Key Takeaways
With the long list of jargon in the digital world, people often use social media management and social media marketing interchangeably. Don’t get surprised, but these are two completely different things and go hand in hand if you wish to increase your brand presence and awareness.
In this post, you’ll see what the key difference between them is, what is the general approach for the two, and which of the two you need to skyrocket your business.
Social Media Management VS Social Media Marketing
What separates the two is very little but important enough to understand.
Social Media Marketing refers to using social media as a channel of communication to attract and engage an audience to fulfil your marketing objectives.
Social Media Management, on the other hand, is a much broader concept which involves managing the overall activities limited not only to marketing but also managing end-to-end needs for maintaining your accounts. This involves:
- Defining your target audience and the end objectives with your social media marketing strategy
- Creating content calendars, preparing creatives to be shared with the audience,
- Strategising on the time slots in which the post has to be shared,
- Tracking and monitoring the increase/decrease in the number of followers and engagement,
- Reporting on KPIs and strategising and optimising your social media marketing activities for the allotted budgets,
- Measuring the ROI of your activities and others.
Why is it important to have a social media strategy?
Picture this. You have started an online business and are now looking for ways to expand its reach, build a presence, attract potential customers, and make sales. What would you do?
Advertising will probably be the first thing that will come to your mind. You will try to create social media presence for your business, create content around it on multiple platforms, etc.
The end goal is to attract traffic to your website and make the audience buy your product or service. There are over a billion users across all social media channels. According to a report by HubSpot, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter lead the pack as the most common social media platforms used by marketers.
But, by keeping track of what strategy you need to have to ensure the success of your marketing, you need to have proper management of the entire system. This process is defined as social media management.
This entails organising, creating, promoting, planning, and analysing your social media content for both paid and organic channels across all of the social media platforms your business uses and your audience interacts with.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
The benefits of using social networks are so vast that anyone who doesn’t use this affordable resource is missing out on an incredible marketing opportunity.
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Social networks are now a significant component of every marketing strategy. It is evident that effective social media marketing is essential for business growth, and many marketers are aware of this fact. Some of the advantages of using social media marketing are:
Increased Brand Awareness
You can use social media platforms for brand awareness campaigns by disseminating simple-to-create content, such as infographics, quick videos, advertisements, and links to longer, higher-quality articles.
These can cover trending topics or respond to frequently asked questions from customers.
To increase brand exposure, you can frequently utilise hashtags to mark postings so that they show up in popular social media searches.
Increase in Inbound Traffic
Your inbound traffic is restricted to your regular clients without social media marketing for your business.
People who are familiar with your brand are probably using the same search terms for which you already have rankings.
When that happens, marketing helps you by making your company more visible to a larger audience.
Higher Search Engine Rankings
Although social media doesn’t directly affect SEO rankings, the links you share on social networks help your business become more well-known and boost your ranking.
Improved internet visibility and organic traffic, increased brand familiarity, longer post lifespans, improved brand reputation, and other factors all contribute to a higher ranking.
Higher Conversion Rates
Your company has more conversion opportunities with greater visibility. Every blog entry, picture, video, or remark has the potential to draw readers to your business’ website and boost traffic.
Social media marketing allows your company to humanise itself and create a favourable impression.
Brands become more human when they participate on social media by publishing status updates, leaving comments, and sharing content. People favour doing business with other people over corporations.
Improved Brand Loyalty
Almost all organisations consider building a loyal customer base to be one of their major objectives.
Given that brand loyalty and customer pleasure frequently go hand in hand, it is crucial to constantly interact with customers and start building a relationship with them.
Social media may be used for more than just promoting your brand’s promotional initiatives and new items. These platforms are seen by customers as a direct line of communication with the company.
Cost-Effective
One of the numerous benefits of advertising on social media is that it is a very affordable approach to increasing your audience.
If you play your cards well, you may reach a large audience for a very low price by putting your information and offers in front of them.
