Blogging and social media have been the core of online marketing for more than a decade. This article will compare blog vs. social media and discuss what you should choose in 2022.
Both blogs and social media are used for sharing information, news, opinions, images, and more amongst the population. This post will discuss the two platforms and which are better suited for you.
Blogging is great for writing about informative topics that can answer readers’ questions and is an excellent way to build a community of like-minded people. The posts you publish can be evergreen and still get page views years down the track.
On the other hand, social media is more about connecting with people in real-time, building a like-minded following, but at the cost of media only lasting on average 24 – 48 hours.
Without further ado, let’s get straight into comparing a blog vs. social media and discussing which one you should choose.
Blog vs Social Media
I’m going to assume that you have a basic understanding between blogging and social media, but I’ll get into more depth about the two platforms and how you can monetize from them.
What is blogging?
Blogging is the form of writing and media that gets self-published online. It’s a way to voice your opinion and creativity without restraint. To create an online blog, you need to buy a domain name, web hosting for storing all of your content, and a platform like WordPress that manages these functions. You can then style it with free or paid themes, make it unique, and start posting content on it.
Blogging statistics (source: Hubspot):
- There are 600 million blogs out of 1.7 billion websites.
- There are 89,409 Google searches every second.
- Users write more than 70 million new posts every month.
- The average blog post length is 1500 – 2000 words.
How do bloggers make money?
Bloggers can make money in numerous ways. Here are the top four:
- Display advertising: The most passive form of blog income and gives you a chance to earn between $1 to $50 per 1000 pageviews. The rate varies depending on niche and ad network; however, it’s generally ideal for bloggers with audiences of over 10,000 pageviews a month. Otherwise, the advertising pay isn’t worth it.
- Affiliate marketing: A way that bloggers can earn commissions on products they talk about. Affiliate marketing is the process of getting a tracked affiliate link, promoting it to your audience. If someone purchases through the link, you earn a commission on the final purchase price. These rates usually vary from 5% to 60% but can be a lucrative way of making money.
- Sponsored posts: Businesses are always looking for new ways to promote their products and services, and one way is through sponsored posts. A business will pay you to give your honest review of their product in return for monetary compensation. The rate varies depending on pageviews and audience loyalty, but you can easily charge $50 to $1000+.
- Digital products: Digital items like photography, printables, art, and more can be another easy way of earning passive income on your blog. These products can range from 99c to $250+, but it’s generally on the lower side. This is an excellent way for bloggers to monetize their content if they don’t want to use display advertising or sponsored posts.
If you want to see these options in more depth, here are ten blog monetization options.
Now, if you’re wondering how much bloggers can make, it’s between $0 and $250k a month. This figure depends on your niche, article count, page views, and if you post high-quality, informative content.
The average blog makes around $29.08 per 1000 pageviews, so if you built a blog up to 250,000 pageviews a month, you could earn an average of $7,270 a month.
Remember, that number is just an average, and I’ve seen bloggers make up to $825 per 1000 pageviews. So that 250,000 pageviews could make a blogger $7270 to $206,250 a month.
It all depends on valuable content, niche, and how much your audience trusts you.
Social media are web-based platforms that allow users to connect and share information with each other. ‘Social’ refers to interacting with people, following them, liking their photos, and receiving information from them. The ‘media’ part refers to information like photos, videos, text, stories, and more. It’s a way for people to connect with their friends, loved ones, favorite movie stars, and more.
It’s also become a powerful tool that allows millions of people to earn a form of income, which I’ll discuss below.
Social media statistics (source: Oberlo):
- There are 3.78 billion social media users.
- People spend an average of 2.5 hours every day on social media.
- 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.
- There are 500 million daily active stories on Instagram.
There are numerous ways to earn money on social media. Here are the top four:
- Sponsored posts: When a brand pays an influencer to promote their product or service to their followers. This is usually done on Instagram, but videos on YouTube can be sponsored too. An influencer with 50k – 100k followers can command $1500 to $2000 for a sponsored post and upwards of $10,000 for 1M+ followers.
- Advertising: Video ads that get displayed at the beginning or during YouTube videos. It’s a passive form of income and can generally earn YouTubers from 50c to $25 per 1000 eligible video views.
- Affiliate marketing: Influencers and YouTubers can add affiliate links to their description or bio, so they’ll earn a commission if someone clicks on the link and purchases the product. This commission often varies between 5% – 50% of the final purchase cost. You can get started with affiliate marketing from day one and don’t need any followers or viewers to begin with.
- Sell merchandise: After a social media star has built a loyal following, they can release merch for their followers to buy. A good example is Danny Duncan’s line of merch, or Logan Paul’s Maverick line, which made $30 – $40 million in its first year.
As we can see, social media stars can command a lot of money for their engagement and reach.
According to a Vox report, nano influencers can bring home from $30,000 to $60,000 a year, and it only goes up with follower counts and engagement.
Pros and Cons of Both Platforms
Now that we’ve discussed the basics of a blog vs. social media account, we’ll now move on to the pros and cons of each platform.
Remember that this is just an overview of social media, and I list multiple social media platforms. If you’d like, you can read my comparisons between blogging and Instagram/YouTube instead.
Advantages of Blogging
- Evergreen content: Blog content that is relevant for long periods and doesn’t get outdated quickly. The post you’re reading is technically evergreen, as it is a discussion that people will continue to search for years to come. This type of content allows you to get viewers from articles you may have written five years ago.
