Marketers are leaving Facebook.

A new report shared on eMarketer shared the findings.

From Marketers Lessen Focus on Facebook Compared to Rest of Web:

This change is likely due, at least partially, to many marketers’ dissatisfaction with the measurement and ROI of Facebook. In the Advertising Age and Citigroup study, 37.6% of respondents said that the ROI of Facebook is inferior to the ROI of other platforms such as Yahoo! or Google. Only 17.9% said it was superior.

Additionally, marketers are looking beyond Facebook at other, newer sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr, as well as getting more involved on Twitter. According to Ad Age and Citigroup, only 9.8% of respondents said that Facebook was critical to their marketing efforts.

Marketing on Facebook will continue to be an important tactic for companies going forward, but with other options available, brands are moving some time and money to other players in social, and to elsewhere on the web.

The bolded area is my emphasis. I think it’s important to note that Facebook is not dead or dying. It is still an important part of a marketing strategy. You simply cannot ignore the number of people on Facebook and the amount of time they’re spending on the social utility.

The overall trend in the online marketing world is that things appear to be diversifying. You can see from the writing above that marketers are focusing on other social channels as well as more traditional advertising sites like Google and Yahoo!. That is interesting and I think it means something for the companies that are focusing on other marketing strategies like content and blogging.

The Blogging and Guest Blogging Strategy

Advertisers are focusing on a variety of Web properties. They’re trying to gain the attention of people while attempting to get a sale. It’s one strategy that has worked to some capacity for years.

But is advertising the way of the future?

As I’ve said before, I think the line between advertising and content marketing is blurring. I think the two are getting closer. I’m seeing display ads that are really excellent pieces of content. These ads are getting strong response. These ads are truly paid advertising because the space is paid for but more than that these ads are becoming excellent pieces of content. I think the best advertising has always been content anyway.

My view is there is a better way for marketers to spend their time.

By creating a content strategy (like Coca-Cola) that focuses on content both on a company’s own channel and guest postings on other channels is a great way to earn new customers. In some cases as much as 70% of a company’s overall business can come from a company blog. That is not the case in all instances, but it is possible.

Blogging is a good practice for businesses looking to diversify their sources of new revenue and profit. Blogging can be a piece of the overall acquisition pie. It’s working for many businesses. Large businesses are investing more in content and apparently are investing less in traditional advertising on sites like Facebook.

Guest posting is a great way to build your own blog. The art of guest posting gets your brand and you personally in front of a relevant audience. The owners of the websites welcome your content (as long as it’s good) and in return you have instant access to an established audience.

Are you interested in business blogging for your company?

It’s a new concept for many, but the data is intriguing. The way blogging for new business typically works is that a new visitor to your blog (via referrals) may visit many times while purchasing or converting just a few times.

In one example a customer visited a site 140 times in two years while purchasing 15 times. Is that failure? Certainly not.

That example might not be from a customer that found a website via a blog, but the is what happens when customers visit your site originally via a blog. They read your content. They become trusting of you and your brand. Eventually they convert. It’s a long-term strategy that takes tie to build, but it is worth it because you own the channel and it is always working for you.