HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

The Importance of Owning Your Content Real Estate

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Social Media  |  Marketing  |  Facebook  |  Corporate blogging

real_estate.jpgLate last week I posted Facebook Live Is Great for Real Time Content Marketing. Soon after, Gerard Vroomen who is founder of the mountain bike company Open Cycle started an interesting discussion in the comments section of the blog post. Gerard rightly pointed out that a service like Facebook Live has a fatal flaw—you do not own the real estate. Check out the discussion in the comments.

All of the social networks provide ways to connect with people and to create content. That’s great. But when you do, you have to remember that people are going to your content on those social networks’ real estate. You don’t own that. The social network controls the look and feel, the ads shown, and the people there.

Your blog as your front door

I recommend that any good content strategy includes a great content-rich website with valuable content delivered with a minimum of registration. I also highly recommend a blog for real-time content updates.

Blogging is a great front door for any individual or organization because it is real estate on the web that you can own. If you use a content tool like HubSpot or WordPress and have your own domain URL, your blog is yours. Search engine traffic goes to you. You control the design and the content. You can create a blog that showcases your brand. Contrast that with social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and G+. All are good, but you will never control the branding nor own your real estate there.

Blogging is my front door. Since 2004, my blog has been where I post my ideas, both big and small. There's no doubt that my blog is the most important marketing and PR tool I have as a professional speaker, writer, and advisor to companies. Even after more than a decade and well over a thousand blog posts, I'm always surprised at how effectively this tool helps me accomplish my goals.

There are many posts I wrote a decade ago, back when George W. Bush was President, that are still indexed highly by the search engines and are still driving people who do not know me into my content. Some of those people might buy one of my books, or participate one of my online programs, or hire me to speak.

That’s nearly impossible with content that is several years old on a social network like Facebook. 

Blogs to help sell products and services

For a great example of a blog to showcase a company's products and services, check out what Gerard and his partner Andy are doing over at the Open Cycle blog. I started reading their thoughts when they founded the company several years ago and about a year later, I purchased a bike from them. All from the blog!

In my case, my blog allows me to push ideas into the marketplace as I think of them, generating instant feedback. Sure, many blog posts just sit there with little feedback, few comments, and no results. But I learn from these failures, too; when my audience doesn't get excited about something, it's probably either a dumb idea or poorly explained. On the other hand, some posts have had truly phenomenal results, quite literally changing my business in the process. I'll admit that my ravings about the importance of my blog may sound over the top. But the truth is that blogging really has changed my life.

Hopefully blogging will change your life too.