What is the difference between social media marketing and digital marketing?
digital marketing|social media marketing

Are you sure you know the difference between social media marketing and digital marketing? If not, here’s a quick guide to let you know what both these marketing terms actually mean.

In recent years, social media has emerged as an unlikely platform that companies use to market their products and services. The initial purpose behind the invention of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram was to provide a platform where people can talk with loved ones and follow what is going on in their life. However, it was soon realized that this platform can be used by businesses to connect with customers and showcase their brand values and motives.

Today, having a presence on social media is no longer an option for companies wishing to survive in the market. It’s simple: if you don’t have a presence on social media sites, customers will go toward those companies that do. This is because of the sheer number of users that these social media sites boast. No matter what type of business you are, the fact is that there will be customers on these social media platforms that companies can market to.

Many people are confused by this newly emerging concept of social media marketing. Is it part of digital marketing? Are there differences between the two? What are these differences? Today, we will look to answer all these questions.
Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, which include the Internet, mobile phones, digital billboards, television, radio, and any other digital media.

Even though digital marketing does not only include marketing on the Internet but other platforms as well, the reality is that internet marketing makes up a big portion of what constitutes digital marketing.

Internet marketing channels include website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, mobile marketing, and video marketing among others.
Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to advertise a company’s products or services. Social media sites are part of the internet, and the internet is just another channel for digital marketing. This means that social media marketing is a subcategory of digital marketing.

The reason these two terms get confused so often is because of the sheer size of the social media marketing world. There are 3.2 billion social media users across the globe. That is about 42% of the world’s entire population. 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users. In contrast, TV has an audience of 1.63 billion, with projections of this number reaching 1.74 billion by 2023.