Digital Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing vs digital marketing. Both are important and can help to increase brand awareness, promote products or services and increase sales.

Since consumers are online all of the time, it’s a no-brainer to implement digital and social media marketing for your business.

So, is social media marketing the same as digital marketing? 

Social media marketing vs digital marketing are terms marketers use interchangeably, however they’re both technically different. The key difference between social media marketing and digital marketing is that digital marketing encompasses a range of online marketing activities. Social media marketing, however, is an aspect of digital marketing that focuses on using social media platforms to promote products or services.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Social media marketing focuses on advertising products or services via social media platforms. Some marketers have an entire department dedicated to social media marketing vs digital marketing, as it’s such an important way of growing a brand and increasing product awareness.

Here are the essential pillars of social media marketing:

Strategy

Designing a robust strategy is crucial before you begin publishing content. First, determine the type of content that attracts your audience, the goal of your posts and the platform suitable for them.

Planning and Publishing

Planning when to publish your content and scheduling posts in advance shows your reliability and ensures you’re consistently engaged with your audience.

Listening and Engagement

You may start with small numbers, but with regular posting and listening to your audience your channel will start to grow and receive more engagement.

Analytics and Reporting

Analytics and reporting helps you understand what your audience likes and dislikes about your posts and can help track the performance of your content.

Advertising

Paid ads can help drive traffic to your posts and help you reach a wider audience.

WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

Digital marketing is a method that helps marketers promote products and services to audiences around the world through online platforms such as email, social media, mobile marketing, webinars, and video-based content.

Here are the pillars of digital marketing:

Data

Three types of data which can be used: demographic—related to who your audiences are and their interests; behavioural—related to customers’ activity and contextual data—real-time events

Technology

Three types of technology: facilitative (third-party tools), internal ( in-house technologies) and web analytics (software to collect customer activity online).

People

It’s important to have people with the correct skillset who know how to use the above pillars effectively to achieve successful digital marketing results.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VS DIGITAL MARKETING: THE KEY DIFFERENCES

Though both are important ways of reaching audiences online, both have their distinct differences. Here are the key differences between social media marketing vs digital marketing:

Purpose

Both strategies have the same purpose of increasing brand’s profit, however they each have their own way of contributing towards this. Digital marketing focuses on generating interest and converting interest into sales, whereas social media marketing focuses more on building customer loyalty, engaging directly with consumers and in turn generating sales off the back of the relationship.

Channels

Digital marketing involves many channels such as email, social media, mobile marketing, webinars, and video-based content, whereas social media marketing solely focuses on social media platforms. Digital marketing can also happen offline through digital billboards, digital or interactive screens and on computers.

Conversion rates

Digital marketing allows businesses to carefully measure the success of campaigns through calculating conversion rates or return on investment (ROI). Social media marketing, however, focuses more on brand awareness and loyalty which can be tracked through follows, views, likes, comments and shares. 

Audience

The type of audiences that engage with social media marketing vs digital marketing varies. Some may only engage with one type of channel, or may use multiple channels, for example older audiences may respond well to digital marketing like emails, whereas younger audiences respond well to content on social media platforms.

Cost

Social media marketing can be cost-effective for brands as businesses can generate lots of brand exposure without paying the platforms. The costs involved with digital marketing vary depending on the channels and tools used, so this can become expensive especially for small businesses.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VS DIGITAL MARKETING: WHICH SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

This all depends on what’s most important for your brand and what your budget is! For instance, if you’re a big business looking to gain more brand loyalty and build an online presence, social media marketing is for you, whereas if you’re a smaller business targeting older audience members, digital marketing would be better suited for you.

FAQs:

Is digital marketing the same as social media marketing?

No, digital marketing is an umbrella term that includes social media marketing as one key aspect of it.

Which is best? Social media marketing or digital marketing?

When it comes to social media marketing vs digital marketing, both marketing strategies should ideally work in unison to achieve the best results possible and reach prospective customers.

What is the main difference between social media marketing and digital marketing?

The main difference between social media marketing vs digital marketing is that social media marketing is just one key process underneath digital marketing.

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

If you want to receive our industry insights, visit our Influencer Marketing & Social Media blogs here.

@ Socially Powerful

Popular Blogs

Most Popular Instagram Hashtags | Tiktok Hashtags | Instagram Monetization | Facebook Banner Size | Snapchat Influencers | Most Subscribed Youtubers | Best Time to Post on Youtube | UK Twitch Streamers | Female Twitch Streamers | Popular Tiktok Songs | Male Tiktok Influencers | Lgbtq Tiktok Influencers | The Rise and Fall of Clubhouse  | Influencer Marketing on Clubhouse | LiketoKnowit | Pretty Little Thing Instagram| Social Marketing Agency