THE TWO ARE OFTEN USED INTERCHANGEABLY
Social media and marketing have become so closely connected that the two are often treated as the same thing.
A business needs to be on Instagram, so it starts posting. A new product is launching, so there is a campaign. An event is coming up, so there is content to create.
The activity is visible, which can make it easy to assume that this is the marketing.
But social media is a channel. Marketing is the wider thinking around it.
The distinction is subtle, but important.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS WHERE PEOPLE SEE IT
Social media has become one of the most immediate ways a brand communicates.
It can introduce a business to someone who has never heard of it, reinforce familiarity with an existing customer, create interest in a product or give people a reason to engage with a brand between purchases.
But the role social media plays depends on what the business is trying to achieve.
For one brand, it might be primarily about awareness. For another, it might support product launches, customer education or community. For another, it might be an important part of driving people towards an online store.
The platform doesn't determine the purpose. The business does.
MARKETING SITS AROUND THE CHANNEL
Marketing considers the bigger picture: who the business is trying to reach, what it wants to be known for, what it is offering, where it wants to grow and how it intends to get there.
Social media is one of the places that thinking becomes visible.
So is the website.
So is email.
So are campaigns, events, partnerships, print and paid advertising.
Each has a different role, but they shouldn't exist as completely separate pieces of activity.
A product launch might appear on social media, but the same proposition could continue through email, the website, retailer communications and paid media.
The channels change. The direction doesn't.
BLURRED LINES
The distinction becomes particularly interesting when social media starts driving the marketing calendar rather than the other way around.
A week needs filling.
A post needs creating.
A reel needs publishing.
The question becomes what should we post?
But there are often more useful questions sitting behind it.
What does the business need to communicate?
What is happening commercially?
Who are we trying to reach?
What needs to change, launch or grow?
And where does social media fit within that?
The answers don't always lead to a post.
Sometimes they lead to an email. Sometimes a campaign. Sometimes a change to the website. Sometimes a conversation with a retailer. And sometimes, of course, they lead straight back to social media.
A CHANNEL, NOT THE WHOLE PICTURE
Social media has changed the way businesses market themselves, but it hasn't replaced marketing.
If anything, the number of channels available to a brand makes the wider thinking more important.
The most interesting brands aren't necessarily the ones doing the most on every platform. They are the ones where the different parts of their marketing feel connected - where the social presence reflects the brand, the campaign has a reason to exist and each channel has a role to play.
Social media is highly visible.
Marketing is much bigger than what is visible.
The two work best when social media is treated not as the marketing itself, but as part of it.
