The Thin Line between Content & Social Media Marketing

Well, It’s been a while so forgive us for the silence. 🙂

By the way, if the people who write the blogs and social media platforms you follow don’t apologize after a brief/long hiatus, you should be wary of them…we mean, they didn’t miss you at all? They didn’t think you cared? 😜

We missed you. You’ve been keeping well? This is not a rhetoric question.

Do you ever stop to think about what your world would look like without social media? Not the internet, just social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and your other favourite platforms?

If we were to strip you of your social media accounts so to speak, what would your identity on the internet look like?

We’ll make this as succinct as possible as we answer the question; Content Marketing or Social Media Marketing?

 

Your Digital Footprint

To give you a foundation, it is important to consider what your digital footprint as an individual or brand is made of.

Digital footprint as defined simply by Google is “the information about any particular person/brand that exists on the internet as a result of their online activity.”

Your digital footprint can be passive as in the case of your IP address being logged by the websites you visit or your search history by some search engines.

It can also be active as in the case of you submitting data intentionally online by sending emails, posting on social media, blogging, even liking and commenting on other people’s content.

While it’s not alarming to have a digital footprint, it should absolutely make you mindful of what you post. The internet never forgets. As if that’s not enough, we live in the age of screenshots.

 

What’s the Difference?

Technically, there’s not much of a difference because content marketing is “a type of marketing that involves creating and sharing of online material such as videos, blogs, and social media posts that doesn’t explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interests in its products and services. ~~ Google.

The only notable difference between social media marketing and content marketing is that social media marketing only occurs on social media platforms while content marketing occurs in websites, blogs, microsites, e-books, infographics etc.

You might be thinking, “well, social media is not going away ever and it’s working for me just fine so what’s the big deal?”

From here on we’ll go with abbreviations; Content Marketing {CM} and Social Media Marketing {SMM}. Please keep up.

 

CM is the Connect while SM is the Distro

On a regular day, a brand has a lot of useful information about the products and services it offers. This information needs to be packaged in a palatable way which is where content comes in in form of websites, periodic blog posts, video content etc.

The harsh truth is it’s becoming increasingly hard to put this information in the face of the people that matter; your relevant target audience.

Social media platforms are tentacles from which your content extends its reach while opening a direct line of communication with your customers and prospects. ~~Jason Miller, senior content marketing manager at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. 

Another hard truth for brands and individuals alike is that not all your followers are your target audience or loyal to you. SMM helps you sift your loyal people from the crowd.

People on social media have a short attention span, sadly. And they don’t like to read long pieces of content.

So what do you do with the people who want to interact with you beyond your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts and short videos?

You give them more. Content marketing allows you to do that because you can simply do more with those platforms.

SMM allows for snippets and slices. Give people the whole view and cake with your website, blog, YouTube channel, you name it.

 

CM is for Demand Generation

SMM, on the other hand, helps CM efforts by being the channels for carrying out brand awareness, activity and discussions as well as the post-marketing activities of customer retention and satisfaction.

Your SMM efforts boil down to your CM platforms where you collect solid leads. By solid we’re talking about people’s real names {you all know the names you go by on social media 😁} contact details and so on in a repository that you can easily access later on.

Think of the actions you would want people to take after clicking a link on your Facebook or Twitter post.

After all the excitement on social media, where do you bring your true fans to dock?

 

Have your Cake and Eat it

In the scenario of CM and SMM, this is possible if you put in consistent effort.

Allow us to expound. SMM depends heavily on the existence of a CM strategy. Think of it as the business model. As long as that’s in place, you know what to do to get to where you need to go. Without it, you’ll just be a busybody getting crumbs here and there but never the whole pie.

For you to have a digital footprint that matters, you need to consistently publish relevant content on your social media platforms. The audience you get from your SM efforts needs to find a cake that they just can’t wait to dig in. Which brings us to the importance of having CM platforms which are regularly updated. Have a website that works, an updated blog, YouTube channel etc.

So yes, SM may be top of mind, but don’t neglect your CM channels.

So there you have it. The thin line between content marketing and social media marketing. The good thing is, we can make it happen for you if you’re, you know, struggling a bit… Contact us today