Advertising Your Business: Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Marketing?

In today's day and age, it's almost impossible to grow any type of business without some form of online marketing. The days of advertising on the side of buses, passing out flyers and sending mailers to customers' homes is long gone. While some of those methods will still work today, people live in an increasingly modern world. They search for information online, use their smartphones to find information and surf the web through their tablets. Using search engine marketing or social media marketing are two ways that companies today grow their customer bases.

Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is a method that involves targeting customers who search for information online. When you search for a specific company, the official website to that company appears at the top of the search engine results. When you search for a topic or a product, you'll see thousands of results from pages that mention that topic or product. With SEM, you can also purchase placements through Google or another search engine. Known as a sponsored link, this puts a link to your site at the top of the page when a person searches for that topic or a similar topic.

Social media marketing is similar to search engine marketing, but this method uses popular social media websites, including Facebook. Anyone who ever used Facebook before knows that the site has a series of links listed on the side of the page. These links are actually ads that direct viewers to specific Facebook pages and websites. Social media websites can target ads to specific customers based on their viewing histories, past purchases or even location. As a business owner, you can pay for your ad to appear to people living within a specific distance from your head office, people who visited your Facebook page or people who searched for products you sell.

Search engine marketing is a better choice when you want to reach a larger number of people. Think about the way in which you search for information online. Do you log into your Facebook account and look there, or do you do a quick search on Google? Most people use a search engine first, and they know that the Facebook page for that company will appear high up in the results. Search engine marketing is also a better option if you want to see what people look at online. Google customers have access to an Adwords tool, which lets those users see the popular search terms for the day, week, month or year. This lets you see what people look at online and how you can change your website to reach those searchers.

Social media marketing is a better choice when you want to reach specific people and connect with customers. With a traditional website, you can post reviews online and let shoppers reach you, but you can do much more with Facebook and similar websites. Those same customers can post their own reviews instantly, get in touch with you quickly and share information about your company. Most social networking sites have a share feature that lets customers click a simple button to share a post with their own friends. The more people that follow that link and share that link, the more exposure your company gets. Social media marketing can also help drive traffic to your website, inform customers of new products and changes and increase the popularity of your business.

If you want your business to succeed in today's world, you need to rely on online marketing. Companies spend millions of dollars every year on advertising campaigns, and not all of those campaigns work as well as the company founders hoped. Choosing the right type of marketing campaign involves a lot of work and research on your part.

Start by looking at what you want to accomplish with the campaign. Do you want to drive traffic to a new website? Do you want to reach millions of people in a single day? Do you need to increase the public face of your company? Social media marketing is a specific type of campaign that targets those who use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites every day. Once you increase your readership and get people talking about your company, you can sit back and let your customers do the hard work for you.

Search engine marketing typically involves a little more work on your part, but Google, Yahoo! and the other top search engines will spread the word about your company. Many companies find that the best option is a combination of both marketing techniques. When you use both marketing campaigns, you can reach potential customers in thousands of different ways.