Is Blogging Still Relevant in 2018?

How many times have you tried blogging? Don’t be surprised to learn that, even if you’ve tried more than once, or 17 times, you’re far from being alone. And that inability for most of us maintain a blog for any length of time is one of the reasons why we wonder whether blogging is still relevant for content marketing today.

Blogging isn’t easy. The first strike against it is the thought of writing. Does anyone spring out of bed in the morning spurred on by the thought that they’re going to research and write a 1,000-word blog post?

Other regular blogging gripes include finding topics to write about, finding enough time to post regularly, and a nagging sense that your writing sucks and no one’s reading anyway.

When you compare the ease and speed of using other types of online content, like quickly uploading images to Instagram, videos to Youtube and the simplicity of a tweet – not to mention the often immediate feedback you get when you do – who can blame anyone for thinking that blogging is obsolete?

Anyone Who Knows Anything About Content Marketing

There are lots of reasons why blogging is still very relevant, even essential for digital marketing and content marketing in 2018 and the foreseeable future.

One of them is that it remains the most successful content format on the web. Rand Fishkin at moz.com lists 10 Types of Content that Work Best for SEO, and written content occupies the top three positions, with ‘Blog Posts’ firmly perched at the top of the list.

We could wrap up this post on that point alone. Clearly blogging is relevant, at least for SEO.

But blogging rules many other parts of content marketing too.

Interestingly, the same aspect of blogging that makes it perfect for SEO, also makes it an ideal base for a successful content marketing program.

Blog posts are the purest form of online content.

What do we mean by that? Primarily, the written word is still the easiest content for Google to read, index and rank. While facial and object recognition in images and videos might make them more ‘readable’ by search engines, they’re along way away from the speed and ease of understanding the written word.

And blogging is ‘pure’ in another sense too. Many other content platforms, including image-based social media like Instagram and Snapchat, and video, let you filter your content.

You can run your Instagram photos through one or more of dozens of filters that make everyone’s images look amazing, but with an odd similarity. Snapchat lenses can make you look like a cute bunny, but what are you really showing? As Bruce Springsteen crooned in his kitchen, “is that you baby, or just a brilliant disguise?”.

But you can’t ‘filter’ a blog post. While you might wish you could, the fact that you can’t gives you an incredible opportunity to be yourself. And that’s what sets you apart from everyone else. (Check below under “Branding” for more on the significance of this.)

5 More Reasons Why Blogging is Still Relevant

If you’re still not convinced of the relevance of blogging in 2018, consider these:

1. Blogs are a Great Source of Content for Social Media Channels – Regardless of what we conclude here today, other content platforms will still be easier to use. Still, there are those times where you find yourself stuck for something to tweet or post. A single blog post can fuel a virtually endless stream of tweets, FB posts, LinkedIn updates and even complement Instagram and Snapchat posts.
2. Branding Reinforcement – Further to the ‘purity’ point of blogging we mentioned above, blogging gives you one of the best opportunities to demonstrate what you claim your brand to be. You can literally tell the story of your brand through your blog.
3. Gives You Credibility & Trust – When you post pertinent and useful information to your blog, customers see you as more than just a marketing entity trying to sell them something. Your blog content becomes part of your unique value proposition.
4. Get to Know What Your Customers Really Want – As you watch which blog posts get more or less attention, you get a better idea of what your customers are looking for, and what you should give them.
5. Stay Ahead of the Competition – There are two reasons to start a blog right now. If your competition isn’t blogging, you have a golden opportunity to leapfrog them and you should seize it asap. If your competition is blogging, the longer you wait to start your own blog, the more catching up you’ll have to do.

My profile here at nvision says I’ve written thousands of blog posts. I’m going to go with that and invite you to get in touch if you have any questions about blogging or need help to get one started.