ChezRama
I am not sure where you heard SEO is dead . SEO is the way to get your blog to mass. Yes Social media is important and can get you targeted audience but not all these audience like to click and read unless it is very interesting and personal to them( if you know what I mean). First work on Your SEO, search which social media is good for your targeted audience and go from there. I thought Instagram is my targeted area at first but Instagram is my way to connect and be social and exist in my niche. I know each blog is different but this is what's working for me and I am still experimenting and learning about my targeted audience and how to target them and I am growing in a good base thanks to my SEO , my social channels and my blogger friends.
miguel
SEO is not dead, it just evolved. The same can be said about social media.

Both are still valid ways to drive readers to your blog, but competition is high. Read about, experiment and find what works for you.
OffPathTravels
Growing an audience is a major challenge and one that you should attack with every tool possible. Getting organic search traffic is important, so don't rule out SEO completely. It's always evolving, however, so what worked yesterday may need some tweaking for today. But even just from a common sense perspective, it's good to consider Search Engine Optimization (SEO). What would your ideal reader throw in a Google search to find your page? Are the main keywords already covered by dominate players? Are there more creative approaches which aren't?

Social media is just another tool. Sometimes an incredibly powerful one since ranking high in search results without traffic is difficult. The main benefit of social media is that you can connect with your specific audience and guide them to your blog. But just remember that social media only gives back what you put into it. Creating a page is rarely enough. Interact. Comment on other posts or pages. Provide advice, build on an existing community, and become an authority on the subject matter in the eyes of others.

It's hard to say which social media you should focus on without knowing more about your blog and target audience. But since they are all free to set up, it doesn't hurt to at least have a minimum presence on each. Then consider where your audience spends the most time and put a lot of effort into that medium. (Crush It! is a good book for more about social media branding techniques.)

Instagram and Snapchat is creating a new breed of visually-oriented influencers. Have a lot of good pictures or short videos? Want to connect with the younger generation or become an influencer? Go here.

LinkedIn is limited to professionals and business-oriented discussions. If your audience relates well to that, then sure. If not, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

YouTube is a great place to get the word out. Even if you aren't a professional videographer, putting together 2-minute clips which show your passion can be helpful to getting traffic. Maybe you keep building on your initial videos and realize that it's a great way to express the things you have to say. Maybe you do five videos and call it quits. You won't know until you try.

Twitter is great for real-time news and catchy phrases. But attention spans are quite limited. You can engage with others very easily and quickly, but some find it hard to bring substantial discussion to the table.

Finally, Facebook. It's free and arguably one of the largest directories of blogs (and businesses) in existence. Very few downsides to at least having a minimum page. The audience is changing as the younger generation doesn't care for it much – and others are steering away – but if you find your audience on there, perhaps for things catered to families or older people, the payoff can be solid. Crappiest part: it's hard to get exposure without paying for ads (they can be cheap though). But the flexibility with Facebook is incredible. One picture with five words, sure. 30 pictures with a entire blog post, no problem. Short video? Cool. Long video? Perfect. Anything goes.

So, just remember that everyone is fighting for traffic. Don't ignore SEO – ranking in organic searches is still very important. And for social media, it's free exposure and one of the best ways to build traffic before you have a chance at ranking in search engine results. Have a presence everywhere, but focus and interact wherever your target audience is.
thespooch
You're going to have to do things that work, that's the bottom line. You're in the information age where everyone is on social media. Such as FB, IG, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Also, SEO is not dead since that is how your articles get searched via a search engine.

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louis
I spend almost as much time sourcing new places to promote my blog as I do coming up with content. Which ever way you can get more avenues to share your message, the better: Follow other writers and comment on other blogs, use social media including online groups. Ensure that your keywords are correct for the message you are trying to share and connect with every single person on the planet that can accept a link and share your messages with others.

People will never find you, you have to reach out to each individual.
modernindianman
SEO is not dead. It has just become tricky with Google's every changing algorithms to weigh relevant content. But ultimately, that is what is what is going to pay you off. Social media brings instant traffic but you'll need to work hard to bring loyalty there. On the other hand, focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is like preparing to put stuff on auto-pilot, which will take time. You will need to update the content from time to time, but Google will reward you for good content without much effort from your side.
ladyP
Me too, I just started blogging and have not really been a social media user. In fact, I just joined Reddit in order to promote my blog. Just did Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for google. Doesnt take long to register- took me about 10 mins probably for WordPress blog and I am not an tech savy and am also new to all these things. Now I can finally see my website in the Google search result. So definitely do SEO.

I think my main source of visitors for my blog has been from Facebook where I have created a page for my blog. I am also joining groups relevant to my blog. I also made a tumblr account but that seems to have been of no help. I have yet to try twitter for my blog- is it any good?

Shubhsrd
Can you show me the source that says SEO is dead? If you don't already know, SEO is a billion dollar industry. Even Google has a SEO team & consults big guns for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & online marketing. I don't know how on Earth do people think SEO is dead.

Anyway, SEO is the way by which you gain visibility from the search engine. Getting more & more eye balls glued to your webpage is all you want. Isn't it?

Sure, social media helps gaining more visibility but it's all money game now. Like on Facebook, organic reach is officially dead. If you want to get in front of your potential customers & followers, you should spend on ads. There's no other go. By the way, Facebook has 1.8 billion active users every single day.

But, in long run social media is going to die or at least change in a way that it is the last option you'd consider for marketing your content.

So what's left? Is SEO actually dead?

Not at all. Blogging or I better call it, Content Marketing is the new sexy. It's the cheapest & most effective w.r.t cost when it comes to marketing & reaching on page one of Google, or any search engine for that matter.

Content marketing reduces your cost of marketing by at least 67% and it helps place your content in front of billions of people who're constantly turning to the search engine for their everyday query.

