Social media is one of the most powerful tools businesses can use today. Not only does it allow you to connect with your customers and create a better relationship with them, but it also allows you to reach a wider audience. However, there is a big difference between social media management and social media marketing, and it's important to understand what that difference is before you start using social media for your business.
Difference Between Social Media Management and Social Media Marketing
The most significant difference between social media management and social media marketing is the different goals your marketing efforts are trying to achieve. Social media management is all about maintaining your online presence on social media and ensuring that your content is regularly updated. On the other hand, social media marketing is all about the use of social media to achieve specific business goals, such as increasing brand awareness or generating leads.
It's important to note that social media management and social media marketing are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they often work hand-in-hand to help you achieve your business goals. However, the focus of each one is different, which is why it's essential to understand the difference between them.
Generally, a social media manager will have different duties than a social media marketer. In social media management, the main goal is to ensure that your social media accounts are regularly updated with fresh content. This includes creating new posts, maintaining a social media presence, responding to comments, and monitoring your social media analytics.
On the other hand, a social media marketer will focus more on using social media to achieve specific business goals. This might involve creating targeted campaigns, running ads, or analyzing your social media analytics to see what's working and what isn't.
Both a social media manager and social media marketer will have a lot of overlap in the marketing tools they use. However, social media managers will often use tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to help them with their tasks. In contrast, social media marketers will use platforms like Google Analytics or AdEspresso to track their progress.
It's important to have someone on your team who is responsible for each of these areas, as they are both critical to the success of your social media campaign. However, it's also essential to understand the difference between them to create a well-rounded strategy that meets all of your business goals.
According to a recent study from DataReportal, 59% of the world's population is on social media, with users spending an average of almost two and a half hours daily on social media. This is a massive opportunity for brands to increase their brand awareness and brand loyalty and focus on marketing. A social media manager may see those figures and focus on engagement, while a social media marketer may focus on audience segmentation or paid ads analytics. These two functions are different sides of the same coin.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Now that we've covered the difference between social media management and social media marketing let's take a closer look at social media marketing. Social media marketing is using social media to achieve specific business goals. This might involve creating targeted campaigns, running ads, or analyzing your social media analytics to see what's working and what isn't.
The main goal of social media marketing is to use social media to achieve specific business goals. However, there are a few different types of goals that you might want to focus on, such as:
Increasing brand awareness
Generating leads
Boosting sales
Improving customer satisfaction
Each business is different, so choosing the social media marketing goals most relevant to your business is important. However, one of the most important things to remember is that your social media marketing goals should be aligned with your overall business goals.
Like all digital marketing strategies, your social media marketing strategy should be fine-tuned once in a while. Marketing campaign metrics and goals change, and so should your social media marketing strategy. As your business grows, your social media marketing strategy should too.
There are so many platforms to be on, and your social media marketer must know how to use each to its fullest capabilities. The platforms are always changing, and your social media marketer should be on top of those changes.
Your social media marketing strategy should also include a plan for paid ads. Paid ads can help you reach a larger audience, target specific demographics, or promote a new product or service. However, it's important to remember that not all paid ads are created equal. You'll need to choose the right paid ad platform for your business and create relevant, engaging, and cost-effective ads.
If you're unsure where to start, consider hiring a social media marketing agency. An excellent social media marketing agency will have a team of experts who can help you create a well-rounded social media marketing strategy that meets all of your business goals. While you're at it, check out our blog on the Best Social Media Marketing Strategies for more information on what makes social media marketing campaigns effective.
What is Social Media Management?
Social media management is the process of managing all of your social media accounts. This includes creating and scheduling posts, responding to comments and messages, monitoring social media analytics and hashtags, working with influencers, and more.
The main goal of social media management is to ensure that all your social media accounts are active and up-to-date. This includes creating new content, scheduling posts, responding to comments and messages, and more. Social media users expect content and timely responses, and your social media manager will be the one to follow through.
