Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Marketing: Which to go for?

In this digitally driven world, every business or organization is looking to increase their website traffic substantially. However, with increasing competition on the web, it is important to create effective strategies to boost your website audience. The two primary ways in which a business can increase their web traffic is either through Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Marketing.

Even though, both these ways form an integral part of a digital marketing strategy, businesses are often stuck in the popular dilemma of which of these to invest time and money into. Today, let us look at what makes one strategy better than the other and vice versa.

Search Engine Marketing can be more advantageous than Social Media Marketing because of the following reasons:

1. The Search Results for Businesses are Higher on Search Engines than on Social Media.
   Isn’t this a no-brainer? Most of us would use a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bling, amongst many others, to search for a business for a particular product, service or experience. For example: If one is looking for a t-shirt, there is a higher probability that they search on a search engine than on a social media platform, or if you are searching for an Animal Rights Organization, you would rather use a search engine than check on Instagram or Facebook, unless you know their specific name.
   
   A Report by Econsultancy stated that 61% of consumers make use of search engines for product searches before making any purchases. Thus, if one wants to get discovered, then search engine marketing is your solace.
2. Understand Consumer Search Trends Better.
   There is a great offering of tools that can help one discover the most recent search trends that consumers are creating with their searches. One such great tool to begin is Google Adwords Keyword Tool where you can see the number of searches for a particular keyword and accordingly include those keywords on your website for optimizing it.These are two major advantages that Search Engine Marketing offers in comparison to Social Media Marketing. However, let’s now flip the platform, and see how social media marketing beats search engine marketing.
3. Recommendations are a Major Driver for Consumer Choices.
   Econsultancy, in their report, also mentioned that 75% of young people between 18-26 years of age used social media recommendations before making a purchase. Social Media Marketing allows your business to be discovered using audience engagement. In simple terms, this means that when a user likes, comments, shares or tags your business, it is discovered by another set of audience. Thus, once you have established yourself on any of the social media platforms, your audience will grow with these recommendations.
4. Respond in Real-Time.
   Although most businesses ignore the importance of real-time communication, it plays an important role in connecting with your audience. On social media, you have the opportunity to respond to queries, criticism or praise within a matter of seconds or minutes. Additionally, since you are your own spokesperson on social media, there is absolutely no reason for your words to be twisted or misconstrued.These are the two major reasons to consider social media marketing, which are an advantage over search engine marketing.The one feature that both, social media marketing and search engine marketing, offer is that of buying your target audience or buying your rank on the search engine. Both platforms offer paid promotions if one is unable to increase their traffic via organic strategies.When it comes to choosing between the two forms of marketing, we wouldn’t ask you to. Both are integral in creating a wholesome and comprehensive strategy to drive your sales up, however, the choice depends on your financial resources and expertise.

   At YNG Media, one of the most comprehensive digital marketing agency in Delhi, we don’t make you choose. Instead, we help you invest your limited resources in both, social media and search engine marketing, in a strategic manner to maximize your results.