Google, in <year> is going to focus on "Branding". Which means, the brands will tend to rank comparatively better than non-brands. Now here's the fun part. Social media can help like a magic wand in building a brand by posting social media specific content to acquire user attention which will eventually magnify and hit the target of brand establishment on Google. Nike, was a shoe making business but now it's a bloody brand. It's a sports wear business which honors the sports person & the sports itself. When someone searches for running shoes on Google, what do you think Google shows it's end user? It's either Nike, Adidas or Puma at the top.

That's how it works. So, don't underestimate & belittle SEO. Focus on content marketing & social media marketing equally. There hasn't been better time than this to market your content and make the internet work for you.

Hope this helps.
SaMuEL
Lol, SEO isn't dead. It's just that it is learning quite fast. I would prefer you to check blog articles on Rankbrain(Google's Artificial Intelligence (AI)). But building up traffic only through SEO takes time and is worth the patience. But you should engage in promoting your blog through social media. This will increase the rate of ranking. And will also, affect the the ranking of your page by Search Engine Optimization (SEO). So, I would prefer you to start promoting your blog if you want to see some difference.
garywoodfine
Whoever told you, wherever you read SEO is dead is total hogwash!

SEO is definitely still very much alive and still the only truly viable way to get sustained organic traffic to your website or blog. The only thing is that it has got a lot harder and is far more sophisticated to do. Due in part, that Google and other leading Search Engines have just closed the door to the cheap, easy and downright stupid hacks that most of the amateurs have implemented in the past.

The other thing, is that SEO takes time and quite a bit of effort to work. Whenever you launch a new blog or website, you need to allocate and manage your expectations that it is going to take at least 6-18 months and probably at a minimum 50-100 posts for Search engines to become remotely interested in your website.

Why? there are over 140 000 websites launched every single day! Guess what they are all vying for the same bit of attention! That's the reality! You should base your expectation around that!

Growing an audience is hard, and you're competing against hundreds and thousands of folks every single second.

In the end, the whole concept behind SEO is really quite simple, Give people what they want!

The SEO process starts on every single blog post before you even start writing it. Gone are the days when you could just write any old rubbish, you really have to research and define your post before you even start writing. Just like they taught you at school, before they asked you to do some creative writing. Jot down the key points your article is going to address, define the keywords, try structure it so that it flows and addresses the key points.

At the end of the day it's not really that much rocket science, it's just a lot of common sense.
iamrhinoceros
I think of social media as the short term game and SEO as the long term game. You won't immediately get traffic through SEO because it's something you have to build up over time. Social on the other hand you can get quick bursts of traffic from if you do it right. I find a mix of focusing on both works best for me.

SEO is certainly not dead.
db
I'd never build a Facebook page for any of my blogs. Facebook is a scam. Building a Facebook page is the equivalent of building their business with your audience, then paying them to access the people that you brought there. I get my traffic from Pinterest, some from LinkedIn and some from my newsletter subscribers 👍🏽
alborden
People say SEO is dead every year, the truth is, SEO evolves! The tricks of <year> don't work in <year>, and so on.

Your best bet is to
• Master optimizing your content for keywords
• Mastering outreach
• Learn how to build backlinks
• Try guest blogging on more established websites in the same niche as you.
• Leverage social media (Ideally with as much automation)

100% learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google traffic is often the best source, once you rank and can encourage organic backlinks it's a lot more passive than social media marketing.
FatChance
One of the most difficult aspects of operating a blog, especially in the first few months of creating it, is trying to generate traffic to your site. It can be rather disappointing to come back day after day to see that you only have one or two visits to the page, even when you are pushing out fresh content on a regular and consistent basis. It can feel like you are putting all of this effort into your work for nothing, leaving you unsure on whether to continue. To avoid feeling this way, you can market your blog in a couple different ways that can help you see consistent growth in your traffic.

1. Start Local
Starting small can lead to greater things in the future. Going around your community and informing people about your blog is a nice way of generating initial traffic, especially if you live in a more populated area. If you have already honed in on the market that you blog talks about, then you can go to a place that promotes that market and promote your blog there. An example of this would be if you had a blog about coffee, then it would be smart to go to a coffee shop and put up flyers of your blog (If the business is permits it) as well as talk to patrons and peak their interest in your site.

2. Ask for Assistance from Friends
Blogging is a very common thing for people to do, so many of your friends probably run a blog and some might be very successful with it. Turning to this friend and asking for advice is not a bad idea, as they will most likely be more than happy to help get your blog off the ground. They can also tell you some of their experiences, which can give you some insight on what works and what doesn't. Of course everybody's experience won't be the same, but it can help you get on the right path.

3. Utilizing the Internet
The internet is a beautiful thing, so why not utilize it and its ability to connect people. Posting links to your blog on forums, social media, and even other blogs can generate some traffic to your site. There is a way to do this correctly so that your link is less likely to be seen as spamming and irritating. Seek out forums that talk about the topic your blog is about. If you talk about cars, post on a car forum. This is then seen as relating to the topic.

4. Putting the Burden on Someone Else
Putting the time into creating content for your blog is hard enough. Adding the stress of trying to market your blog in order to get traffic can be overwhelming and a little disheartening. The easiest and fastest way to get traffic to you blog is to give that job to someone else. Turning to internet marketing sites is, by far, the fastest way to generate traffic to your blog. Overnight, you can see your traffic make leaps, speeding up the process of obtaining a solid following. The great part is, you really only need to use this for about a month. By the end of the month of use, you will be able to sustain that consistent growth without outside help.
If I were starting again from scratch, I'd focus 100% on YouTube. Maybe Instagram. Everything else is a waste of time in the current climate.

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