Better Customer Satisfaction
Through these platforms, you can give your business a voice to humanise it.
Customers love knowing that they will get a personalised answer rather than an automatic message in response to their comments on your pages.
Recognising every feedback demonstrates your awareness of your customer’s requirements and commitment to giving them the greatest possible experience.
More Brand Authority
It all boils down to communication, but brand loyalty and customer happiness also contribute to the authority of your company.
Customers perceive your business as more trustworthy when they see it posting on social media, particularly when responding to their comments and sharing fresh information. Engaging with clients regularly shows that your company values their opinion and is ready to respond to any inquiries they may have.
Customers who are happy with a product or service are eager to tell others about it, and they frequently use social media to do so.
Clients mentioning your business on social media will promote it, as well as demonstrate your value and brand authority to prospective customers.
Benefits of Social Media Management
As stated before, social media management focuses more on the management part of the business. Here are some of the benefits that you can witness once you start using tools for social media management.
Better social media presence
Since you will have a content calendar by choosing social media management services, you will be consistent with your post online.
This will also involve auditing your existing social media to leverage it and attract potential clients and establish yourself as a brand.
This is applicable across social media platforms.
Generating unique content for every social media platform
Thanks to the content calendar and proper planning, you’ll never run out of content. You can either repurpose content or come up with fresh content after researching what content works well on what platform.
Analysis of your social media metrics
When it comes to social media, it’s crucial to study metrics like engagement since they may show you whether the information you upload is what users desire.
For instance, you can think about posting new content or at a different time if your Facebook engagement is poor.
You may work out the specifics to help you boost crucial indicators with the aid of your social media management company.
Provides a perfect ground to start social media marketing
Think about this. Is there any logic in promoting an Insta page with limited irregular posts and almost no engagement? Definitely no.
The money that you’ll use in marketing is nothing but a waste if what you are promoting has no value.
Therefore, to ensure that the marketing shows results, the management part also needs to function properly.
Which one is better – social media marketing or social media management?
Well, as you saw, both of these go parallelly and support each other to establish brand authority and get the traction that ultimately drives sales.
You need to decide what is your requirement based on what stage of your online business you are currently in.
If you have just begun your journey of online business, focus on management and creating valuable content and see how customers are reacting organically.
In the later stage, you may go for marketing, and then you’ll already have something to promote.
If you are still confused regarding what will work best for you, feel free to connect with EMB to get a consultation on the same and see how you can skyrocket your business.
FAQs
Q1: What is social media management?
Social media management involves creating, scheduling, analyzing, and engaging with content posted on social media platforms. It’s focused on maintaining an organization’s online presence and building community by consistently engaging with followers.
Q2: What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to promote a product, service, or brand. It involves creating targeted, strategic marketing campaigns to reach and engage potential customers, with the goal of driving sales, leads, or brand awareness.
Q3: How do social media management and marketing differ?
The main difference lies in their objectives. Social media management focuses on maintaining and enhancing an organization’s online presence and engaging with its audience. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is more focused on achieving specific marketing goals like increasing sales, generating leads, or improving brand visibility through strategic campaigns.
Q4: Can the same team handle both social media management and marketing?
Yes, in many organizations, the same team or individual might handle both roles, especially in small to medium-sized businesses. However, it’s important to distinguish between the two functions to ensure both the day-to-day management of social media and the strategic marketing efforts are effectively executed.
Q5: Why is it important to differentiate between social media management and marketing?
Differentiating between the two helps organizations allocate the right resources and strategies to each function. It ensures that the daily engagement and community building is not overlooked in favor of only focusing on promotional campaigns, and vice versa.
Q6: What skills are essential for social media management versus marketing?
Social media management requires strong communication skills, creativity, and customer service skills to engage effectively with followers. Social media marketing, on the other hand, requires skills in strategic planning, data analysis, and advertising to create and execute successful marketing campaigns.
