SEO and social media are two of the most popular elements of digital marketing. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong notes that both elements should be a significant part of a digital marketing strategy. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. That is why today, we will give some insights into SEO versus social media.
WHAT IS SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a strategy of improving the visibility of a site to people searching for brands, products, and services. It focuses on getting discovered through searches to attract customers and sustain the business. Even a video marketing agency Hong Kong aims to rank on SEO. Any format or type of content today can rank on search engines.
Google is the largest global search engine. Other popular search engines are AOL, Ask.com, Baidu, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Excite, and Yahoo. These search engines use bots to crawl on web pages. As they crawl, they collect information about each webpage and index them from site to site. Through hundreds of ranking factors and signals for each search engine, the web pages are ranked according to keyword searches. The most essential element of organic ranking is relevancy and user experience.
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
A social media agency Hong Kong defines social media as Internet networks that facilitate the sharing f ideas, information, and thoughts. The most popular social media sites are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Like SEO, social media visibility is very important in digital marketing. With more than half of the global population having a social media account, they can help brands and businesses boost discovery and sales.
Social media visibility can be achieved through 7 building blocks. These are brand identity, content sharing, conversations, presence, relationships, reputation, and social media groups. The first functional block is building brand identity. The brand or business should complete and update the information on their social media pages including the company name, address, category, and contact details. They should consistently post and share relevant content. Consistent communication with their followers can also build an online presence. To build relationships and reputation, they should continuously nurture posting on social media groups. Just like SEO algorithms, social media uses artificial intelligence (AI) to rank posts based on these 7 building blocks.
SEO VERSUS SOCIAL MEDIA
Audience Targeting
SEO targets audiences based on what they are thinking. Social media target people on who they are. Their insights were mostly based on a user’s online behaviors.
Conversion Likelihood
Most Google searchers are ready to make a purchase. They search to get solutions to their pain points. These searches will yield possible solutions, largely influencing the buying decision. On the other side, social media users are not so keen on buying products and services. But they are more likely to share or spread the content.
Effort and Durability
SEO high ranking endures months and weeks. Once a brand or business ranks on top, it can be a passive source of visitors for several days. Social media ranking lasts within minutes. To have a better ranking, social media needs continuous posting.
Formats
The average content format that ranks on Google is long-form content. These are content containing 1500+++ words. Visuals perform best on social media. They generate 53% more engagement than non-visual content.
Interdependence
List building, outreach, and pitching are interdependent SEO factors. While Comments, followers, profiles, and shares are interdependent social media factors.
Measurement
In SEO, traffic and visibility are the easiest to report while engagement is hard to measure. Social media engagements are highly visible but traffic is difficult to report.
Speed
The speed of SEO ranking is slow and uncertain. It may take days for relevant pages to be indexed and ranked. Social media content can be posted instantly and can go viral within minutes.
Topics
SEO features researched-based content for different topics. Answers to common questions and detailed how-to articles often rank best. Social Media content stirs emotional responses. They tend to appeal more to user emotions rather than intelligence.
Upper limits
Traffic on SEO searches is limited to the number of searchers for the day. The social media traffic is virtually unlimited. They can drive a huge amount of attention one can never expect.
Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2022/03/18/seo-vs-social-media/