Starting a blog is a scary concept. Whether you’re hoping to create a personal blog, or planning a digital empire for your brand, you’re going to have to put yourself out there online. But launching any form of digital media campaign can be intimidating, especially if you’re not familiar with using social media as a brand (whether the brand is you or a product you are marketing). When you start a blog, you are creating a brand that needs to be marketed almost like a product.
“Oh crap, I have no background in marketing though!”
Yeah, same here. And this blog is new, and I don’t have a background in marketing, and it is a scary situation. So if you’re on the fence about starting a blog, or are a new blogger yourself, let’s take a look at five of the biggest risks of social media marketing, and why it is worth pursuing it anyway:

1. Fear → Necessity:

Creating a blog and putting your brand online can be scary. It is a big commitment to manage and run everything, and it can seem like a lot to take on – and let’s be real, it kind of is. It’s easy to put it off because you don’t feel prepared for it, but you may never feel prepared for it. If you’re not familiar with the digital platforms you are intending to use, the new technology can be intimidating as well. And if you’re not prepared, and you’re not familiar, you might feel like you’re going to fail, and failure is the scariest thing of all.

So yes, fear can be a big reason to avoid stepping into the world of blogging and digital marketing. However, without risk there is no opportunity. Blogging can be great fun (and should be above all else!) and a potential source of income, and if it’s something you really want to do, eventually you have to bite the bullet and throw yourself into the digital world.

2. Misreading the Community → Joining the Community

Social media is, above all else, about community. This means that you have to make yourself a part of the community in order to become a part of it, particularly as someone who is marketing something (your blog!). Implementing two-way communication between your blog and the communities that would most benefit from it is one of the most important aspects of social media use. If you try and market your blog in a traditionally “hard selling” technique (eg. “Check this out”, “Subscribe”, “Buy this!”) you are going to find yourself isolated from the communities you want to be a part of. However, implementing two-way communication between your brand and the communities that would most benefit from it is one of the most important aspects of social media use. By communicating properly with the right digital communities, you will gain brand respect, as well as feedback that can help you better both your brand and your current online strategy.

3. Criticism → Feedback

Feedback is part of the core of social media communication. Though it can be intimidating, you can’t look at criticism and feedback as a threat. Positive feedback will legitimize your brand online, and negative feedback provides a learning opportunity to improve upon. You should have a system in place to respond to and deal with feedback, and following these systems will allow you to keep level-headed and on-brand with your responses to any less-than-positive feedback you get. By showing that you are listening to what people have to say, you are showing that you are a real person who is open to communication, and willing to grow and improve based on what the community has to say.

4. Sales → Allegiance

Whether or not you are selling a product, or just the brand that is your blog, using normal sales tactics is not appropriate for social media. Online communities have unique means of communication, and as mentioned above, using hard sales techniques will isolate your brand from the community, not integrate it. Use your blog and other social media platforms to provide information, interaction, and value to your brand. A social media marketing campaign can eventually lead to sales, but you should look at it more as a way to earn respect and loyalty by providing something of value, not just a heavy sales push. This can apply both for marketing your blog itself (eg. don’t spam comments sections with pleas to read your blog), or to marketing content within your blog posts (eg. don’t cram a blog post full of affiliate links, rather incorporate them only when relevant and something you would really recommend).

5. Personal → Professional Use

Tying your personal social media to your blog is a mistake. Though blogs show snippets of your everyday life, the content that you post should be more curated than what you upload to your personal social media accounts. This division of personal and professional use can help maintain a level of

• Security – not posting a photo of your house exterior on your Instagram that would show your home address
• Privacy – not posting pictures from an event that you want to share with your friends but not your followers
• Professionalism – not posting pictures that do not fit with your brand, either aesthetically or in content

Your personal social media accounts are the ones that you use to keep up with the people, communities, and events you care about. Your brand’s social media accounts (blog and any related social media) are the ones that people use to keep up with you.

The scariest part for me starting my blog was the concept of getting criticism for the content I’m putting online. Criticism is scary! I’m curious – what was the scariest part of starting a digital brand for you? Or, if you haven’t started a blog but want to, what’s stopping you?