Digital marketing and social media marketing are often interchanged when creating a marketing strategy. While digital and social media marketing is sometimes referred to as the same thing, they are two different aspects of a marketing plan.
The difference between the two is simple: Digital Marketing is an umbrella term and includes all types of marketing activities while Social Media Marketing is one aspect of digital marketing and focuses primarily on the use of marketing on the social media platform
Digital Marketing
The purpose of digital marketing is to implement a variety of digital channels to grow sales and profits, create brand awareness and customer trust, create value, and much more. Those in charge of a digital marketing strategy are responsible for testing strategies, measuring analytics, and making campaign changes to determine what strategies work best for a brand or business. They use tools like search engine optimization (SEO) tools, content creation tools, targeted social media marketing, paid social media marketing, website analytics, the list goes on.
It’s not necessary to include all available digital channels in a marketing strategy. Instead, digital marketers create a customized marketing strategy that consists of the most appropriate digital marketing channels that fit your business, target audience, and budget.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing focuses solely on marketing strategies distributed across social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, and many more.
Similar to a digital marketing campaign, it’s not necessary to include all social channels in a marketing strategy. When choosing which social media platforms to use, marketers will include the social media channels that best express your brand voice, give you optimal visibility, and allow customers to engage with you the most.
The social platforms chosen will also highly depend on your target audience. For example, your target audience is going to be different on Snapchat than it is on Facebook. Young users typically use Snapchat, and if you are targeting a more mature audience, Facebook will be your best option.
Usually, a social media marketing strategy includes:
- Customer engagement
- Follower analytics
- Collaborations with industry influencers
- Giveaways and contests
- Attention-grabbing content
- Organic and paid marketing
You should know and understand the difference so you can effectively create a marketing strategy for both aspects of your marketing plan.
Social Media And Digital Marketing
Understanding how social media fits into your digital marketing plan can create a strategy that allows your customers to actively engage with your brand on digital platforms and social platforms. It will create a cohesive brand voice across multiple platforms, increasing customer trust and boosting sales and profit.
Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing | Key Differences
Let’s do a recap of the main differences between the two
| Digital Marketing | Social Media Marketing |
|---|---|
| Uses online and offline channels for brand promotion | Uses social media channels and does not go beyond the internet |
| Reaches the target audience upon visiting the website, social media handle(s), email, and all digital platforms | Reaches target audience only on social media channels |
| Raises awareness of business for increasing website traffic and measures performances of content, social media, and media | Focused on engaging the audience directly on social media handles along with influencers and evaluates customer engagement |
| Takes time to plan a strategy across different channels as a long-term goal | Takes a shorter time to plan and execute a strategy that works immediately |
So which is better: Digital or Social Marketing?
If you are still thinking in terms of digital vs. social marketing, just remember that social media marketing is just a single part of digital marketing. Both can bring something important to your campaign, depending on your company’s goals. Digital marketing has been around for decades and it’s not going anywhere.
Social media is newer, but it’s become one of the most important types of marketing for many businesses. With few exceptions, no brand or company should put all of their focus into social media marketing, but it should be a central part of your process for the foreseeable future. Ideally, your social and other digital campaigns will work together, in harmony, to reach the most potential customers.