Should You Be Rabidly Reposting Blog Content
Should you focus primarily on one place for your content to sit, or let your words break free?
This has to be the most common question I have been asked in the past few months. Reposting blog content, seems to be a popular conversation at the moment.
Lets see if I can answer from my perspective the question of whether to post just for LinkedIn/Medium or still rely on that trusty place called your website.
The Reason For Reposting Blog Content
If you have something to say, you have more choices than ever. It doesn’t have to sit on a section within your website that is called ‘blog.’ There are other sites out there that are as ready as a hover about to go over a carpet full of crisps and raisins.
The crux of this whole argument comes down to a buzzword for this article, reach.
The reason I have this conversation with others starts with “should I now just post on LinkedIn/Medium,” is all to do with more people having the opportunity to see your viewpoint.
All Ready To Tuck In
You may think that the passing traffic to your website is pretty solitary, whereas being visible to thousands of strangers can help with building your brand and message. So far, so good. It asks the question, why have a website when you can publish in a space that has a ready-made audience? Who needs the once holy grail of the ‘about us’ page when the rest of us don’t care anymore?
Not only a ready-made audience, but a fantastic interface. From desktop to mobile, it is seamless over on LinkedIn and Medium. Everything is there ready for you to dive in and the equivalent of someone else laying the beach towels out and the drink is ready for you when you sit on the cushioned sun lounger.
Why keep with your website, when there is a much larger audience ready to consume what you create elsewhere and looking perfect on whatever device the content is consumed?
Even Mitch Joel is putting the case forward for using Facebook Notes, he comments in his recent article, ‘The End Of Blogging’, “What creators of content now have to realise is this: it’s not just what your words say, but where they appear.”
It comes back again to that word, reach.
The Jubilation
The moment when you score a hat-trick from posting on another platform is when the big boys acknowledge it. In LinkedIn’s case, it’s Pulse. An article that is picked up and then shared can create a tidal wave of traffic and comments.
From experience (and being recognised by Pulse), people came for the article on LinkedIn Pulse, they didn’t necessarily come for me. This is one of the reasons why I will sit more comfortably in building a base you own. The people who come by are interested in you, not the social brand.
My answer to “should I now just concentrate purely on LinkedIn/Medium” is NO.
I still believe you can create a base where the premium content sits. Basically I’m trying to elevate it from this word called blog.
You’re Not Here For The Masses
One thing to realise is that you cannot blog for a mass audience. If you do this, then you are completely wasting your time. I define blogging for a mass audience is going for the tried and tested routes, something that doesn’t hurt and along the lines of ‘17 ways to get more customers.’
My belief is that you should focus your efforts on both platforms (owned space and social space). You shouldn’t feel too insular that it should just sit in one place.
Here is why you should focus on your home base (website) first and a social platform as the follow up and get better at distribution.
- Deciding to post your articles solely on a social channel ie. LinkedIn, does not help with your own search engine rankings.
If you are getting found for something you have created somewhere else, they are going to get the full credit. That makes total sense.
If you are cross posting it is more likely to go viral on LinkedIn or Medium, based on reach, but a couple of viral posts do not necessarily make a sustainable practice for audience development. The strength of a post from your own site that is seen by others outside of your arena of influence is far greater than 1000’s of people who see a link from a ‘known’ social name.
- Duplicate content does not harm your search rankings.
This is what I do, I treat my original content (that you are reading here) as the premium article, in the space of a month or so this will be shared on LinkedIn and Business2Community. What I tend to do is re-edit, change the headline, a different call to action. A tad more effort than a simple cut and paste job.
The reason I am posting a week/month later in other spaces (after the article on my website) is for Google to acknowledge where the original article appeared first. This duplicate content issue is something that was made clear by Michael Brenner on Content Marketing Institute. He states, “The straight answer is that licensed or syndicated content doesn’t hurt a brand’s SEO at all.” Even Google highlight that penalties arise with spam content with the intent to encourage ‘deceptive and manipulative search engine results.”
Make sure that the premium content is seen on your own website first and treat it as the prime content. For instance, this is the work that is shared with your own audience first rather than throwing it into the alternative publisher sea.
- All social media channels at some point move their goalposts.
If it’s not Facebook killing it’s organic reach for brand’s in 2014 or LinkedIn’s changes to their group pages in 2015, social media channels do not care about the development of your business. That’s right, social media channels do not care about your business.
Social media is here to monetise, it makes perfect sense. Should Medium start introducing pay to play functionality or LinkedIn allowing it’s publishing platform to only those who will take some form of paid subscription, it will happen.
Why take a huge risk on becoming overly comfortable within a place that is not yours. When you have no influence on how a social channel behaves you are at the mercy of someone else.
- Own and nurture it first.
If you can create a consistent body of work within your own site you build an asset base that is effectively a library that documents your level of thinking and personal/professional development.
It should be something where all content sits in the one place and to be easy to dip in and out of and also for others to see.
This is what helps you become noticed and build the attention of others. This is what helps you build an audience within a space that is yours and build a database of subscribers that you have responsibility for. This helps you network and build a closer relationship with others.
Why invite people round to a plush pad you are renting from AirBnB and don’t know how to work the heating when you know where the biscuits are and how to light the log fire round your own house. When others become familiar with your own surroundings, home is where the heart is.
- Publishing purely on a space that isn’t yours, you are surrendering ownership.
Whilst it sounds enticing to go where everyone else is and looks attractive that Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook will always be in a place that you will never be. Every article that you create in a place where you don’t have control is simply handing over your rights to someone else.
This is why I say that the three step process has to be your own platform first, let it sink in within your own audience, then distribute within another channel.
The work you create deserves to be promoted and distributed in as many ways as you can, in order to build reach and attract new people to subscribe and be part of your journey.
Embrace what is yours and build it, rather than relying on someone else. In the words of the Beatles on The End (from Abbey Road), “and in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give.”
Lets Round Up
Social channels are here to make money, just as much as we are. Now is the time to get your house in order and looking beautiful, before you start to think about the holidays somewhere else.
Reposting blog content can work, it’s a case of prioritising and understanding that the effort has to be on your own space first.
That horrible image at the top of the article courtesy of Yuna
