The Faceoff between Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing

by jasonbowden01

So, you have your website ready, and now you are looking for ways to drive traffic to your website. To start with, there are several ways to accomplish this task. However, the two most popular choices among business owners and individuals are social media marketing and search engine marketing. In most cases, the conflict lies in which one should be given preference. 

How is Search Engine Marketing Better?

There are some inherent advantages of using SEM. The fundamental benefit is that most people look for business using searches. Besides this, you can take help of research tools to know what people are commonly looking for to get a head start, as far as keywords are concerned. Besides this, you can also buy the services of providers like Google AdWords to get the desired results.  

How is Social Media Marketing Better?

While SEM has its benefits, SMM is also advantageous in several ways. The concept of word-of-the-mouth marketing works the best in SMM. This is best illustrated in social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Likes, comments and retweets broaden your audience coverage like nothing else.  A significant and unique benefit that the social media gives you is multi-dimensional interactivity.

You can post information, get feedback and respond to feedback in real time. This gives you a wonderful platform to interact directly with your customers. However, your responses will create your online presence and reputation. Therefore, be selective and wise in your responses. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon have come up with profitable and interesting advertising plans, which you can buy to gain advantage.   

How Search Engine Marketing Assists Social Media Marketing?

The use of SEO is not just limited to websites. In fact, it can also be applied to the content of your social media campaigns. Although, making predictions on which keywords are popular in social media may not be easy, there are several tools like WeFollow for Twitter that can be used to get assistance in this regard. Such tools can be used to refine your social media content and also help you generate traffic for the same. Moreover, concepts like Meta descriptions, image tags and title tags can also be used in social media content to perform on-site optimization.  

How Social Media Marketing Assists Search Media Marketing?

Social media profiles usually rank well in search engine results. This fact can be used to your advantage as this keeps the bad entries and negative pages about your business away. Therefore, social media marketing can help you in reputation management. Besides this, social media profiles are trustworthy and will add a few points to your credibility.

Which One Should You Choose?

The benefits mentioned for SMM and SEM are sure to confuse you. However, when both appear profitable in their own domains; it is best to incorporate both these activities in your plan. A combination of social media marketing and search engine marketing will help you achieve a good balance of traffic to your website. If your efforts in one area begin to prove unsuccessful, you can still expect to get traffic from the other source. Therefore, you will never lose all your customers at the same time.