blogs The Difference Between Digital and Social Media Marketing

• 15 min read
• May 2022

The Difference Between Digital and Social Media Marketing

For those who are not familiar with digital and social media marketing, it can be easy to get the two terms confused. However, digital marketing and social media marketing are two types of marketing that often work together to create a marketing strategy. While sometimes referred to as the same thing, digital and social media marketing are two different aspects of a marketing plan.

Digital marketing is all about creating and managing a marketing campaign that uses digital technologies to reach and engage customers. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is all about creating and managing a marketing campaign that uses social media to reach and engage customers.

Digital Marketing

The purpose of digital marketing is to employ various digital channels to help businesses grow sales and profits, create brand awareness, consumer trust, create value, and more. Those in charge of a digital marketing strategy are responsible for testing different strategies, measuring analytics, and making changes to a campaign as needed in order to determine what works best for a brand or business. They use tools such as, search engine optimization (SEO), content creation tools, targeted social media marketing, organic and paid social media marketing, website analytics, and more to help them reach their goals, and get their website ranked high in search engine results pages (SERPs).

It’s not necessary to include all available digital channels in a marketing strategy. Some channels may be more effective than others. Digital marketers create a tailored marketing strategy that uses the most appropriate digital marketing channels for your business, target audience, and budget.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is all about using marketing strategies to reach people through social media channels, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, and many more. The principles of digital marketing still apply, but they are only used on social networks, and similar to digital marketing it is not necessary to use all of your social media channels in a marketing strategy.

When choosing which social media platforms to use, marketers will consider the social media channels that best express their brand voice, give them optimal visibility, and allow consumers to interact with them the most. Hence, the social platforms you choose will depend on your target audience. For instance, your target audience will be different on Snapchat than on Facebook. For users who are relatively young, Snapchat or TikTok is their most common social media platform. On the other hand, if you are targeting a more mature audience, Facebook may be a better option.

The social media marketing strategy covers and encompasses, but is not limited to, the following:

• Customer engagement on several online marketing channels
• Follower and conversion analytics
• High community engagement with followers
• Influencer marketing
• Organic and paid marketing
• Content planning and publishing
• Community engagement via polls and direct messages
• Analytics analysis
• Giveaways and contests

To be successful with marketing, you need to understand the difference between marketing for your product or service, and marketing to your target audience. This will help you create an effective marketing strategy for both aspects of your plan.

Social Media and Digital Marketing

You don’t need to include all online and offline marketing channels in your marketing plan. However, understanding how social media can fit into your overall digital marketing plan can help you create a strategy that allows your consumers to interact with your brand on digital platforms and social media. Creating a unified brand voice across multiple platforms will increase consumer trust, boost sales and profit, and create a stronger foundation for future success.