How They Complement Each Other To Deliver Best Results and whether or not to invest in both or simply just pick one. This is the dilemma that faces many marketing teams online. It is no secret that your website needs all the traffic it can get. This means that you have to do all that you can to get as much traffic towards your site as possible. The problem is that most of these efforts take time and money. This further translates to scheduling issues.
Some people would rather spend more time working on social media marketing since that is where the majority of their target market is. Others are just the exact opposite and prefer to invest wholly in Search Engine marketing instead. The truth is, as cumbersome as it may sound; you need to invest in both. The best way to illustrate this is to look at their respective attributes and then see how they complement each other and work for the greater good of your website.
Advantages of Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
It’s the first place people look:
Search engines are the first place people will go to when looking for business. Even if you look at your habits, you will most likely go to Google to find that plumber or all night massage parlors before going anywhere else. Most people are exactly like that. Research shows that 61% of everyone looking for business suggestions and carrying out their research before buying anything will go to the various search engines first.
These include giants like Google, Yahoo, and Bing and so on. This means that as a business, unless you are ranking high within the various search engines, you will miss out on part of this 61% potential business.
You can learn from your customers:
Marketing on the various search engines has its own research advantages. With tools like Google Analytics and the AdWords Keyword Tool, you can get to learn what your preferred niche is searching for. This means the keywords they are most likely to use when searching for items or content related to what you are offering. This way, you can optimize your website accordingly to receive some of that organic traffic.
You can pay your way to the top:
Organically ranking high and within the first page of most search engines takes a great deal of work. It might take years before you can appear with the first results page. But with options such as Google AdWords, you can always buy yourself a sponsored spot within the first page. It might not be as the first result on that page, but you will appear on the first page and you can customize your sponsored link’s appearance. This way, you can have a strong call-to-action.
Advantages of Social Media Marketing (SMM):
Recommendations are much easier to make:
Most of the world may look to search engines for their information, but as things stand today, the majority of the 18-26 year old population often makes their purchases based on recommendations they see on social media. This means that if you are perfectly optimized on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and the likes, you are more likely to get business from the up and coming generation that is slowly but surely getting more and more economically stable with lots of disposable income.
The best part is that these recommendations all happen with the simple touch of a button. A Facebook like, a retweet or mention of your handle on Twitter is all it takes.
An additional customer service platform:
This is the beauty of social media and social media marketing as a whole. Since it is a purely interactive platform, you can easily respond to anything that is said about your brand on any one of them. With search engine optimization, often you might miss the negative comments that may damage your brand’s reputation or even if you do catch them, responding in a timely fashion is rather difficult. With social media, you can respond there and then. This way you have a better chance of turning your negatives into positives.
You can buy popularity:
Although the ethics of this practice are still widely debated with these social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. You can easily buy popularity by purchasing likes and followers. Everyone knows that the bigger your number of likes or followers, the more popular your brand is. Regardless of how you got these figures, the general viewers will see the large numbers and decide to join in. Besides, you can always get your content noticed with promoted Tweets, Facebook Advertising and such.
How they complement each other:
Keyword research:
The same importance you put on keyword research for your search engine optimization can be placed on social media optimization as well. You do not have as many tools in this aspect and you may not find the specifics as to what people use, but you can get the general idea by using tools like ‘wefollow’. This will show what people often tag them with. Tools like ‘Topsy’ show you what people look for in Tweets.
Additionally, you can use the same on-site optimization skills for most of your social media profiles. You can make use of title tags, image alt tags, Meta descriptions and so on. Using tools like ‘SEO site tools’ can help you customize and better optimize your social media profile for search engines.
Social media can help your search engine optimization by generally managing your brand’s reputation online. You can use any one of these, or even all of them, to create a strong online presence that will be irrefutable in the future: Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.
Social media can be used as an additional reference or confirmation of your brand’s popularity. As much as most people will find you online using Google and the other search engines, the savvier will look for your reviews and comments through social media platforms before they buy anything from you. This is where they go to find real live people with experience in dealing with your company.
Why investing in both is the best idea:
As mentioned earlier, we need all the traffic you can get. If you go to Google Analytics, and tried to find out where most of your traffic came from, you will find a myriad of places listed. Some of these places will be organic searches on Google, others will be referrals and some will be from social media platforms. If you look at the numbers, you will see that they add up to a tidy sum.
They only do so when combined. It is therefore unwise to do away with one option and concentrate on the other. Besides, you never know when one option will dry up and need boosting from another.
About the Author:
Robert Bryant is a blogger and works with CJ Pony Parts – CJ Pony Mustang Parts. He likes blogging about Online Marketing Strategies, SEO Tips, Social Media Tips and Blogging Strategies.