A lot of people mail me and ask that what should they seek for their websites search engine marketing or social media marketing
. And this sometimes put me in dilemma as the client who is totally intended to get conversions as this difficult question I donot mind if you do SEO or SMM for my site, I just need conversions, so its better if you decide as you are the pioneer in the subject.
In this post I will try to pinpoint the pros and cons for both these channels of internet marketing as they are the only ones which has shaped the internet economy to a large extend.
Search is the pioneer channel of web traffic because it constitutes more than 80% of global web traffic. Email too leads to traffic but that is very much limited to its use if its for personal purposes as communication or for newsletter / offers / promotions. With the advent of social media there are several phenomenal changes that has been made in the web industry. For eg. When Myspace was launched, people start using the same and invited their friends to join, now they can connect with their friends even if they are located in different geographies.
After this there a heavy downpours of social media sites including orkut, friendfeed etc. with later on like Facebook and Twitter. Today both facebook and twitter has made its place in the cyber world and claims to be highly trafficked site, latest reports shows that Facebook traffic has surpassed Google. But in general there is no direct comparison of both these players as search is very much different then social.
In search a person is intended to find the URL to get the desired information and the search engines provide the results pages on the basis of the algorithm they have, on the contrary in social engines users share the URL on a particular subject or if that is a facebook page you can find the relevant info about that subject. So in search you are directed by search engines while in social media its your friends who are directing you.
For example, you are looking for a good dentist in your area, there are two ways to know that person via
Search Do a normal search on the engine and find the dentists nearby. (You could use google local and the doctors which has high ratings and reviews on the page can be considered for your treatment)
Social You find a page of a several dentists in your region and join their page and review the comments. Which has the most positive comments on the wall could be your choice.
But ultimately who will serve you better is still an unanswered question because the dentist you opt for either from search or social will treat you the best way is not guaranteed as both search and social results can be manipulated by the marketers. Hence its the businesses which should provide great services (here dentist) so whenever they receive the customer either from search or social they became their loyal and potential customer forever.
The moral of the story is that you can have conversions from both the venues; the only thing is that how you treat your customers and provide them the best of your services or product.