As the instagram influencer rises, the blogger has seemed to take a backseat. Which brings up the question, are blogs dead? This is something that’s being asked often and people seem to answer this question with certainty (people who aren’t bloggers btw) and I honestly kinda want to chuckle a little bit at them. Because no Karen, just because you don’t read blogs, doesn’t mean my “little blog” is useless. My “little blog” makes me money while I sleep!
I wanted to do a full blog post on this because I do think it’s important to bring awareness to it and I think most people who aren’t in the industry have no clue about this. Why blogs are important, why we spend so much time and money on them and why YOU should have one if you’re wanting to get into the influencer space. I’m by no means an expert at any of this. I don’t have crazy high blog readership numbers and I don’t have a crazy high instagram following, but I HAVE seen success in different areas of both! And I’ve even done a lot of things wrong over time! So I want to share from my personal experience.
Instagram vs. A Blog
I’m going to start out by saying I’ve been slacking on the blog for a while now. I have focused more on instagram “influencing” because I’ve been focusing on building a separate portion of my business. I’m honestly still trying to figure out how in the world I’m going to juggle it all and create content for all platforms but through that time I actually saw growth in my blog numbers because I’ve had a few really great posts which have done so well on pinterest and in google searches. But if the reverse happened? My instagram definitely would NOT have grown. Here’s kind of what changed for me…
A couple of years ago I was treating my blog as my #1 and my social media channels just as different avenues to promote my blog posts. As the social media scenery has changed I basically have to treat my instagram as an entirely separate entity, which has been a struggle to get used to. The content I share on instagram, IG stories, IGTV, and even through my feed is it’s own content. And then the blog is it’s own separate content. Sometimes they compliment each other and I do share new blog posts on social, but I do treat them as completely different content. Instagram content is more instant, in the moment, daily content. Blog content is more evergreen (can live on forever), it’s more season focused (versus daily/weekly focused) and is higher searched content. I want the blog to be a place people come to find an answer to a question or a place they can come, read and explore.
So with all that said – here are a few reasons people need BOTH and my response to, are blogs dead?!
Why Blogs are NOT Dead!
Life of Content:
Instagram content lives for a couple days. Blog content can live FOREVER! A post that I wrote and published 3 summers ago is still making me money every single day because people are searching google for that content and google has deemed it a relevant article for that type of content so it favors it when someone searches on google for it! So when you’re taking your sweet time to create content to publish, would you rather it be done and gone in a few days or have the opportunity to live on?
Everyone Still Googles Things:
I do actually use instagram as a resource and a source of inspiration for traveling, shopping and more. BUT when I really want to search the internet for something, I’m definitely going to either search google or pinterest. Not instagram. So if you want the option to be discovered by someone searching for outfits for their body type, this is a great way to be discovered by new readers and followers. Again, I have a lot of new readers who have found some of my posts from google, then found me on instagram and told me they loved my blog post on xyz. Those girls would have never found me on instagram!
You OWN Your Content:
Right now there’s a lot of crazy sh!t going on in the world, in the news and on social media. There are talks of instagram and facebook censoring content. I would hate to say one thing wrong and instagram censor my content to my followers who want to hear what I’m saying?! Instagram can change the algorithm at any time, they can block you, deny you from following and commenting on other accounts, your account can get hacked, there are just so many unknowns at any given time with instagram and all social media. If you have your own site, your own email list, YOU own that. I would hate to build a business on instagram and heaven forbid anything happen to your account.
I honestly don’t know what the future holds for blogging, bloggers & influencers. But I do know that as a consumer I will always look to others for inspiration for outfits, recipes, home decor, trends, etc. And I honestly love finding that on the internet through blogs, instagram and pinterest. Will I personally be a blogger forever? I have no clue, probably not, but I do enjoy it for now. Most of all, I love that I have multiple ways to make an income working for myself via the internet.
If you want to start a blog, please, please, please do not let anyone tell you, blogs are dead! Don’t let someone else’s opinion deter you from doing what you want to do!
If you ever want to chat more about “influencing” or blogging, I’m an open book and always happy to chat more about my journey and how I’ve made this a career for myself! My inbox is always open! xoxo!
