Difference between Digital Marketing and Social Media

Difference Between Digital Marketing and Social Media

-The difference between digital marketing and social media is that social media is just one of the available channels of digital marketing. Many people believe that by engaging on social media they are doing digital marketing but this is not 100% true, as there are many more components that make up a digital marketing campaign.

What is Digital Marketing?

-My definition of Digital marketing is: Building awareness and promoting a brand or product online using all available digital channels.

major components of digital marketing are:

Internet Marketing – Website, SEM (search engine marketing – includes SEO and Pay per click advertising), smartphones, mobile markets (i.e. Google Play, Apple Store), email marketing, online banner advertising and Social Media.

Non-Internet digital channels – Television, Radio, SMS, digital billboards (indoor and outdoor)

The diagram below shows exactly the relationship of the different components that make up digital marketing.

What is social media?

-Social media is the latest buzz word in Internet Marketing the last couple of years. The success of the new generation of social media platforms, mainly Facebook and Twitter, changed the way we socialize, interact and shop. This also brought new channels to digital marketing as well.

Social media is the term we use to describe platforms that bring people together for the exchange of information. The most popular social media platforms are: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and YouTube.

What are the advantages of using social media in your marketing campaigns?

-There are many advantages of utilizing social media for promoting both your online or offline products and services.

It’s a fast way to spread the word – If you have a big fan base, you can tweet or post on Facebook and your message can instantly go to thousands of users around the World. In fact, social media is the fastest way (even from TV and Radio) to make an announcement or spread a message.

It’s good for SEO – There are more and more signs that social signals are used for ranking purposes by both Google and Bing.

It’s a trend – Social media is a trend you cannot ignore if you want to stay close to your customers and in synch with the latest developments in marketing.

It’s one of the ways to interact with your customers and find out what they want – With social media your customers can show that they like a product or piece of content by voting (Like, Tweet, +1), commenting and sharing. As a marketer you can analyze these statistics, talk with your customers and find out how to make your products, content or services better.

Digital marketing VS Social media

-It should be clear after reading the above definitions that social media is a major component of Internet Marketing which is part of Digital marketing.

If we compare the two side by side we will find that:Digital marketing goes beyond the Internet and tries to reach people in the off-line world using digital means while social media is limited to the boundaries of the Internet.

A Digital marketing campaign 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 while a digital marketing can concentrate entirely on banners (either on the Internet, TV or billboards) for promotion.

Which is more important digital marketing or social media?

-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 to build awareness than social media. Social media is a must of every product, brand or service that has a wide audience.

For example, if you are 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 are selling custom tools for farmers you can use social media as a resource to find out more about the products but your main selling point will be billboard ads on rural areas and Radio ads.

Infographics play an important part in the Digital Marketing process as it lets you pass on the information that you want your consumer to know through engaging stuff.