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Key Differences Between SEO and SOCIAL MEDIA
April 18th, 2022 by esigners
Both social media and SEO fall under digital marketing.
Both these strategies come under the awareness of a brand and can be used to generate leads.
However, there are basic differences between the two:
1. Audience and intent
Social Media
You get a lot of information about your audience on this channel but no clarity about what they are thinking. People are just mindlessly scrolling through their feeds on social media. They are not on this channel intending to buy anything. So you cannot predict if you will get leads.
SEO
Here you have negligible information about the prospect but you know about their intention and goal. They are already on this channel for making a purchase. Website visitors are way more likely to get converted into a lead. They enter with a specific purpose, need, or question in this channel.
2. Which topic works better
Social Media
Emotional content always gets the best response on social media. Stuffing too much information in a social media post never works. Your social media content strategy should be about posts that stir an emotional response from your audience.
SEO
Research-based, detailed, and informative content works the best for search engines. People are on this channel for detailed how-to posts, instruction guides, etc. Your content strategy should include blog posts and articles that answer questions of the public. You should go for evergreen content topics that don’t go out of style.
3. What content format fits the best
Social Media
Nothing can capture people’s attention on social media more than attractive visuals. Videos and graphics work the best on social media. You can combine visually stimulating content with punchy, emotional headlines so that people connect with your brand’s content.
SEO
Long-form content works the best for search engines. The highest-ranking pages on Google are on an average around 1500 words. It is the ideal length of descriptive content that you should create for search engines.
4. How long does it take to show results?
Social Media
To get solid results from your social media marketing strategy, you need to consistently post good quality content for over months. You will not gain followers just by chance as a brand on this platform. You need to have a strategy in place and implement it effectively.
SEO
It takes quite a long time for a brand’s SEO efforts to show results, sometimes even years. Even if the content on your page is high quality, and has good keyword density, it will still take a lot of time to get the desired result. You need to create a lot of value for a long period to build enough credibility.
5. How to measure success on the platforms?
Social Media
In social media, though you can easily measure engagement, it is tough to analyze reach and impressions. KPIs like
total visibility and traffic are tough to measure. Followers are the most visible way to measure growth on this platform.
SEO
Here though you can easily measure the reach, it is not so easy to track the engagement. You can easily check your rankings for every key phrase. Ranking and traffic are the most important KPI here.
Both social media and search engine optimization are very crucial for any brand’s success. If you want to build a long-term marketing plan, you need to tailor the growth strategy for both these platforms. Once you analyze and get an understanding of what works for both these platforms, your brand can make a lot of sales through these channels.
