If you’re looking to reach your business goals via online advertising, you’ve probably heard this question before. Social media marketing vs content marketing: which one is best suited to grow your business?
To provide a short answer: there is no clear winner. It all depends on a lot of different factors, which is also why a lot of companies choose to outsource both content and social media marketing to advertising agencies to know which method would fit their business more.
In the following article, you will learn more about the differences between these two services!
How is social media marketing different compared to content marketing?
Compared to content marketing which builds brand credibility through information, social media marketing builds a rapport with your target audience through interactions. This is why user engagement is such an important factor whenever you are sharing content on the social media platforms of your business.
Of course, in order to promote engagement, you also need to have enough reach. Social media marketing employs a variety of targeting options to get your shared content to a relevant audience. This is one of the biggest responsibilities of a social media agency, as they can help you manage and optimize your ads and campaigns, and avoid spending unnecessary resources by targeting users who have a much lesser chance of converting to customers.
Social media marketing can also be much faster at getting you results compared to content marketing, making it ideal to promote events, new products, important changes, raising brand awareness, and even getting customer feedback without having to rely on a full, separate market research. This makes it a perfectly viable option for smaller businesses as well to make their voices heard.
How is content marketing different compared to social media marketing?
Compared to social media marketing, content marketing is more about playing the long game. Instead of targeting users with ads and sharing eye-catching posts to grab the interest of users, it is more about pulling them in. It is closely related to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), as relevant content is just as much of a factor to Google’s algorithm as it is to people.
As such, the main goal here is to educate users about your products and services and provide them with relevant context as well. By offering them answers to questions they search for organically in search engines, you can greatly improve the credibility of your business, which is directly tied to acquiring new customers and keeping old ones.
Content marketing can take many forms from written articles to video creation, and can even be shared on your social media platforms. In the best cases, users may even feel inclined to share your content to their own social media feed!
Social media marketing vs content marketing summarized
Form and goal
- Content marketing: an online marketing tactic that aims to provide added value for your users with quality content, as well as bring in new leads in the long-term.
- Social media marketing: an online marketing channel that aims to build brand awareness and engage with users, as well as bring in new leads in shorter time frames with social media campaigns.
Main activities
- Content marketing: producing content (webpages, videos, blog posts, PR, and SEO articles…).
- Social media marketing: sharing content on online channels (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube…).
Focus
- Content marketing: Markets, products, improving corporate image by establishing brand expertise, providing relevant answers to existing questions and problems, and educating users.
- Social media marketing: Nurturing your community online, building relationships with your target audience, and grabbing the attention of potential and existing customers.
Work process and planning
- Both content marketing and social media marketing require the creation and management of a content calendar.
- Content written on your website or other outside sources can be shared on social media as well.
Social media marketing vs content marketing: hiring an agency can help you decide which one is best suited for your business
According to Dog and Pony social media agency – a marketing company in Budapest – there are many different factors that define whether your business should focus on content marketing or social media marketing. This is why professional, full-service agencies that can offer both services always tailor their offer to the needs of their many clients.
What you also must understand from this article, is that despite the title – social media marketing cs content marketing – one method doesn’t exclude using the other. A marketing agency will often suggest a combination of the two, with the exact proportions depending on your current business goals, your available budget, the products and services you provide, and more.
Both social media marketing and content marketing have their own benefits, but require different approaches, and are used to reach different goals. A full-service advertising agency will be able to analyze your previous marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to plan and execute a strategy that fits your business and your business only.