If your business is posting regularly on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, does that mean you are doing digital marketing? Yes… but you are only using one piece of the digital marketing puzzle.
Social media and digital marketing are closely connected, but they are not the same. Social media is one part of digital marketing, while digital marketing covers a much wider range of online channels and strategies.
Understanding the difference can help you build a more effective online strategy.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing involves using social platforms to promote your business, communicate with your audience and build your online presence.
Depending on your target customers, this might include platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest.
Social media can be used for all sorts of purposes, including:
- Sharing useful or entertaining content
- Promoting products and services
- Building brand awareness
- Driving traffic to your website
- Generating leads
- Responding to customers
- Building a community around your brand
It can also be a great way to show the personality behind a business. A website might explain what you do, but social media gives you more opportunities to show how you work, introduce your team and join conversations.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the broader term. It covers marketing activities that use digital channels to reach potential and existing customers.
Social media is therefore a form of digital marketing, alongside activities such as:
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Online advertising
- Video marketing
- Digital PR
- Conversion rate optimisation
- Affiliate marketing
Your website also plays an important role in digital marketing. After all, many of your other marketing activities are designed to encourage people to visit your website, contact you, make a purchase or take another action.
In other words, social media is a channel. Digital marketing is the much bigger strategy that can bring several channels together.
Social media vs digital marketing: what is the difference?
The simplest way to think about it is this: Social media marketing is marketing through social platforms. Digital marketing is the wider use of digital channels to attract, engage and convert customers.
For example, imagine a business launches a new service. Its digital marketing strategy might include creating an SEO-optimised service page, publishing a blog, running Google Ads, sending an email to existing customers and posting about the service on LinkedIn.
The LinkedIn posts are social media marketing. The complete campaign is digital marketing. This distinction matters because relying on one channel can leave your business vulnerable.
If your entire online presence depends on social media, changes to algorithms, declining reach or changing user behaviour can have a significant impact.
Why isn’t social media enough on its own?
Social media can be extremely valuable, but it should not necessarily be your entire marketing strategy.
Think about what happens when someone searches Google for a service you provide. Your social media profile might appear, but ideally you also want your website, useful content, reviews and other online assets to demonstrate that your business is credible and relevant.
This is particularly important for SEO. People actively searching for a solution are often further along the buying journey than someone who happens to see a social media post while scrolling.
That does not make one channel better than the other. They simply do different jobs. Social media can create interest and engagement, while SEO and other digital marketing channels can help capture people who are actively looking for what you offer.
How social media and SEO can work together
Rather than choosing between social media and SEO, businesses can use them together. For example, you might publish a helpful blog answering a common customer question.
SEO can help that article appear in search results, while social media can help you promote it to your existing audience. Your social followers might then visit your website, share the content or discover another service while they are there.
The same principle works in reverse. Social media conversations can reveal questions and topics that your audience is interested in, which can provide ideas for future website content. It becomes a joined-up strategy rather than a collection of unrelated marketing activities.
What should your digital marketing strategy include?
There is no universal digital marketing mix that works for every business. A local service business might benefit heavily from SEO, Google Business Profile optimisation, reviews and targeted social media.
An ecommerce brand could focus more heavily on SEO, paid advertising, email and social content. A B2B company might put greater emphasis on LinkedIn, useful website content, SEO and email marketing.
The important issue is to understand where your potential customers are and how they make purchasing decisions. You do not need to be everywhere simply because a platform exists.
A well-planned digital marketing strategy should focus your time and budget on the channels most likely to reach the right people.
Digital marketing is changing
There is another reason to think beyond social media: the way people discover businesses online is changing. Search engines are increasingly incorporating AI, while people are also using AI tools, social platforms and other digital services to find information.
That makes a broad digital presence increasingly useful. Good content, a technically sound website, positive reviews, strong brand information and genuine expertise can all contribute to how your business is discovered online.
Social media is part of digital marketing, not a replacement for it. Social platforms are excellent for building awareness, engaging audiences and giving your business a human voice.
Digital marketing encompasses those activities and much more, including SEO, PPC, content, email and your website.
For most businesses, the strongest approach is not to ask whether social media or digital marketing is better. Instead, look at how your different digital channels can work together to attract the right audience, build trust and turn interest into enquiries or sales.
If you are not sure which digital marketing channels deserve your attention, our team can develop a clear strategy to help you prioritise the activities most likely to deliver results.