Social media management is a critical part of any social media strategy. If you're not managing your social media accounts, you're missing out on opportunities to engage with your audience and achieve your business goals. Your social media efforts will fall flat without a social media manager to keep your social media followers satisfied.
A social media manager will create a content calendar for their social media posts. This content calendar will help them track what they need to post, when they need to post it, and what type of content they should be posting.
A social media manager will also monitor social media analytics and metrics to see how well their posts perform in real time. They'll look at engagement rates, reach, and clicks to see what's working and what isn't. Based on this data, they'll adjust their social media strategy accordingly.
There are many social media platforms on the market today. Each platform has its features, so choosing the platforms most relevant to your business is important. Once you've chosen the platforms you want to use, it's time to start creating content. Your social media manager should create high-quality content relevant to your target audience. The content should also be aligned with your overall business goals.
Managing your social media accounts can be time consuming, so choosing the right tools is vital to help you manage your accounts efficiently. Several social media management tools are available, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer.
The right social media management tool will depend on your specific needs. However, all social media management tools should offer features such as:
Scheduling and publishing content
Analytics and Reporting
Engagement tools
Team collaboration features
A strong social media manager will not only maintain business social media profiles, but they'll maintain the brand's voice along the way. This is vital to brand awareness and loyalty. Think about your favorite brands or social media accounts and how they use consistent voice and tone. This is what separates the best from the rest.
Organic Traffic vs. Paid Traffic
Another way that social media management and social media marketing differ is in their lead sources. A social media manager is responsible for all organic content, which is original and fresh content posted on social media. This can be in the form of blog posts, images, videos, or anything else that is not a paid advertisement.
Meanwhile, social media marketing generally refers to paid traffic sources and social media advertising. These can be in the form of promoted posts on Facebook ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn Sponsored InMail, and more. Paid traffic sources are a great way to reach a larger audience, but they should be used in conjunction with organic social to achieve the best results.
Both paid and organic traffic sources are important for any social media strategy. A social media manager should focus on creating high-quality content that will drive organic traffic while also working with the social media marketing team to create effective paid ads.
How Can Social Media Marketing Help My Business?
Social media marketing can help your business in several ways. Here are some of the most common benefits:
Increased brand awareness: Social media marketing can help you increase your brand's visibility and reach. You can reach a larger audience and build brand awareness by creating engaging content and ads.
Improved SEO: Social media marketing can help improve your website's SEO. Creating high-quality content and optimizing your social media accounts can increase your website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Generate leads and sales: Social media marketing can help you generate leads and sales. Creating targeted ads and promoting special offers can drive traffic to your website and convert leads into customers.
Improved customer engagement: Social media marketing can help you improve customer engagement. You can build relationships with your customers by responding to comments and messages and creating a loyal customer base.
Increased web traffic: Social media marketing can help you increase web traffic. Creating engaging content and ads can drive traffic to your website and improve your chances of ranking in SERPs.
Achieving business goals: Social media marketing can help you achieve various business goals, such as increasing brand awareness, generating leads and sales, improving customer engagement, and increasing web traffic.
Social media marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. You can reach a larger audience by creating high-quality content and ads, building brand awareness, generating leads and sales, improving customer engagement, and achieving your business goals.
Do I Need Both a Social Media Manager and Social Media Marketer?
If you're a small business owner, you may be looking at your budget and wondering if you truly need both a social media manager and a social media marketer. And the good news is, you can find skilled marketers with both qualifications.
The most important thing is to look at your business goals and what you want to achieve with social media. If you're focused on increasing brand awareness and reach, then you'll need someone skilled in organic content creation.
But if you're looking to generate leads and sales, then you'll need someone who is experienced in creating effective paid ads. A social media manager skilled in both organic and paid content creation will be the most valuable asset to your business.
Another way to look at it is this: a social media manager will help you create and post content, while a social media marketer will help you promote that content.
