I recently attended an online discussion where the topic was: “when it comes to marketing yourself, should you use a blog, Facebook, or both?” This resulted in a very lively discussion, with people on both sides of the debate having very strong opinions. Just in case anyone was considering this topic, and whether they should split their strategy between both or focus on one or the other, I thought I would recap some of the facts and opinions shared by the group.

Blogging Positives: Bloggers are beginning to be recognized as writers or journalists. With a self-hosted blog, using software like WordPress from WordPress.org, you own your content, and can control virtually everything about it: the theme and plug-ins used, how the site is organized, etc. You can also control commenting on the blog, and whether or not there are ads on the site and what those ads are. This is different from using a platform such as WordPress.com or Blogger.

Blogging Negatives: Blogging is not without costs, however. First, there is the actual cost, the money. While WordPress software is free, you will need to have a hosting account, and most likely a domain name (such as with this site, http://freelanceweekly.com). I just bought a new domain name and 2 year hosting agreement for an organization I belong to, and the total was a little over $200 ($160 of that being the hosting, the rest being the domain name, site security, etc). You will also need to learn how to use the software and possibly learn a little bit of coding to get it just right. These last two things are not usually huge problems but they are a consideration.

Blogging Readers: It is also important to keep in mind that readers of your blog first have to find it, which can be tricky in the wide open world of the internet (this will make more sense once we delve into using Facebook). In addition, just because a blog has readers does not always mean it has commenters, and therefore does not always mean it creates a community. This is also important when considering the use of Facebook.

Facebook Positives: Facebook has it’s own set of issues to consider. First, it is free. There is no fee to sign up, no membership, nothing to expense. The only cost is your time, which you also have to spend with blogging. Facebook also has little if any learning curve. Sure there are some advanced features you can learn about, and rules to keep in mind for creating group pages or fan pages, but they are minimal and can be found within the documentation of the site.

Facebook Negatives: Since you pay nothing for Facebook, you have no say in, well, any of it. You do not own anything you post on it, even though you wrote it. You have no control over the look of the site, or how it is laid out. Perhaps the most important thing you do not have control over is other’s participation on it. Anyone can go on your page and spew all kinds of vitriol, and there is little if anything you can do about it.

Facebook Readers: Facebook and Twitter are the two powerhouses of Social Media right now. It is estimated that more than half of US internet users log into Facebook. No blog can touch those numbers. The potential to reach more than half of the US internet has got to make you think about being on Facebook. However it is also important to keep in mind the way people use Facebook. People use it to keep in touch, play some games, and leave LOTS of comments about, well, almost anything. The question is will they read long articles? Of that I am honestly not sure. I think to be successful on Facebook, you need to keep track of the articles you write and how long they are, and measure that against how many people comment about them and engage others. If you are not getting much participation, either your content is a bit dull, or your articles are too long and you need to pair them down to more bite size chunks.

Whether you use one platform or both, the important thing to remember is the goal you have for your writing. Whether that is to feature your professional talents and draw business, or simply to create interaction with others, the most important thing is to maintain clear goals and develop steps to achieve them. If your content and/or business model is good, people will find you no matter what platform you use.

What do you think? Have you chosen one platform over the other? If you use both, do you use them the same way or differently? Leave your opinions in the comments!

photo credit: piermario