SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VS SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING | Social Media Marketing (SMM) Blog

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September 26th, 2008

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VS SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

By: Madiha Mushtaq
Posted in SEM, SMM (General), SMO |
Tags: search engine, search engine marketing, SEM, SMM, smm vs sem, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Online marketing has become an important part of almost every business strategy. Social media marketing and search engine marketing are two main aspects of any successful online marketing campaign. One way or the other, both forms of marketing complement each other. Here is a brief overview of the two vast fields of marketing on the internet.

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing is the process of internet marketing through which websites can improve their exposure and traffic in search engine result listings. Search engines are the most efficient way of promoting products or information, and they also help elevate site visitor numbers. Search engines contribute to driving customers to view a particular websites because:

They provide concise information about the websites related to a particular question or search topic so viewers are attracted to them.
Advertisers can place pay per click ads on search engine sites to gain well-placed ads that potential customers will hopefully see.
Marketers can apply search engine optimization to their websites by developing web content. By doing this they can achieve a good ranking and gain more visibility in the search engine pages.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is the process of communicating with potential customers by using social media on the internet. SMM is being used as a tool for sharing and discussing information with users all over the globe. Social media marketing involves spreading your message virally using virtually any form of social media including blogs, forums, videos, pictures and audio.

Comparison

Below is a detailed comparison between social media marketing and search engine marketing in terms of time, impact measurement and traffic generated:

	Social Media Marketing	Search Engine Marketing
Time	There is a general concept among users that social media marketing is a time consuming process. It is less effective in terms of desired traffic generation and measurability.	SEM is considered to be the most effective way of generating the desired amount of traffic in much less time.
Measurability	It is often said that social marketing cannot be measured. It’s true that it is difficult to measure, but not impossible. The ROI of a blog can be measured if the right analytics are used. Those same analytics can tell you how much traffic is coming from social media sites.	Here the measurability is not an issue as the investment and the route of traffic is more visible. The strategy of pay per click or paid placement ads do all of the measuring.
Traffic	If a good social marketing strategy is implemented then the traffic gained can be more closely targeted and often with higher conversion rates.	Search engine marketing can deliver precise and targeted traffic to the marketers but the conversion rate is not as effective.

From the above comparison it looks like both social media marketing and search engine marketing are vital for the success and promotion of any business on the internet.

If you haven’t started your online marketing then think about it seriously. Blogs are one of the best sources of information when it comes to learning how to market online and how to implement tried and tested marketing strategies. Nowadays, there is much more emphasis on social media marketing online because people see that it automatically improves visibility in search engines. It is a great step toward starting your search engine marketing and search engine optimization campaigns. Marketing experts now focus more on social media to promote their brand awareness and to generate traffic that is more reliable in the long run.

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