SEO vs Social Media

Can Internet Social Media Exposure Replace SEO? The Internet has revolutionized business marketing over the past 15 years. Today, it has replaced much of old style marketing, making the web site the predominant method businesses use to recruit new customers. Business web sites, implementing strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO), are today’s most powerful marketing tools, simply overpowering old media marketing strategies.

New social media sites on the Internet are capturing a lot of attention. Sites like My Space, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have grown explosively, with millions of people staying in touch with each other by accessing these sites several times a day. Some businesses are working to exploit this new media phenomenon … with mixed results.

Many business owners wonder whether social media marketing can replace SEO efforts. Seeking to maximize their marketing budgets, some are considering dropping SEO efforts to focus on social media marketing. While marketing on social media sites can be useful for some, it simply can’t replace effective SEO marketing.

How Social Is Your Business?

The key lies in the word “social.” This new phenomenon exists mainly to facilitate personal contact between individuals. With the exception of YouTube, most people use social media sites to communicate with family, friends, and acquaintances. YouTube is an exception, since a cleverly-produced video posted there can attract millions of viewers, but very few videos manage that sort of popularity, and most of those aren’t commercial.

With few exceptions, people do not use social media to find businesses when they need goods or services. You can recruit some “fans” of your products or services at these social media sites, but do these “fans” have any necessary purchasing power? Even if you get these “fans” or “followers” to your web site, you won’t see any transactions because these users do not have any purchase intention. This makes the traffic from these social networking web sites nearly worthless.

SEO Attracts Customers, Social Media Attract Onlookers

Almost universally, Internet users turn to search engines when they want to find a business. Google and, to a lesser extent, Yahoo and Bing, let people find a business quickly and effectively. Search engines are how new customers find your business. They have a need, and they search for a business to fill that need. SEO helps your business’ web site show up at the top of search engine results pages when potential customers use typical search terms. It works, as so many businesses have discovered, very, very well because you are connecting with shoppers and buyers.

Social Media marketing does work for some types of business, primarily entertainment, dining, and other businesses that are social in nature. Musical groups, restaurants, and nightclubs can use social media effectively. Other types of business, however, aren’t a good fit with the personal style of communication used on social media sites. Comments about the newest hot band, the great new restaurant, or a popular nightclub are well received by social media users. The same isn’t true for auto body shops, attorneys, medical or dental clinics, or most other business types.

Marketing through social media campaigns is certainly worth a try, but simply can’t replace a strong, well-designed SEO campaign for your web site. The bottom line is that new customers and clients come from search engine results that lead people directly to your web site. Once they arrive, you have a strong opportunity to convert them to active customers. You just can’t get that from social media marketing.

Social Media Is No Free Lunch

A good SEO campaign isn’t cheap, but, unless you fit into one of the hip niches that work well with social media marketing, SEO is far more effective in attracting new customers. Besides that, social media marketing has a high price tag, too. For it to be effective, it has to be active on an almost daily basis, with fresh strategies always emerging to engage the fickle social media user. That takes constant effort … a costly proposition.

SEO is a proven marketing solution for small businesses of all types. It produces measurable results and is highly cost-effective. Social media marketing is still in the experimental stages, and success stories are mainly limited to the entertainment and hospitality industries. A strong social media campaign is expensive and time-consuming. For your marketing dollar, SEO will produce new customers far better, in almost all cases, than social media.