The success of a business is based on how much impact they create on the customers. With the advent of technology and Social media, this has become quite simple compared to traditional PR.
But to reach people, there are two ways. One is through Social Media Marketing.
The other is through Influencer Marketing. Both might sound the same, but there is a vast difference between them.
Key Takeaways
- Social Media Marketing uses social media platforms to promote products, services, or brands by creating and sharing content tailored to engage the target audience.
- Influencer Marketing involves partnering with influential individuals, on social media, who have a strong following and can endorse or promote a brand, product, or service to their audience.
- Both marketing strategies utilize social media, but Social Media Marketing focuses on directly engaging with the target audience, while Influencer Marketing leverages the reach and influence of prominent individuals.
Social Media Marketing vs Influencer Marketing
The difference between Social Media Marketing and Influencer Marketing is that Social media Marketing is a Brand to customer process whereas Influencer marketing is a Brand – intermediate – customer process.
Social Media Marketing is done through various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Here the brands directly post them in their accounts.
They either go for paid ads that reach many people or use relevant hashtags to make their posts reach people.
In influencer Marketing, the same procedure is done, but with an intermediate person (the influencer). Here the brands approach the influencers who significantly impact their target audience and ask them to post their products on their social media accounts/pages.
In this way, they reach people.
Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | Social Media Marketing | Influencer Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Partnership | It doesn’t require any partnership. The brands are free from persuading other people to promote them. | It requires partnerships. The brands have to win the trust of the influencers. So major work is done in it. |
| Persuasion of customer | Persuading a customer to buy their products/services is quite tricky here. | They need not directly link with the customer initially. The trust of the customers is won through the influencers easily. |
| Trial of the products | The brand must undergo various trials to prove its products to its customers. They may also sometimes go for free trials. | The number of trials is gradually lesser in comparison with the other. The problem that is performed to win the influencer is essential. |
| Revenue on Promotion | The brand owner has to invest in each platform to promote the products/services. | Here the payment can be made using money else. Their products can compensate for it. |
| Competitive Analysis | The brands have to make a competitive analysis of their competitor’s social media accounts regularly. | There would be no such brand comparison. But they must see that they approach a better person than their competitors’ Influencers. |
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is merely curating your product’s content to reach the customer. Content plays a significant role here.
As in traditional marketing, the person needn’t explain to every follower of their account on their products. The content differs from one platform to the other.
Social Media Marketing is sometimes wanted to grow traffic over their website. In this type of marketing, each platform has a strategy.
When the account manager strictly follows the strategy, engagement from the audience is achieved. The company must ensure they post regularly to make the public aware of its service/product.
So for this purpose, apart from making posts about the products, they make posts related to them. Sometimes it also involves memes.
Having the content as the Queen, the hashtag is the King of any post. The graphics or the video remains to be the ambassador.
When all these go in hand, then the reach amongst the audience becomes a cup of coffee. An insight o the strategies followed.
- Posting two to three times a day
- Creating a brand hashtag
- Posting on facts or myths related to the products/services.
- Conducting giveaways to increase followers and to make themselves known
- Making some differences in the Content. For example, the content of LinkedIn should be very professional as it is a platform to connect professionals from different industries. The content might be straightforward and catchy on Instagram and other similar media.
- Posting videos of their products to show how useful they are to their audience
- Posting eye-catching posters or images
The strategies mentioned above are some of those that are generally followed.
What is Influencer Marketing?
The term Influenced Marketing may seem to be a buzzword. But it is on the trend.
The ads we see on television always pose an actor or actress to endorse the product. It happens the same way here in influencer marketing.
It can be said that Influencer marketing is a hybrid of traditional marketing and Digital Marketing.
Here the Influencer may not be an actress but a budding entrepreneur, star, singer, TikTok viral actor, Instagram star, reality show star, blogger, YouTuber, or anyone with a follower base in “k”s(10k or 24k, etc.).
Most Influencer marketing is carried out on Instagram as many people worldwide use instal more than Facebook. The influencers will take the product to their page and make neat content and video about the product.
This is the same on YouTube if the Influencer is a YouTuber. So this makes the people believe in the product with few second thoughts.
Main Differences Between Social Media Marketing and Influencer Marketing
- In social media marketing, the sole decision-makers will be the consumers. But in the case of influencer marketing, the Influencer decides the purchasing of the product.
- In social media marketing, the company must have a social media account. But in the case of the other, a company doesn’t need social media accounts.
- The time taken for the product to reach the customer is less in influencer marketing than in social media marketing.
- In the case of Influencer marketing, the company doesn’t need to build massive followers for the brand to be known to the public. But it is mandatory for Social media marketing.
- Social media marketing can be used for B2B and B2C, but Influencer marketing can only be used for B2C.
- https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/12/Fall2017Journal.pdf#page=77
- https://e-tarjome.com/storage/panel/fileuploads/2019-08-21/1566373352_E12598-e-tarjome.pdf
- https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780789751041/samplepages/0789751046.pdf
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
