s engagement rate.

And then you need to put them into practice, which is again an arduous process. But you may argue that SEO isn’t as arduous as social media.

Honestly, it isn’t. You may attempt to write a guest post for Entrepreneur and get rejected 20 times but when you get selected, man, it is worth it! SEO may be difficult but the benefits are too enormous. The ROI is much larger compared to social media.

But, then is blogging even possible without social media?

With all the blog posts out there that try to push you in the direction of social media, you may find this post quite against the common advice. But then again, I am not saying that social media is without benefits. I am saying the time spent on social media is spent on SEO will return you with much greater rewards.

So, Adhip, are you on social media?

I am.

On all four major platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Wow! I don’t practice what I preach, do I? Well, wait a second before you think of me as a liar preaching nonsense. Check out my Facebook profile and you will see that the last time I posted was in the Neolithic era. As for my LinkedIn profile, I created it because I had to submit a LinkedIn URL to LifeHack when I was requesting them for an opportunity to guest post on their website.

And regarding my Twitter and Instagram accounts, I created them just two months back in order to research these platforms on how to bag followers fast as hell for an upcoming post on my website or as a guest post at some website (Follow me on Twitter and Instagram in order to stay updated on all my posts everywhere!)

There is also another reason why you should be aware of social media. And that is, it throws a lot of distraction at you. As a part-time blogger, you need to juggle your time on blogs along with your other job and/or other commitments. Take it from me, Even if you plan your time on social media, they take a chunk of your time. Plus you risk thinning out on too many commitments at once.

As Cal Newport in his bestselling book “Deep Work” says, social media reduces a person’s capability to reach flow state and commit to deep work which requires intense focus.

As my experiment has been running for two months now, I can understand how time-consuming it is to focus on social media properly. I am rendered unable to blog daily, which was previously one of my daily commitments.

If you just started blogging, or in other words, if your blog has a domain authority of less than 30, I wouldn’t recommend focusing on social media for your blog unless you already have the following base above 1000.

And if you are a seasoned veteran blogger, who wants more traffic, then social media is for you.

That said, right now, I am working on the effectiveness of guest posts on social media, to connect with me on Twitter and Instagram and render my experiment successful! (Blatant self-promotion!)