Last week, Buffer’s Kevan Lee admitted that he had failed at social media marketing and that the team still had to “figure out how to get things working on Facebook (especially), Twitter, Pinterest, and more.”
But it’s not all. The stunner came in the form of this statement: “Almost half as many people find our blog from social media as last year at this same time.”
If you haven’t read the article, do it now. You will love the honesty and transparency, which are trademarks of the Buffer team. And the comment section is full of great insights.
Buffer is not the only company to have noticed a sharp decline in social media referral traffic and engagement. Actually, many business owners, social media pros, and marketers will tell you the same thing about their blogs.
Does it mean that blogging is dead? Not really.
People are just overwhelmed because:
- There is too much content available, *especially low-quality content*. According to MarketingProfs, 2 million blog posts are published every single day!
- Posts are also getting too long. Bloggers seem obsessed with two phrases: “in depth” and “top 100 (or more) lists“.
- We try to speak to too many readers at the same time. The tone doesn’t feel as personal as it used to be.
And let’s call a spade a spade. Our infatuation with numbers (of followers, social shares, etc.) has become almost pathological. “People need to have at least 100,000 followers to be able to contribute to our platform. How can we measure someone’s influence otherwise,” someone told me a couple of weeks ago.
Neil Patel and Buffer have some of the best blogs out there. The problem is that you need 20 to 30 minutes to read and digest each one of their posts.
Wanting your audience to have the most detailed information possible is definitely the right approach. But you must deliver it in a way that makes sense to them.
Instead of writing 5,000-word posts, create mini-series. Breaking down the content into several parts means two things:
- You don’t have to come up with new ideas as often.
- You can still publish with the same frequency.
The result?
- You will build momentum and loyalty.
- You will have more time to engage with people.
- Your shorter pieces are more likely to be shared by a larger group of people.
Yes, Google Search matters. You want your content to rank highly in result pages.
But, you also want more than visitors. You need subscribers, customers, and advocates.
It won’t happen if people stay away from your content.
NB: I added the content between * * after a very interesting conversation with Danny Brown in the comment section.
