Introduction
Digital Marketing refers to marketing digitally through digital channels, which is different from conventional channels of marketing that include print or electronic mediums for marketing. Digital Marketing is done through digital channels or mediums, which consist of Websites, Social Media, Search Engines, Emails, and many more. This medium of Marketing increased increasingly with the internet in the 1990s. The same principles that are used in conventional marketing are also used in Digital Marketing because the core concept of marketing products and services remains the same. Only the ways of marketing in Digital Medium are slightly different than the ways of marketing used to market in Conventional medium. Both marketing mediums are used by businesses along with suitable marketing strategies to market their products and services.
Digital Marketing includes both Social Media Marketing and Social Media optimization in the case of marketing in social media. Social Media Marketing is marketing in social media platforms, and Social Media optimization can be seen as a step towards Social Media Marketing. Social Media Marketing cannot be done without Social Media Optimisation as the first step. Social Media Marketing is a vast concept under which the topic of Social Media Optimisation comes in. Social Media Optimisation can be viewed as a type of Social Media Marketing strategy.
Social Media Marketing vs. Social Media Optimisation
Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimisation are activities both related to social media. Everybody nowadays, including every individual and every business organization, is active in one social media platform or the other. It has become an undistinguished part of everyday life. Social Media Marketing, in literal terms, means marketing on social media channels, which is a kind of Digital Marketing. Social Media Marketing means using various social media platforms for marketing and promoting the products and services of a particular brand with the help of several clever marketing strategies. Social Media Marketing is done to increase the brand awareness of a company or business organization and to improve the brand’s social image. Social Media Marketing can be of two types: organic and inorganic marketing. Social Media Optimisation comes under the organic part of Social Media Marketing. Organic social media marketing does not involve any paid form of marketing. Social Media optimization can be defined as optimizing the social media presence of a particular brand without using any paid marketing tactics.
Difference Between Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization in Tabular Form
| Parameters of Comparison | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Optimization |
| Meaning | Media Marketing means carrying out marketing efforts on a company’s social media platforms. | The social media presence of a company is optimized or improved before conducting social media marketing on a company's social media profile. |
| Time of Conducting | Media Marketing is conducted on a company's social media profile after fully optimizing it to achieve better results. | Media optimization is optimizing a brand’s presence on social media and enhancing its visibility by improving its social media marketing tactics. |
| Goal | Media Optimisation is optimizing a brand’s presence on social media and enhancing its visibility by improving its social media marketing tactics. | Media Optimisation focuses on improving a company’s overall reputation on social media by modifying its social media profile. |
| Mode of Marketing | Media Marketing utilizes both organic and inorganic modes of marketing. | Media Optimization can be considered a type of Social Media Marketing and is more focused on the organic means of marketing. |
| Cost | The main goal of Social Media Marketing is promoting and making people aware of a particular brand, especially for the purpose of generating conversions. | Media Optimisation is less costly because it focuses on the organic part of marketing. |
| Success | Media Marketing can be effective in providing immediate success. | Media Optimization takes time but is beneficial in the long run. |
| Year of Introduction | Media Marketing is more costly than Social Media Optimization, especially due to advertisements. | Media Optimisation came much later than Social Media Marketing and was introduced in the year 2006. |
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing was introduced in the year 1997. Social Media Marketing is the next step to Social Media optimization, where the concerned company's website and social media platforms are both optimized to achieve better results. However, Social Media Marketing is only concerned with marketing on the available social media channels to promote the brand image of a company. Social Media Marketing consists of marketing on social media for brand awareness, to connect and build a community of target audiences who will soon get converted into customers. Social Media Marketing is very influential in the field of digital marketing because it focuses on the marketing aspects of establishing a connection with the target audience, creating a space for interaction between the brand and its target audience, which in turn brings in customer data. Some of the social media platforms used in today's life are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and WhatsApp.
There are several advantages or merits of Social Media Marketing, among which some of them are: -
- Increases Brand Awareness of a Business
- Specific Areas of Interest can be Targeted
- Results can be Tracked and Measured
Increases Brand Awareness of a Business
Social Media consists of hundreds and thousands of people these days, and without social media, people cannot imagine their daily life. It is a part of daily life. So, building a social media presence and managing that is very necessary for a business to continue flourishing because, through social media, a brand can reach thousands of people. Social Media Marketing helps in achieving brand awareness through engaging social media content that will attract lots of people. This engagement can be generated when social media influencers repost the content of one brand and give it a shoutout, and then engagement is created. When social media users like, comment, or share the post of one brand, then engagement is created, which helps in spreading awareness about that brand.
Specific Areas of Interest can be Targeted
Social Media Marketing provides marketers with the opportunity to target specific customers, demographics, user behavior, and topics to influence the intended audience or the target audience who are more likely to interact with the brand and get converted into a customer.
Results can be Tracked and Measured
There is the additional advantage that social media marketers can track the results of their marketing efforts and campaigns in Social Media Marketing. Several websites provide this facility for tracking and analyzing the results of marketing on Social Media, such as Facebook Ads Manager, with the help of which ad campaigns can be created for Facebook and Instagram, and then the result of those ad campaigns can be tracked in Facebook Ads Manager. This data can be used to depict which marketing strategy is the most efficient for social media marketing, and accordingly, that strategy will be implemented to achieve better results.
