Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing

Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing may seem interchangeable terms, but they are different from each other! Social media marketing mainly use the social media sites to promote, advertise a product or service. On the other hand, digital marketing uses all available digital channels like internet, TV, radio etc, to promote or advertise a product or service. Let us see how social media marketing differs from digital marketing!

Social Media Marketing:

The process of advertising and promoting a product or service or building a relationship with customers through social media channels or sites is called social media marketing. Social media is an online platform that enables users to share their thoughts, stories, messages, images, audio and video etc, with other users

Social media marketing is a part of online digital marketing. It offers the easiest and effective way to marketers to make their presence online and establish a public voice. Furthermore, the progress and engagement of users on social media can be monitored or tracked through various data analytics tools. Some of the popular social media channels for social media marketing include blogs, forums, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google plus, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and more.

Social media can be used in two different ways for marketing as a free advertising or paid advertising. For free advertising you can create account on a social media site and make connections and increase followers by sharing valuable information, inviting consumers to share their expectation or feedback. The paid advertising involves sponsored ads on social media like Facebook, twitter, YouTube etc.

Digital Marketing:

The process of advertising or promoting a product or service using electronic or digital channels especially the internet is called digital marketing. It is not restricted to internet, the traditional channels like televisions, SMS and digital billboards are also part of digital marketing mix. A variety of electronic gadgets are used for digital marketing like PCs, tablets, mobiles etc. Digital marketing is generally associated with internet-based channels such as:

Email marketing
Display marketing (advertising displayed on websites)
Pop up advertising
Content marketing
Social media

Based on the above information, some of the key differences between social media marketing and digital marketing are as follows:

Social Media Marketing	Digital Marketing
It involves the use of social media sites, forums, blogs etc, to promote or advertise a product or service.	It involves the use of digital channels like internet, TV, radio, billboards etc to promote or advertise a product or service.
Its reach is limited as it is limited to the boundaries of internet.	Its reach is wide as it goes beyond the internet and can reach people in the off-line world.
A social media campaign generally involves one or more social media sites like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc	A digital marketing campaign generally include one or more digital channels like internet advertising, TV, SMS, mobile ads etc.
It mainly involves a content strategy, e.g. you can create content and promote it through social media.	It gives emphasis on banners for promotion, e.g. banners on internet, TV and billboards etc.
It is faster than digital marketing due to the quick response of the user.	It is slower than social media marketing.