In the era where content is king and digital platforms have become a primary means of communication, businesses are constantly looking for the best ways to reach and engage their audiences. Two of the most popular strategies are social media marketing and content marketing. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct differences and unique benefits. 

Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing content to attract and retain customers. On the other hand, social media focuses on building relationships with potential customers and engaging with them. Both are important elements of a successful digital marketing strategy.

Understanding the difference between social media and content marketing can help businesses create more effective marketing strategies and achieve their goals.

What is social media marketing?

As the name implies, social media marketing involves using social media platforms to promote a product, service, or brand. This means creating and sharing content tailored to social media audiences to drive engagement, build brand awareness, and foster customer loyalty. Social media marketing typically involves:

• Creating and sharing posts: This includes text updates, images, videos, and other media tailored for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, amongst others.
• Engaging with followers: Social media marketing also involves responding to comments, messages, and mentions to build relationships and community with your audience.
• Running social media ads: Aside from sharing and managing content, social media marketing also includes creating paid promotions to reach a broader or more targeted audience. 
• Monitoring and analysing performance: Marketing comes with analysis. Thus a core part of social media marketing involves using analytics tools to track engagement, reach, and other key metrics.

Read: A Beginner’s Guide to Crafting Compelling Social Media Posts

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is broader by definition and involves the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. The goal is to drive profitable customer action by providing content that solves problems or answers questions. Content marketing typically involves:

• Blog posts and articles: Writing informative and engaging content whether for a company blog or third-party publications is a core part of content marketing. This covers industry news, how-to guides, tips, and other topics of interest to the target audience. Well-crafted blog posts and articles can improve search engine rankings and establish one’s brand as an authority in their field.

• Ebooks and whitepapers: Ebooks and whitepapers are a great way to offer in-depth information on a specific topic. These comprehensive resources educate the audience and provide detailed insights into complex subjects. Ebooks and whitepapers often serve as lead magnets, helping businesses capture leads and nurture potential customers through the sales funnel.

• Infographics: Content marketing involves creating visual content to simplify complex information. Infographics combine data and design to tell a story or illustrate a concept clearly and concisely. Visual content like infographics tends to be popular on social media, increasing brand visibility and engagement.

• Audiovisual content: Producing multimedia content to engage audiences in different formats is also part of content marketing. Videos can include tutorials, product demonstrations, interviews, and ads, while podcasts offer an audio format for discussions, interviews, and insights. Both formats cater to different preferences and can significantly improve the reach and impact of content marketing efforts.

• Emails: Emails are a great content marketing tool. Email marketing is a subset of its own within content marketing. Newsletters keep the audience informed about company news, new blog posts, industry trends, and special offers. They help maintain a direct line of communication with subscribers and nurture relationships over time. This connection is what drives engagement and conversions.

Read: Creating An Effective Content Strategy As An Independent Content Creator

Social media vs content marketing

Now you understand what social media and content marketing are individually, let’s talk about the major differences between them. While both social media and content marketing aim to engage audiences and drive business goals, they differ in several key areas. Here are five major differences to consider: 

1. Purpose

Social media marketing primarily focuses on brand awareness and engagement. It aims to create a buzz around the brand, encourage interactions, and build a community of followers. The content shared on social media is designed to be quick, catchy, and shareable, to reach a wide audience quickly. 

On the other hand, content marketing aims to educate and provide value to the audience. It focuses on delivering in-depth information that addresses the audience’s needs and problems, establishing the brand as an authority in its field. Content marketing is more about building trust and nurturing a relationship over time, ultimately driving the desired action.

2. Platforms

Social media marketing is platform-specific. It leverages the unique features and user bases of social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and others. Each platform has its best practices and the types of content that perform well, such as photos and stories on Instagram, tweets and threads on Twitter, or videos on TikTok.

Conversely, content marketing can be distributed across a variety of channels, including but not limited to social media. This includes blogs, websites, email newsletters, and third-party publications. Through these channels, content marketing can reach audiences in multiple ways, doubling its effectiveness and reach.

3. Content lifespan

Social media posts often have a shorter lifespan. The content gets quickly buried in feeds as new posts come in, making it a fleeting form of communication. For instance, a tweet’s half-life (the time it takes to reach 50% of its total engagement) is about 18 – 24 minutes, while a Facebook post’s half-life is around 5 hours. 

In contrast, content marketing assets like blog posts, ebooks, and whitepapers can provide long-term value. These pieces of content, once produced, can continue to attract and engage readers long after they are published. They can also be optimised for search engines (SEO), allowing them to be discovered through search queries over time, thus maintaining their relevance.