Both roles are important for any business that wants to succeed on social media. If you're looking to save money, you can hire one skilled person in both areas. However, a digital marketing agency can offer an expert team, including a social media manager and a social media marketer. This saves you time and money by having a built-in team that can create an effective social media strategy and executes it flawlessly.
At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide what's best for your business. But if you want to maximize your chances of success on social media, then you'll need both a social media manager and a social media marketer.
Social Media Platforms for Industries
The social media platform you use will depend on your industry, the type of content you create, your business goals, and your target audience. Here are some popular social media platforms for different industries.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular social media platform for businesses and professionals. It's perfect for B2B companies, as it allows you to connect with other businesses and create relationships.
TikTok: TikTok is an excellent platform for creative social media content creators. It's ideal for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle companies.
Snapchat: Many businesses, especially those in entertainment and gaming, use Snapchat as a social media platform. It's perfect for creating engaging content that speaks to a younger audience.
Facebook: Facebook is the most popular social media platform for businesses of all types. It's perfect for creating a brand presence, generating leads and sales, and improving customer engagement.
Instagram: If your business is in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle, or food industries, then Instagram should be one of your top social media platforms.. It's ideal for creating striking visuals that grab people's attention.
Twitter: Twitter is a popular social media platform for businesses in the news and media industries. It's the best platform for breaking news and urgent updates.
Social Media Management Platforms
There are a number of social media management platforms that allow businesses to effectively manage their social media accounts. Here are some popular options:
Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a popular social media management platform that allows businesses to manage all their social media accounts in one place effectively.
Buffer: Buffer is a social media management platform that helps businesses plan and publish their posts effectively. Buffer offers a suite of tools that can assist any social media manager.
Sprout Social: Sprout Social is a social media management platform that provides businesses with powerful tools to help them effectively manage their social media channels.
CoSchedule: Social media management software CoSchedule is a popular social networking platform that helps companies manage their social media content more efficiently.
ContentCal: ContentCal is a popular social media management platform that helps businesses plan and publish their social media content effectively.
SocialPilot: SocialPilot’s management tool organizes all of a company's social media profiles in one spot. This tool helps you reach potential customers more effectively.
MeetEdgar: MeetEdgar is our favorite content calendar app. MeetEdgar is a social media management platform that allows businesses to recycle their content and save time. You can use their content calendar to post new content or refresh old content. It can save time by automatically choosing content to recycle.
Several social media management platforms are available, so choosing one that's right for your business is essential. The most important thing is finding a platform to help you effectively manage your social media accounts and publish high-quality content.
How to Measure Social Media Marketing Success
There are a number of metrics you can use to measure social media marketing success. Here are some of the most important ones:
Reach: Reach is the number of people who see your content. It's important to track reach because it gives you an idea of how far your content is spreading.
Engagement: Engagement is the number of people who interact with your content. This includes likes, comments, and shares. Engagement is important because it shows how much people are interested in your content.
Traffic: Traffic is the number of people who click on links to your website from your social media accounts. Tracking traffic can give you an idea of how effective your social media marketing is at driving traffic to your website.
Leads: Leads are the people who sign up for your email list or contact you after seeing your content. Tracking leads can give you an idea of how effective your social media marketing is at generating leads.
Sales: Sales are the number of people who make a purchase after seeing your content. Tracking sales can give you an idea of how effective your social media marketing is at generating sales.
There are a number of other metrics you can track, but these are some of the most important ones. It's important to track metrics so you can see what's working and what's not.
Social media management and social media marketing are two crucial aspects of any social media network strategy. A social media manager will help you effectively manage your social media accounts and publish high-quality content. A social media marketer will help you create effective marketing campaigns and generate leads and sales. If you want to be successful on social media, you need both a social media manager and a social media marketer on your team.
Need more help with social media management, social media marketing, or content marketing? Contact us today for a free website audit. It's chock full of actionable details you and your team can implement today.
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