Social Media Marketing Is The Next Big Giant After Search
Search engine marketing has posed several landmarks in the field of internet marketing
but there is one new innovative stuff on the anvil and that is social media marketing. Although its still in nascent stage but the results are outstanding.
To compare social media with search we need to understand the market dynamic and the corresponding audiences for both. We cannot compare both of them directly although the motive of each is to bring relevant traffic towards client website.
Search engines fetch the data as per the query of the searcher and produce results accordingly while the social media produce results on the basis of users demographics, interests etc. Search is a direct hit to the website as per the query while in social the user is engaged amongst his/her friends with the shared stuff.
Hence in search engine user is redirected as per search engine algorithms while in social media its through friends and fans. One of the strongest feature of social media is that it can tailor your advertising campaign with respect to gender, age, interests etc, which is not so easy with search although search engines can do so if a user is logged via their google account which holds the demographic details as well.
Search engine marketing is quick traffic while for social media you need to create account and login into the system in order to find the right information you are looking for. There is no direct way to control spam as the spam URLs can be removed only if they are flagged inappropriate by the users in the corresponding medium.
The internet marketing community now uses both search engine marketing (SEO/PPC) as well as social media marketing (Social media optimization / Social Advertising) for uplifting the business for websites. Traffic is certain from both the mediums but when it comes to conversions the entire community is split into it. Some says that visitor from search converts quickly while some claim that from social the rate is higher as it is referred by a friend.
Ultimately there is no direct way to address this as its all upto client experience and the sales they are generating from respective marketing channels but the social media is one of the gigantic wave of marketing and cannot be ignored and hence it will be a big player, though the general search will be there as usual. Hence its worth trying for your business.