Despite the enthusiasm of taking Social Media actions, the truth is that focusing exclusively on this channel does not bring the best results for companies.
This is because Digital Marketing is a strategy that uses different media and resources to carry the message of a brand to its users and create real business opportunities through the Internet.
However, one of the most common mistakes that many companies make, regardless of their history or size, is investing too much effort in a single channel waiting for it to generate the maximum return.
Unfortunately, in a world of changing algorithms and low organic reach for publications, Social Media actions, by themselves, fall short of user expectations.
And it is that in reality, social networks are only part of a digital strategy!
In this article we are going to explore the true role of social media in Digital Marketing. In the end, you will see that you can achieve better results with an integrated strategy in all your channels. Let’s get started!
What is the true role of social networks in Digital Marketing?
Since its inception, social media has transformed the way human beings relate to each other.
Realizing this, brands learned to use these platforms to connect directly with their current and potential customers.
Thus, it is undeniable that social networks stopped being simply platforms to be in contact with our friends and family to consolidate as true allies of companies.
However, social media marketing has been wrongly touted as the panacea for all digital strategies .
This happens because when seeing how users interact with the publications and noticing how the followers of a Fan Page grow , it is easy to confuse the medium (social networks) with the final objective (generate business opportunities).
So, to begin to demystify the individual scope of social networks, let’s clarify what are the possible fronts of action of Digital Marketing:
- Content Marketing;
- Marketing in Social Networks;
- Email Marketing;
- SEO;
- SEM;
- Video Marketing;
- Local Marketing;
- Mobile Marketing;
- Conversational Marketing;
- Affiliate Marketing.
As you can see, social networks are only part of the strategy. And within this, its role is to distribute the contents of a brand, humanize it and increase the engagement of an audience.
Therefore, by focusing exclusively on Social Media, you may lose the opportunity to interact with users who are not on this channel, while neglecting your current customers due to the absence of nutrition flows .
In this way, it is worth diversifying your operation in different channels to obtain better results with the digital strategy.
Why investing exclusively in Social Media is not enough?
Ultimately, Social Media strategies are not the cure-all in digital strategies. These must work together with other strategies , especially with Content Marketing , to get the most out of it.
To explain it to you, below we will share with you 5 reasons that illustrate it.
1. Social networks are a part of the strategy
As we have already seen, social media is just one part of all the efforts you should undertake in the digital arena .
Just as you open your Fan Page on Facebook, it is also important that you create your website , design email marketing nutrition flows , share valuable content on your blog optimized for SEO or launch campaigns on the Google Display network , for example.
Designing a comprehensive and complete Digital Marketing strategy allows you to contrast results, optimize actions and improve your conversions .
2. Social media doesn’t give you a base of operations
Without a doubt, social networks are excellent allies to communicate directly with your audience and convey the spirit of your brand.
In fact, they can arouse such interest in your users to the point that they want to know more about your products or your company.
However, they will hardly be able to find that information among all the social media posts you make.
In this sense, having an organized and functional website allows you to optimize some processes.
For example, by including tools such as chatbots and payment mechanisms, you can operate 24/7 in an automated way, something that social networks do not allow.
Also, by working on a blog , you can create content for all stages of the sales funnel that will allow you to educate and retain your leads so that, in the future, close a sale.
In addition, having a well structured and diversified website is a way to permanently generate authority on the Internet.
Search engine algorithms, for example, tend to review stronger domains more frequently , indexing a more expressive number of their pages, which greatly boosts the generation of web traffic.
3. The content you post on social networks is no longer yours
One of the risks of investing too many resources in the management of social networks is that when you publish your content in these media, it stops belonging to you.
From the moment you share it, it becomes the property of the platform you use , be it Facebook, Instagram or any other network. This means that they can reuse it without your authorization.
In addition, to obtain results on social networks, be it greater visibility or more interactions, you will have to forget about publishing content organically, because without an investment, your pieces will only reach a small segment of your followers.
Over the past few years, some social networks have severely restricted the organic reach of posts, forcing content creators to promote them with ads. The one that has done it the most recently is Facebook.
This does not happen in other digital channels such as corporate blogs , where the traffic you get is organic and qualified. In the end, you will be able to monitor the searches that users make on Google to know which ones you have to attract and what content you must produce to achieve it.
4. Establishing presence in other channels provides a better user experience
If a user is interested in a product, the first thing to do is type his name in the Google search engine to learn more.
