Blogs or Social Media?

The article “Digital Influence: Blogs Beat Social Networks For Driving Purchases”, has some very interesting statistics. Social media in today’s age is seen as the king of digital marketing, but blogs are far more successful at driving consumers to purchase than any social media site. As explained in the blog, this seems to be due to “digital influencers”. We all know what an influencer is in the marketing world, but a digital influencer is even better for a company. By posting blogs online, a digital influencer causes multiple consumers during the knowledge stage of the purchase decision to skip multiple phases, skipping to the purchase. 86% of digital influencers publish a blog about a product that is in turn used by others to make a purchase decision. All this isn’t to say that social media sites are not worth marketing on, as Facebook and Twitter are the most popular platforms that these influencers post on, with 92% having a Facebook account and 83% posting on a regular basis. S

What Do I Think?

So are companies spending in the wrong place? 41% of advertising budgets go towards display advertising, 19% search, and 14% video content, but only 10% of spending constitutes social media. From that 10%, 57% is going towards Facebook posting, which isn’t growing as rapidly as others are today. Blog posting is huge for digital marketing. Although these facts are startling at first, when was the last time you made a blind big purchase? Everyone today googles a product before they purchase it. They want to see what others say, reviews, videos of the product in use, etc. Simply going to the companies Facebook page won’t give you anything, besides what the company wants you to think. Companies need to cater towards these digital influencers, as 90% of the time, they convince other consumers to make a purchase, and I would not be surprised to soon see blog posting at the top of the chart for influencing purchase decision. One suggestion I have for digital marketers, is to stop spending so much on Facebook. Depending on your target market, Facebook can be a great marketing tool, but it really is going out of style. Kids and teenagers today barely even have Facebook, and it’s proven that the majority of Facebook is middle age currently. The spending on social media coverage needs to be spread between them equally, with a much lesser focus on Facebook. Blogs are king in today’s purchasing world, and digital marketers need to cater to that need.