Is content really king? And does that make social media the queen?
Content is king! Social media rulez! We’ve been hearing these catch-crys for many a year now. Is it any wonder why people are so confused. Content marketing? Social media marketing? Aren’t they the same thing? What is the difference? HELP!
Hold onto your seatbelts, gird your loins, this could get bumpy…. And are we say it, controversial… dah dah dum!
Is it a case of the chicken versus the egg? What comes first? It’s quite simply the relationship between ‘why, what, and where’.
We don’t want to get in too technical with this, so we’re going to keep it light and simple.
What is content marketing? Content marketing is developed with purpose (the ‘why’). This can be anything from introducing a brand to a new audience (ie brand awareness); to informing and educating audiences on products and services; to increasing brand visibility (ie, brand reach); driving leads and sales for conversion; and building brand image.
The ‘what’ of content marketing is the production of all kinds of written, oral and aural ‘content’ designed for targeted audiences for a targeted purpose. These include materials such as, such as blogs, articles, videos, publications, reports, infographics. In general, they are longer-form content (requiring a longer time to consume than shorter-forms such as a quick social media post of 50 words).
So, if content marketing is the ‘why and what, that means social media marketing is the ‘where’.
We all know what social media is (Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube etc).
Here is where we get controversial. In our humble opinion, social media, that is, the social media platforms as above, are simply channels to market. That’s right, social media are the vehicles that carry the content produced to audiences. GASP!
Social media is where audiences can engage with your content in a meaningful exchange that can provide immediate sentiment towards your content and your brand. It is a great way to gain mass exposure for your content and send audiences on a lovely journey of further discovery via other channels (along the purchasing path). Highly effective.
Here’s the beauty of content marketing. Content marketing can be distributed across a whole host of channels, both online and offline. Your website. Social media channels. Podcasts. Printed media. This means the reach is far greater than social media, and importantly, has longer staying power than a social media post (often also described as ‘evergreen’; but not always).
As with all industries as time goes on, fads come and go, concepts get a refresh, or ‘rebrand’. What we once called ‘marketing communications’, or ‘communications’, has had a brand refresh, thanks to Bill Gates’ declaration in 1996 that “content is king”, where he referred to the future of the Internet as a marketplace for content. Now, we’re not sure that today’s use of ‘content is king’ is what Mr Gates had in mind, but as we’ve said, everything gets a refresh.
Poll marketing and communications bods all over the world and you’ll get a variety of thoughts on content marketing and social media.
Look around you, content is EVERYWHERE!
