The similarities of blogging and social media

Social media and blogging are surprisingly similar. Another word for Twitter is micro-blogging, which I think is a very apt description. Even though you are restricted to only 140 characters, it is an excellent medium to express yourself in whatever you want to say.

This is also true in the status update fields in Facebook (profiles, pages and groups), LinkedIn and Google+ and any other social media platform that has social updates. When did you last add in a comment into these? It has the advantage that you’re not restricted to only 140 characters as on Twitter, and in some cases your update can be republished on Twitter with a link to see the remainder of your message.

Is socialising networking?

So why should you express yourself on social media? Watching some of my contacts socialise I’ve been fascinated in how well they are doing. In this case I mean online (I’m sure they are equally successful offline). To unimaginative marketing types all this gossip and interaction could be seen as a waste of time, but I see it as networking.

Social networking online is as important as offline networking, and an added plus is that it’s relatively inexpensive. It is immediate, convenient and constant. It should deal with everyday stuff that is happening now: gossip, observations, reports of events, fun and amusing stories – what people want to read or be part of. The more user-friendly social media activity is, the more likely it will become interactive, receive comments and get shared amongst friends. That is what social media, and therefore networking, is all about.

Can you socialise on a blog?

A blog is a more formal element of social media. It is more permanent, steadfast, archival and dependable. Sometimes it doesn’t come across as being immediate, though it certainly can be. The BBC website is a blog that is updated every second, and there are many blogs that have posts published several times a day.

Blogs thrive on new content, as that is what they are designed to do: publish regular updates. They are a fabulous media for self expression, sharing news, exploring a concept, educating its audience, entertaining its readers, publicising a viewpoint, elevating an expertise or describing a business. They provide content that people want to read and become part of, comment and leave feedback, and share on social media so that others can participate too.

The main difference is that you can say so much more on a blog. The space is endless, whether in post or page form. There are no restrictions as to how much content can be published at one time, or over a series of days, weeks, months or more. What cannot be fitted into a website can be continued on a blog. And the style should not be formal, but friendly, informative, conversational and social.

Socialising includes interaction

Blogs also thrive on interaction like social media. They are connected via RSS feeds and the power of links creating traffic back and forth. Posts should encourage readers to leave comments and have buttons that allow sharing content on other social media profiles. And comments are seen as new content by the search engines and are indexed appropriately, keeping the posts alive a little bit longer.

Therefore I like to think of the blog as the hub of social media, as everything comes from it and back to it. Social media can feed traffic to a blog, and posts can be fed to social media. A blog will contain important content that explains the online marketing campaign, whereas social media will act as a draw and direct prospective clients to the blog or special webpage where the business transaction can take place.

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About the author:
Alice Elliott is a online marketer and blogger, who runs the Fairy Blog Mother, an educational website resource that trains, explains and creates awareness about blogs. Find out what she can offer you regarding blogs and online marketing at http://fairyblogmother.co.uk