Both SEO and social media have important roles in your Digital Marketing strategy, each offering unique benefits.
Also, these Inbound Marketing tools help attract a specific audience to your website.
Before deciding which one will benefit your company the most, it is essential to understand what each of these strategies is and is not.
SEO is the powerhouse that helps you achieve high rankings in search engine results. A correct SEO strategy increases your visibility and generates a greater number of organic leads.
A strategic social media plan, on the other hand, specifically involves social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. These platforms are used to promote the products or services you offer and serve as an increasingly essential tool to achieve your sales goals. They also have the goal of creating more brand awareness.
However, how do you know how much time to spend on each part of your strategy? For example, should you spend more time on SEO or social media?
Two different strategies, but equally powerful. Let’s see their particular differences below.
Difference 1: content type
When it comes to content, SEO focuses on providing information based on research that answers a question or searches for knowledge on the part of your audience, that is, your buyer persona.
The most popular content types are long content, blog posts, and web pages.
With social media marketing, content has another role. Its function is to generate emotions and, at the same time, generate engagement.
The type of content for social networks is generally short and visual. Both can be very useful when implanted correctly.
Difference 2: How the target audience is identified
Knowing who your buyer personas are can guide both your SEO and social media strategy.
However, these two marketing strategies differ in how they identify the target audience.
During the planning of your SEO strategy, you will research and identify the buyer personas who will be most interested in what you have to offer based on the data collected.
When it comes to identifying buyer personas for your social media marketing strategy, your research methods start with the platforms themselves.
By analyzing the demographics of each platform, you can identify who uses which platform the most and who is engaging.
From there you can focus your attention and your budget on them. In other words, social media helps you locate your target audience.
Difference 3: underlying purpose
SEO seeks to get a better ranking of content on the results page of a search engine, providing your target audience with the information they want and need.
The SEO strategy considers that keywords provide the most value, along with other tools such as scannability and link building.
Marketing in social networks is more related to the creation of links and engagement with Buyer Personas, generating more and more brand awareness.
At the same time, it allows more traffic to be sent to the website due to an established social presence through the community or the use of paid ads on individual platforms.
Difference 4: Measurement of Results
To achieve successful SEO measurements, you will need patience.
Search engines need time to index your content and give it a good ranking. First, you’ll need to establish yourself to gain credibility and rank high in search results.
Therefore, SEO requires a continuous effort to measure good results.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) for SEO search focus on traffic and also on click results.
On the other hand, there is social media marketing. Social networks change very quickly and that allows you to quickly see what works and what does not when you publish new content.
You can easily track KPIs around here too. You can consider the level of engagement, such as likes, comments, and shared posts, as well as you have access to feedbacks instantly.
Difference 5: Number of websites/platforms
With SEO, you have fewer search engines to focus on, allowing you to use your time and resources more efficiently. In many strategies, the idea is simply to rank on Google.
Contrary to social media marketing, which requires you to divide your time between different platforms, which will require more resources.
These are just some of the differences between the two strategies, however, they are the ones that can best help you determine how to fit them into your overall marketing strategy.
Benefits of an SEO strategy:
This optimization is important because search engines are more efficient at generating more traffic for your website than all social networks combined.
So there are definite benefits to spending more time developing an SEO strategy.
The perception of social networks is often a way of connecting with others, entertaining, not looking for products or services.
Meanwhile, search engines are used vehicles to search for them directly.
As a result, people later in the customer journey turn to search engines, leading to more conversions.
SEO strategy is a long-term investment, which continues to bring traffic to your website as inquiries are made. Its content is available to inform, educate and entertain the public.
Among the additional benefits of an SEO strategy we have:
you get higher quality traffic.
Improve brand visibility.
Helps establish authority and gain confidence.
It allows the preparation of reports and analysis and facilitates the monitoring of KPIs.
Search is and will continue to be the main driver of traffic for your website, so think carefully before neglecting your SEO strategy.
Advantages of social media marketing:
Social networks are much more than a platform for interaction between friends.
Today, they serve as a powerful mechanism to reach your audience in different ways.
Having a social media plan will help you identify the best ways to attract more customers.
This plan is a type of guide that will help you identify what actions to take, what will be the publication schedule and what your goals and objectives are. You should also include the ways to measure your KPIs.
This planning also includes details on which platforms to use for the best results, how and when to use social media ad campaigns, and when and how often you should boost your posts.
Social media can also help you determine the tone of voice to use on all platforms, something that should be consistent and follow brand guidelines.
The benefits of planning on social media include:
It keeps you organized and focused to make your social media marketing more efficient.
It focuses on the most important goals, such as creating brand awareness, improving engagement, or generating conversions.
Define opportunities to interact with your target audience.
Boost your brand by posting shareable content.
Identify ways to generate engagement.
Let others work for you, from influencers to users who give you backlinks and reviews.
Identify KPIs that drive engagement to track, such as comments, likes, and shared posts.
What should be the focus of your business SEO or social networks:?
When it comes to determining whether to focus your business on SEO or social media, there is a lot to consider.
Both come with strengths and also with weaknesses.
However, there are numerous ways that SEO and social media marketing benefit each other.
So maybe the question we need to ask is: which one do you focus on the most and how can it contribute to the other?
Generally, the best answer is to make a combined effort.
Your website will benefit from a combination of social media marketing and SEO, rather than just relying on one or the other.
Here are some of the ways that they work together.
Boost traffic
SEO ensures that your content is readable by search engines, while social media will show your content to your target audience more quickly.
Improve strategies
Social networks provide you with a way to locate your target audience and then reach it with SEO.
Boost visibility
By sharing content from your blog optimized for SEO on your social networks, you give greater visibility to your content strategy.
Control the budget
You can save time and resources when your planning includes SEO and social media together.
Ultimately, you need both: SEO and social media
When we talk about SEO vs. social networks nobody wins. One benefits the other.
The return that is achieved through social networks may be less than with SEO, but they help considerably to expand your reach.
If you put off or reject social media, you should keep in mind that those who are on social media may wonder why your brand is not there. And lead them to think that you are not where your audience is because you do not care what they do.
So, there is no escape:
SEO can bring visitors to your website and these visitors can continue the connection on your social media platforms.
Conclusion:
Social networks are an excellent strategy that keeps you close to your audience while SEO is a constant progression to achieve the results you expect.
You can slowly and steadily win the race, but knowing what is happening now can take you faster.
Take the opportunity to consider SEO and social media in your next strategy. Download the kit that will help you in planning your next SEO and social media marketing strategy right now!