Types of Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing can be of two types, namely: -
- Organic Marketing
- Inorganic Marketing
Organic Marketing
Organic marketing is unpaid marketing, which includes creating appropriate content for different social media platforms and publishing them at the scheduled time to establish a connection with the customers and create engagement. Engagement in social media includes an increase in the followers of a brand and interaction of these followers with the brand through liking, commenting, or sharing their posts, which leads to the creation of an online community and establishes brand loyalty.
Inorganic Marketing
Inorganic means of Social Media Marketing include paid marketing, which is advertising. The advertisements that can be found on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media channels are examples of inorganic or paid social media marketing.
What is Social Media Optimization?
Social Media Optimisation was introduced in the year 2006. It is just like SEO, which is used to improve the visibility of a brand’s website on search engines. Similarly, Social Media optimization optimizes the social media presence of a particular brand. It is like organic Social Media Marketing because here the overall look and content of a brand’s social media profile is optimized. Social Media Optimization is not just focused on improving a company's social media presence but also on optimizing the existing marketing strategies to achieve better outcomes. It can be said that if social media marketing is focused on promoting the brand image of a business, then social media optimization is focused on improving the business's brand image and retaining that improvement. Social Media Marketing is spreading awareness about the company, but social media optimization is improving that company's social media presence or social image. Firstly, Social Media Optimization is done, and then Social Media Marketing is carried out. In Social Media Optimisation, the social media profile of a company, along with its content, is optimized to achieve better outcomes and faster engagement.
There are various ways of optimizing a company’s social media profile by creating an appealing and witty profile setup, such as by including an interesting bio on Instagram. Then, the content of the company can also be optimized and made attractive by including the right hashtags and by writing eye-catching captions to attract potential people who can convert into customers.
The benefits of Social Media Optimization are: -
- Increases Brand Visibility
- Creates Brand Loyalty
Increases Brand Visibility
Social Media Optimisation improves a brand’s chances of its social media profile being viewed by an audience by improving the overall look of its social media profile. Writing a witty Instagram bio or an eye-catching caption or providing attractive visual content can improve the chances of brand visibility, and potential customers will then be able to find and connect with the organization.
Creates Brand Loyalty
Optimizing a brand's social media presence by creating appropriate posts and posting them at the right time, interacting with the potential consumers, and addressing their issues helps in creating engagement and builds loyalty and trust within the consumers, which leads to brand loyalty in the customers, where they continue to remain loyal to one brand.
Types of Social Media Optimization Strategies
There are several social media optimization strategies, among which some of them are: -
- Optimizing One’s Social Media Profile
- Optimizing One’s Social Media Content
Optimizing One’s Social Media Profile
The most significant strategy of social media optimization is enhancing a brand’s social media profile by providing updated information in the bio. This is because the very first thing is the bio that an audience will see when they visit a brand’s social media profile. It should be attractive and engaging. Witty lines that match the business' brand identity can be added to the bio. Visually appealing graphics can be added. This is the first optimization that each and everyone should do to achieve better results.
Optimizing One’s Social Media Content
The content should also be optimized along with the profile because if the profile is catchy and attractive, but there is no substance in the core, meaning good content, then good results cannot be achieved.
The content is the next thing that a customer or a follower will see, and this is how a community of trust and loyalty is built between the brand and its consumers. Using the right hashtags for a post, using attractive visuals and eye-catching captions, and posting at the right time of the day are various ways of optimizing one's content.
Main Differences Between Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization (In Points)
- Social Media Marketing means carrying out effective marketing strategies on a business's social media platforms, like running advertisements or influencer marketing to spread awareness about the business. Social Media optimization is just like SEO. Just as SEO improves a business' website visibility, Social Media Optimization is focused on improving a brand’s visibility and social media presence by optimizing its social media content to achieve better results.
- Social Media Marketing is conducted after optimizing a business's social media profile because optimization makes the marketing strategies more effective, as a result of which social media marketing strategies yield high results. So, optimizing a brand’s social media profile is a must for social media marketing.
- Social Media Marketing is primarily focused on promoting and spreading a brand image, and its main goal is to drive conversions, mainly the sale of products and services, which is why advertisements are an important part of social media marketing. Social Media Optimisation works to improve a brand image and retain that consistency. It mainly improves the overall look of a brand’s social media profile and optimes it for better performance by making the necessary changes in the profile.
- Social Media Marketing consists of both organic and inorganic or paid marketing. Organic marketing is like social media optimization and focuses on optimizing a brand profile and its content and creating more engagement, which is very cost-effective and provides long-term success. Inorganic marketing is paid marketing and focuses mainly on advertising, which is a bit costly based on the different factors of advertising, like targeting and placing of ads. It can produce immediate success and reach a large audience, but social media optimization is more effective than marketing because, without optimization, marketing will not yield any results.
Conclusion
Hence, Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimisation are both related to social media, but they have their purposes. Social Media Marketing is focused on promoting a brand image, but Social Media optimization is focused on improving the brand image and retaining that improvement. It can be said to be a part of social media marketing because it focuses on the organic means of marketing. Without social media optimization, social media marketing is of no use because if the social media profile and its content are not optimized and set according to brand guidelines, then there is no point in advertising. Social Media Marketing achieves real success when the result is an increase in conversion rates, especially the sale of products and services, but for this to happen, followers need to be converted to customers, which can be done with the help of social media optimization.