- Help people: Bloggers write articles that answer the audience’s specific questions. I’m currently answering your question of a blog vs social media and doing so by providing statistics, as well as pros and cons. It’s a satisfying feeling knowing that you’ve helped answer people’s common questions.
- Flexibility: Bloggers can blog whenever they’d like; no timeframe’s considered normal. Whereas with social media, you have to publish posts when your followers are most active, or you run the risk of losing engagement.
- Make money in various ways: You can make money in so many different ways as a blogger. If you don’t want to make money with display ads, you can easily replace them with affiliate marketing and digital products. It’s also good to have a diversified income stream, so you aren’t relying purely on one source of income. You can make money from ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, email marketing, digital or physical products, courses, and so much more!
Disadvantages of Blogging
- Takes a lot of time: Blogging takes so much time, and it’s a lot more challenging than social media to start with. You have to build and customize your blog, learn how to write efficiently, learn SEO, and wait for Google to begin trusting your blog. It can take months before you see your first dollar and weeks before you even see one-page view. I just did a six-month blogging update, and my earnings were $25, compared to $600 in expenses. 🤯
- Technical issues: You will encounter so many problems as a blogger. Whether it’s to do with your web hosting, blog theme, page speed, or just general SEO issues, you’ll come across it at one point. I’ve probably spent days fixing and playing with my page speed, and it’s frustrating, to say the least.
- So much competition: While social media does have a lot of competition, blogging competition is a lot different. As a new blogger, you may be competing against blogs that have been around for 10+ years, making it nearly impossible to rank or get any page views. Unlike YouTube, where you can go viral with five subscribers, bloggers need to be more strategic with their posts and write articles on low-competition keywords.
Advantages of Social Media
- Low-cost investment: Unlike blogging, social media is free to join, and a mobile phone is more than enough to start uploading media. It’s also a lot more beginner-friendly, and social media platforms will guide you through creating your account and uploading your first post or story.
- Build a loyal following: If you provide value to your followers, you can build up a loyal following of fans that will always watch your videos or engage with your posts. This is crucial for advertisement rates, and an influencer with high engagement rates (over 6%) can charge more per post or video.
- Chance of going viral: Oppose to blogging, where it isn’t common to go viral, influencers can randomly go viral anytime. The YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok algorithm can suddenly start pushing your content to millions of people, and you can go viral overnight. Jennelle Eliana is an example of overnight success and received over 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube in her first three weeks. If you create content that’s relevant and high-quality, you too have the chance of going viral.
- Real-time feedback: Social media also has real-time statistics and figures showing whether your media is doing well. You can also grasp how well your posts are doing if people like, comment on them, and engage with you. While bloggers have Google Analytics, it’s hard to grasp if people enjoy your posts because comments aren’t that common, and there’s no like button.
Disadvantages of Social Media
- Haters: With social media comes the downfall of haters, and it’s something you have to come to terms with if you’re building an online following. Keyboard warriors love to comment on people’s appearances, personality, style, and just about everything. You could also receive hateful DM’s or even death threats. While I’m not condoning these people, it’s just something that happens with social media, and you need to be ready in case you start getting hate too.
- Algorithm changes: Another disadvantage of social media is algorithm changes. It’s hard to grasp algorithm changes, and they can destroy your reach and engagement in a heartbeat. Facebook’s organic reach dropped from 15% to 0.8% within nine years, and it’s only getting lower. Some speculate that Facebook and Instagram ruin reach and engagement rates so that you have to pay for advertising, but again, they’re just speculations.
- Content doesn’t last long: Unlike blogging, content on social media platforms doesn’t last as long. Yes, you can have YouTube videos bringing you consistent views, but with Instagram and TikTok, your content often doesn’t get many likes after a week. These social media platforms want fresh, unique content, and what was posted 24 hours ago is often irrelevant. Just keep this in mind when posting to social media.
- You have to tread carefully: Just a warning, you must tread carefully when becoming an influencer. You have to be aware that your online presence is forever, and you need to watch out for whatever you say. Whether replying to comments, posting videos to your story, or being sarcastic, you need to make sure that your point comes across clearly and concise and isn’t rude.
I simply cannot answer this question for you because I have preferences that you may not have.
I think both social media and blogging are excellent in their own sets of ways, and they both have pros and cons that you need to consider.
You can also make a full-time living if you work hard enough on either platform, so that’s no concern.
What I would recommend is to experiment with both blogging and social media. Sign up for multiple social media platforms, and start a blog on a free platform.
This means you’re not investing a single dollar into either platform, and you can do it risk-free.
Write up a few blog posts, and publish a few social media posts. I assume that you’ll quickly understand which platform you like better, and you can go from there.
See, no risk involved, and you can find out which one you like better.
Wrapping Up
So that concludes the debate over starting a blog vs. a social media account.
Hopefully, this article has helped you see the differences between a blog and social media, and you can choose whichever platform makes more sense.
Both blogging and social media have their pros and cons and are excellent in their own ways.
If you like text-based content and love to help people, starting a blog may be ideal.
Or, if you like media-based content and want to grow your online presence, then starting up on social media (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, e.g.) may be perfect for you too.
I chose to blog as my primary platform, but I aim to experiment with YouTube and start an Instagram account.
A combination of social media and blogging is ideal for growing both platforms and may help you reach success quicker.
Blog vs. Social Media: What are you choosing?
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