There’s always much debate in the world of digital marketing as to which is best and the most effective. It’s important that you don’t get too caught up in the debate as you run the risk of alienating certain digital marketing strategies when each has their place.
In this article, we’re going to look at social media marketing Vs. SEO. Is there a clear winner? Which is considered the most important for modern businesses?
Let’s get stuck in…
What’s more important: Social media marketing or SEO?
The general consensus will be that SEO (or search engine optimization) is technically the most important form of digital marketing. And while there is a lot of truth to that, it is subjective as it all comes down to the individual business.
For example, let’s say that you run an Etsy store and you don’t have a physical website of your own. In this case, SEO will be entirely useless to you. After all, it’s hard to optimise a website that doesn’t actually exist, right?
In this case, social media marketing will be the more important form of digital marketing. That’s because you can build a following of your own and create sponsored ads to direct traffic to your Etsy store where you sell your products.
However, the key problem with this scenario is: What happens if your Etsy store gets banned? (which is a very real possibility). Or what if your social media accounts are suspended?
Your business as you know it would crumble and you would be left with nothing.
In that light, it is fair to say that owning your own website and embracing the power of SEO so that you can effectively ‘own your traffic’ would be a viable alternative. That way, you can safeguard your business against the very real potential of your other online platforms being stripped away from you.
The superior choice? Focus on both!
You should focus on multiple digital marketing strategies
As briefly touched on early, the best approach is to focus on multiple digital marketing strategies rather than trying to figure out “which is best.”
Search engine optimization and social media marketing are fundamentally different, but they can each bring excellent value to your business. Neglecting one in favour of the other would be a costly mistake.
However, combine the two and you can transform your online presence and attract new business from multiple sources. This is the key for thriving in the modern digital age of business.
Conclusion
Again, deciding on which digital marketing strategy to prioritise largely comes down to your business and unique situation. However, assuming that you do have a website, SEO should definitely be a major focus of yours.
That’s not to say that you should neglect social media marketing altogether, it just means that SEO should be treated as your digital marketing foundation. Get that right and your other strategies can flourish.
For the best results, we strongly recommend working with a social media marketing company that also offers SEO and PPC services as well. That way, you can focus on multiple mediums under one banner without having to go back and forth between three or four different agencies (which can get messy).
The takeaway? SEO and SMM are awesome and you should be investing in both!
