The difference between digital marketing and social media is that social media marketing is just one of the available digital marketing channels. Many people believe that by participating in social networks they are doing digital marketing, but this is not 100% true, there are many more channels to use in a digital marketing campaign.
What is Digital Marketing?
digital advertising It is the marketing process of creating awareness and promoting a brand or product online using all available digital channels.
The main components of digital marketing are:
Online Marketing Channels – website marketing, WHICH (Search Engine Marketing – includes SEO and Pay Per Click Advertising), Mobile Marketing (i.e. Google Play, Apple Store), Email Marketing, Online Banner Advertising, Video Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.
Offline digital channels: TV, radio, SMS, digital billboards (indoor and outdoor)
The following diagram shows exactly the relationship of the different components that make up digital marketing.
Digital Marketing and Social Networks
What are social networks?
Social media is the most popular buzzword in Internet Marketing for the past few years. The success of the new generation of social media platforms, primarily Facebook and Twitter, has changed the way we socialize, interact, and shop. This also brought new channels to digital marketing.
Social media is the term we use to describe platforms that bring people together to exchange information.
The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Some interesting statistics about social networks:
To get a better idea of the impact social media has on marketing, take a look at the number of monthly active social media users (in millions), by platform.
Active users of social networks by platform
What are the advantages of using social media in your marketing campaigns?
There are many advantages to using social media to promote your products and services both online and offline.
- It’s a quick way to spread your message: if you have a large fan base, you can tweet or post on Facebook and your message can instantly reach thousands of users around the world. In fact, social networks are the fastest way (even from TV and Radio) to make an announcement or spread a message.
- It’s good for SEO: There are increasing signs that Google and Bing are indirectly using social signals for ranking purposes.
- It’s a trend: Social media is a trend you can’t ignore if you want to stay close to your customers and in tune with the latest advances in marketing.
- It’s one of the ways to engage with your customers and find out what they want: With social media, your customers can show they like a product or content by voting (Like, Tweet), commenting, and sharing. As a marketer, you can analyze these statistics, talk to your customers, and find out how to improve your products, content, or services.
Digital Marketing VS Social Networks
It should be clear after reading the definitions above that social media is an important component of internet marketing, which is part of digital marketing.
If we compare the two side by side, we find that:
- Digital marketing goes beyond the Internet and tries to reach people in the offline world using digital media, while social media is limited to the limits of the Internet.
- A digital marketing strategy may include one or more components (Internet Advertising, Mobile Ads, TV, SMS, etc.), while a social media strategy may include one or more social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Social media is strongly associated with a content strategy, i.e. you create content and use social media to promote it, whereas digital marketing can rely entirely on banners (whether it’s online, TV or billboards) for advertising. promotion.
Resources to learn more
Examples of Marketing Strategies – Find out how well-known brands are using social media as part of their overall digital marketing strategy.
What is more important digital marketing or social networks?
It depends on the type of brand, products or services you want to promote. There are cases where other forms of digital marketing will be more appropriate for raising awareness than social media. Social networks are essential for any product, brand or service that has a wide audience.
For example, if you’re selling a software product, social media can help you find new customers, educate your existing customers (by sending them tips and tricks), and keep them informed about new updates, upcoming releases, etc.
If, on the other hand, you’re selling custom farmer tools, you can use social media as a resource for more product information, but your main selling point will be backcountry mailers and radio spots.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the process of promoting a product or service through various social media channels. In general, there are two ways to run a social media marketing campaign.
The first way is free and has to do with building followersfans or connections by sharing useful content, running contests and generally interacting with your users.
The second way is through paid advertising. You can use Facebook Ads, Google Ads or Twitter Promoted Accounts to advertise your products or services on Facebook, Google and Twitter respectively.
Are social media marketing campaigns successful?
There is a misconception that traffic from social networks does not convert, but the latest statistics show otherwise.
Conversion rates per channel
The success or failure of any campaign depends on many factors, including the experience of the digital marketing consultant, so choose wisely.
What does a typical digital marketing campaign include?
While the components of digital marketing are many, a typical campaign primarily includes elements from the Internet marketing family. It is very common to see a online marketing campaign with:
Search engine marketing: either through content strategy and SEO or through paid search advertising (Adwords)
Social media promotions: paid advertising on Facebook, promotion on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Promotions in the mobile market: development of native applications and submission to Google Play and Apple Store
Email marketing – Promotion of products or services through email marketing campaigns
Conclution
It is important to know the differences between the different marketing theories so that you can select the most suitable tools to use in your campaigns.
Digital marketing is the future of marketing and little by little it will gain ground in the online and offline world.
Social media, on the other hand, is the new way to connect with other people, it is part of digital marketing and it is here to change the way we find new customers and promote our products.