4. Engagement style 

Social media marketing encourages immediate interaction and conversation. It thrives on likes, shares, comments, and direct messages, fostering a sense of community and real-time engagement. This creates an environment where brands can respond quickly to trends and audience feedback. 

Content marketing, however, focuses on building a deeper, more sustained relationship with the audience. It involves creating high-quality, valuable content that answers questions, provides insights, and helps the audience solve problems. This approach fosters a more thoughtful and continuous engagement, as users return to the content for information and education over time.

5. Measurement

The success of social media marketing is often measured by metrics such as likes, shares, comments, retweets, and follower growth. These metrics indicate the level of engagement and the reach of the content within the social media platforms. Social media analytics tools like Buffer, Later and Meta can provide detailed insights into these interactions, helping marketers adjust their strategies for better performance. 

On the other hand, content marketing success is tracked through metrics like website traffic, time spent on a page, bounce rate, lead generation, and conversion rates. These metrics reflect the effectiveness of the content in attracting and retaining visitors, as well as its ability to drive meaningful actions such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading an ebook, or making a purchase. Tools like Google Analytics and CRM software are commonly used to measure these outcomes and refine content marketing strategies.

Based on the differences, it’s worth considering the roles of social media and content marketers. 

The role of a social media marketer

A social media marketer is responsible for creating, managing and executing a brand’s social media strategy. This role involves a variety of tasks; here’s a core number:

• Content creation: Developing engaging and relevant content tailored for each social media platform is a given as a social media marketer. 
• Scheduling and posting: A social media manager manages the posting schedule to ensure it reaches its intended audience at the right time. 
• Community management: Though community management is a role in itself, a social media marketer is still responsible for fostering and nurturing a community by interacting with followers and responding to comments and messages. 
• Advertising: Advertising differentiates between a social media manager who just posts and manages social media content, and a social media marketer. Creating and managing social media ad campaigns to reach specific goals is a core part of a social media marketer.
• Measurement: Social media marketing is about executing strategies and tactics to achieve collective goals. Monitoring social media performance and drawing insights determines the success of all marketing efforts. 

In Nigeria, social media marketers earn anything from ₦150,000 – ₦600,00, depending on experience, location, size and the industry of the company.

The role of a content marketer 

On the other hand, a content marketer focuses on creating and distributing valuable content to attract and retain customers. This role involves the following  tasks: 

• Content strategy: A content marketer develops a content plan that aligns with business goals and audience needs.
• Content creation: A content marketer also writes and publishes blog posts, articles, ebooks, whitepapers, and other content formats in line with business goals and audience needs.
• Content distribution: Content marketers distribute content through various channels, including websites, social media, and email and monitor the value as a result.
• SEO optimization: Optimising content for search engines is a key part of a content marketer’s role. This increases visibility and traffic.
• Analytics and reporting: All of this falls flat if it’s not being measured, tracking content performance and making data-driven decisions to improve future efforts are part of a content marketer’s role as well. 

Content marketers in Nigeria typically earn between ₦250,000 and ₦800,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and the size of the company. 

Read: The Difference Between Content Creation and Content Marketing

A combined role of social media  and content marketer 

For creative businesses and brands, it’s common to find the roles of social media marketer and content marketer combined. This combined role involves a comprehensive approach to digital marketing, where one person is responsible for both social media and content marketing strategies. In such cases, their key responsibilities include:

• Integrated content strategy: As a social media and content marketer, developing a unified content plan that includes social media posts, blog articles, videos, and other content formats is a core part of the role.
• Content creation and curation: The combined role also involves creating original content and curating relevant third-party content to share across all channels.
• Platform management: As expected, a social media and content marketer manages social media accounts and makes sure content is optimised for each platform.
• Audience engagement: Building and maintaining relationships with followers and subscribers through regular interaction and engagement is a core part of the social media and content marketer’s role.
• Performance analysis: Monitoring and analyzing the effectiveness of both social media and content marketing efforts to refine strategies.

In Nigeria, a combined social media and content marketer can earn anything from ₦400,000 and above, depending on experience, location, and the size of the company.

Understanding the difference between social media and content marketing is important for developing a successful digital marketing strategy for your brand as a creative. While social media marketing focuses on immediate engagement and brand awareness, content marketing aims to provide long-term value through informative and valuable content. Both approaches are essential and combining them can lead to even greater success. 

Earn money for what you know.

Sell your courses easily, boost sales and connect with new clients through webinars on Selar Pro.