The expected result will be a web page that contains all the related information such as manufacturing materials, functionalities or shipping policies.
If instead they come across a Facebook post, they will probably not solve all their doubts and it is unlikely that they will continue to be motivated to seek more information, so they will abandon the purchase before even starting it.
On the contrary, with a website you can include content with multiple formats (blog posts, ebooks, videos, podcasts, testimonials) and different objectives (attract, inform, educate, entertain) that qualify leads to be closer to closing a sale .
5. With the other channels you have access to additional analysis tools
The analytics available on social networks is basic compared to tools such as Google Analytics , Hotjar or Screaming Frog .
With these, you can monitor the behavior of your users on your website and more easily find areas for improvement in your strategy.
For example, with these platforms you can know:
- the pages with the best dwell times,
- the points of greatest interest to users within a web page,
- your favorite content,
- your interests,
- among other relevant information.
Social Media and Content Marketing: the winning symbiosis in digital strategies
We already mentioned before that planning an integrated Content Marketing and Social Media strategy allows you to obtain better results. Why?
Basically, because by joining them you can vary between different formats and consolidate all your content to better monitor them.
In addition to this, working with an integrated strategy helps you maintain editorial coherence between all your publications, something that facilitates the communication of your brand values .
Likewise, using social networks as a Content Marketing tool enhances your actions to build an audience and direct it to channels that belong to you, such as your website or your blog, where you can capture their data and start doing valuable analysis.
This helps you make better decisions, create more relevant communication strategies for your users, and ultimately attract more organic traffic.
How to reconcile social networks with other Digital Marketing channels?
Taking into account that Social Media is strengthened when it works hand in hand with Content Marketing, at this point it is more than clear that social networks must be complemented with other digital channels to optimize their performance, right?
Well, even if you are clear, now the question is how to consolidate all the channels in a single strategy?
First of all, we must know the digital channels that a company has. We can identify 3 types.
- Own: website, blog, newsletter.
- Payments: ads on Google or social networks.
- Won: consumers, potential customers, offices or brand ambassadors who replicate your content.
Now, to integrate the strategy, you will first have to determine which channels you will use according to the preferences and information consumption habits of your buyer persona .
Next, the design of an editorial calendar will allow you to consign your entire content and communication strategy for the channels of your choice.
At this point, you can establish relationships of the type “if you publish X content on your blog, you can create pieces of social networks that arouse the curiosity of the audience to consult them.”
In addition to planning publications, with an editorial calendar for social networks you can organize the creative process and produce numerous content with impeccable quality.
How to adjust your Digital Marketing budget to optimize the performance of social networks?
Do you remember that we mentioned earlier that the organic reach of the publications you make on social networks is considerably low, so you can only reach a small group of your followers?
To counteract that, many companies decide to set aside part of their budget to boost their actions on social networks.
So how can you define your budget for social media?
To answer this question, you should consider the following aspects:
- What is the marketing objective of your company, according to your business needs?
- Who is your buyer persona?
- What types of social networks do you use?
- What content formats do you prefer?
- How much does it cost to produce that content?
Taking into account these questions, and other references such as the expense of previous years, the quotes and the general income of your company, you will have to establish headings or maximum investment caps in the social networks.
So if your company’s goal is to increase the reach of your posts, you will probably have to invest a large amount in Facebook ads to attract the most people to your profile and, eventually, to your website.
However, other variables such as targeting , choosing the right networks, creating innovative pieces of content, and monitoring posts will help you optimize your budget for social media.
In any case, the general recommendation in the Digital Marketing budget is that you make a transition from paid to organic.
For example, stop investing so much in ads on social networks to allocate resources to the production of valuable content that attracts constant organic traffic to your website.
In conclusion
Social networks, by themselves, are not enough to bring the results that companies demand.
And this is because many marketers have attributed more roles to it than they are entitled to, which are, basically, distributing the contents of a company and generating engagement with the audience.
For this reason, it is important to include social networks as part of a complete and integrated Digital Marketing strategy, which includes other approaches such as SEO, SEM, Email Marketing and, of course, Content Marketing.
And it is that in practical terms, Content Marketing incorporates all digital strategies to organize the creation and publication of content, with a view to specific objectives that have previously been outlined.
Do you want to learn more about how to create the best Content Marketing strategy? You can download our complete Guide to Content Marketing for free and learn how to apply it in your business!
