There’s no secret that social media has such a power influence in our everyday lives. It’s the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning, throughout the day and before I go to bed at night. I’ve learned that many top influencers use particular platforms, such as YouTube or Instagram as their primary source without having a blog website. There was a time when I thought all influencers started out with having a blog and then decided to use their social media to highlight content from it. However, this is not necessarily the case with many of the influencers. Some never even started blogs as they rely heavily on social media for their way of life, especially when it comes to income.
I’ve been blogging since 2016 and been loving it ever since. I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without my blog. Besides, it’s my baby! You guys wouldn’t know Kiki Style Diary on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook without learning about me on the blog first. I started out building a connection with my readers directly here on the blog before I became consistently active on social media. Having a blog is so important as an influencer because it’s something that is yours and can call your own. What many people fail to realize is that we don’t own any of these social media platforms. The very moment any of them shut down, it’s a wrap for your existence or even your business.
Remember the era of Myspace? If you’re not sure what Myspace is, it was a very popular social networking site that ran from 2004 -2008. The site came out a little before or around the same time Facebook. Myspace gave users the ability to open profile pages to personalize, write blog posts, connect with others through comments, messaging and streamed music of their own or that of their favorite musicians. Facebook became Myspace’s primary competitor and as more users became more gravitated to Facebook. Users started losing interest in Myspace and discontinued their use of the site all together. Myspace failed and eventually had shut down.
Can you imagine all that work that was put in by artists, writers and musicians from this platform? And it was shut down just like that. That’s why it’s important to have your own blog platform because you never have to worry about situations like that. Especially if you’re paying for something that is personally yours. I want to give some brief points about the positives of having your own blog website platform and the downsides of depending on social media platforms as a primary source….
Positives of having your own blog website platform
- You own it and it’s yours! No one can take it away from you.
- You have the freedom to do what you want and customize it any way you like.
- Building a trust with your audience as they will always know where to find you and want to reach out to you directly.
- It can become your online portfolio highligting your skills and talent. I’ve had people reach out to me letting me know they first learned about me here on the blog and have expressed they absolutely love what I do. That makes me so happy to hear.
Downsides of depending on social media platforms as a primary source
- It’s their rules! Their place and you’re just basically a guest using their platform. You don’t own the rights to anything.
- There is always constant changes that you make not like, such as the algorithm situation which has many annoyed at this point.
- Always problems with social media such as getting hacked or having bugs. It can be a bit stressful, especially if you depend on it for everything.
- It can shut down at anytime. If YouTube, Instagram or Twitter decided to want to shut down today, you would lose everything you posted and work so hard for. That would be terrible!
In conclusion, having a blog as an influencer is so important because it’s something that’s yours personally. On social media, it’s like your renting a small space in a gigantic shopping mall to advertise your brand, while your blog it’s like owning the entire shopping mall building. Do you see the difference? So I highly recommend starting a blog if you haven’t already. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but at least you have a back up in case social media fails.
Start utilizing social media as a tool to highlight your brand and the blog. There is a lot of information out there makes you doubt starting a blog with titles like “Is blogging relevant anymore? Or is it even necessary? I’m here to simply tell you that blogging is definitely relevant and very necessary! Let me know in the comments if you have your own blog platform or do you depend on primarily on social media as an influencer?
SHOP MY OUTFIT IN THE POST
XOXO