While social media marketing and advertising may seem the same, there is a crucial difference between the two. Social media has helped brands connect with audiences in a more intimate, targeted, and relevant way than traditional media.
With over 58 percent of the global population using social media, it has become an integral part of a brand's marketing strategy, helping companies reach and engage with their consumers and users. Understanding the differences between social media marketing and social media advertising is essential to help your social media campaign strategies.
This guide will dive deeply into social media marketing vs social media advertising—what each entails, how they are related, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to choose the best strategy.
Social media advertising (SMA) is the paid use of social media platforms to promote a product or service. It can take the form of promoted posts, videos, ads, and images. Social media advertising allows businesses to target their customers and increase their brand awareness more than traditional advertising. Advertisers can target their ads to a specific audience based on interests, demographics, and behaviors.
Social media marketing (SMM) uses social media platforms and websites to promote and market your products or services. It allows you to effectively target your audience, build a community around your brand, increase visibility and sales, and drive website traffic. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram give brands big and small the opportunity to share stories, grow their following, and engage with consumers.
Social media advertising and marketing relate in that social media advertising is a subset of social media marketing.
Social media advertising (SMA) uses paid advertisements on social media platforms to drive website traffic or increase brand visibility. Social media marketing (SMM), on the other hand, is the use of unpaid methods like organic reach and influencer marketing to achieve the same goals.
Social media advertising can be a great way to increase a brand's or product's visibility. Still, it's important to remember it shouldn't be a replacement for social media marketing.
Instead, it would be best to use social media advertising in addition to organic reach and influencer marketing to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy.
The terms "advertising" and "marketing" are often used interchangeably, but there is a subtle difference between the two concepts. Social media advertising uses platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to deliver paid advertising messages to users.
On the other hand, social media marketing is a broader term that describes all marketing activities that use social media channels to create relationships and interact with customers.
So, while SMA focuses on delivering paid advertising messages, SMM includes everything from creating good content people will want to share to monitoring conversations about your brand online and even developing customer loyalty programs.
So, what are the advantages of social media advertising and marketing? Let's address some.
While SMA and SMM offer many benefits for your social media strategies, they also have several disadvantages.
Having the right tactics in place can help you get the most out of your social media advertising and marketing efforts.
Now that we've gone in depth into social media advertising vs social media marketing, it's time to focus on how you can decide which strategy is best for your business. To determine the best social media strategy for you, you first need to know and understand your business and the goals and mission of your brand.
You should also consider what social media content your target audience appreciates the most. And because content is king, you should always prioritize quality over quantity regarding social media.
Consider tapping into SMA when you want to:
Consider using SMM when you want to:
Social media is an ever-changing landscape that requires constant attention and a plan of action. Social media advertising vs social media marketing are two very distinct strategies to help you achieve your social media goals, like increasing leads and closing deals faster.
As a business owner, you can use SMM to build better relationships with your customers and SMA to generate leads, boost social media SEO rankings, and increase website traffic. The best way to decide which strategy is best for your business is to ask what you want to achieve, review your needs and goals, and then plan accordingly.
Do you need help getting more leads, traffic, customers, sales, or better reporting for your business? Eternal Works is a reputable growth agency based in Virginia Beach specializing in getting our customers the leads and sales they need to grow their business.
Social media strategies have been our bread and butter for years, and we'd love the opportunity to help you grow your business. Schedule a call with us today, and be sure to download our template to use hashtags like a pro!