Social Media Marketing vs. Traditional News Media

When you read or hear the words “content marketing”, you may be thinking of YouTube, Tik Tok, or any other “content platform”. You’re not wrong - that is content marketing, but there’s a lot more factors to it than you think! Content marketing, as defined by Oxford Languages, is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services. It’s a long-term strategy used to keep your target audience hooked, establish your business’ expertise, build identity, and promote your brand awareness. 

Many big organizations like Microsoft turn to content marketing because of how much it helps with business and marketing. It benefits them in terms of sales, costs, audience outreach, and profit. Content marketing also isn’t limited to online marketing - it can be through traditional marketing as well. Going about it the right way can be very beneficial for you and your business. 

So what are the different ways you can do content marketing? There is social media and traditional media.

Social Media Content Marketing 

In the modern day and age, social media has evolved to be a powerful tool to reach people around the world. It can be used to reach a large number of people from any target audience, as it is a great way to establish your identity and make it known to the public. People spend a lot of time online nowadays, so bringing your marketing online is always a good idea. Common social media platforms various businesses use are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even TikTok. Posting fun and interesting content on these platforms introduces you to your audience so they could get to know you better.

Social media helps out with organic following and interactions that will help you grow your audience, brand awareness, and eventually your business or organization. There are digital marketing agencies or ad agencies you can hire to help you along the way as well.

Traditional News Media

Content marketing was already around even before the internet was widely used worldwide. Traditional media pertains to advertising methods that have been used for many years now with huge proven success - like flyers, newspapers, TV and radio advertisements, billboards, and many more. Traditional news media does cost more than more modern forms of media, so businesses usually prefer to use less traditional strategies. 

If you are looking to use some form of traditional news media for your business or organization, the right type usually depends on who you’re trying to reach. For example, if you want to reach working adults, a good time to roll your TV ad would be 5:00 PM onwards. Radio advertisements can also be a good choice, because it can reach that target audience while they’re on the go. 

Analysis: Social Media vs. Traditional News Media

Costs

Although traditional media is seen as the “primary” media, more businesses are turning to modern media - this is because social media marketing is way more affordable than traditional news media. Not only is it cheaper to put up paid advertisements on platforms like Facebook, but you also pay less for every single person you reach. 

Audience and Reach

Social media can allow you to easily look for the audience you want to reach, and it only takes a few clicks or swipes to have direct communication between you and a customer. People nowadays spend less time watching television or reading the paper as all of those could just be accessed through a smartphone. Social media can reach anyone in the world, which means it's easier to find who you want to talk to.

Adaptability

It’s easy to change what you put on social media compared to traditional news media. Like what was mentioned above, advertising material can easily be deleted with a few clicks and swipes and it will be live right away. Traditional media takes time to disseminate. If ever you want to rebrand, modern media makes it way easier.

Engagement

Social media marketing allows for direct contact with consumers. When a potential customer sees an advertisement for your business on sites like Instagram, they can easily click it and they can be in contact with you within minutes. Traditional news media doesn’t have the ability to make engagements as fast as social media does.

Which one is the best for you?

Even though social media content marketing and traditional news media are usually pitted against each other, they can also be used together. You can have a fusion of traditional media and social media marketing to complement each other and to form an even stronger marketing strategy. For example, you’d like to reach out to adult men (your target audience) to sell your company’s shaving products. You can spend some of your advertising budget on flyers and radio advertisements, wait on some return on investment (ROI), and invest some into social media marketing as well, since it is much more affordable than traditional media. This way, you can extend your reach. 

The dilemma a lot of businesses usually face is to find out how to effectively spend their budget for marketing and growing their small business. So, the bottom line is to find out which mix or combination brings you the most revenue and exposure to your target audience. You can always start with one form of media you are familiar with, and you can branch out to other forms as your business grows. However, as society continues to modernize, along with more and more virtual opportunities, social media marketing has been proven the easier and most cost-effective choice. Nowadays, little to no businesses can prosper with traditional news media alone. If you own a small business, you want to be smart with your funds, so plan your strategy carefully!