5 Reasons Social media is Just as Important as Content in Marketing Today

Content is king. How many times have you read that statement across the web? Nearly every marketing guru will use this line, and at the heart it is true. Content is, indeed, an important element to everything from self-promotion to branding. But it isn’t the be all and end all that so many assume it is. Right alongside it, ranked equal in importance, is social media.

5 Reasons Social media is Just as Important as Content in Marketing Today

Perhaps not everyone is on board with this idea due to the relative newness of the technology. The implications for using platforms like Twitter and Facebook as an inbound marketing tool only established itself after it became apparent that social media was here to stay. More than that, it is connected to everything on internet these days. You could say social media is among one of the most important technological advances in modernity.

Other techniques that reach out directly to your demographic are still crucial. You want to be able to write engaging emails to subscribers, for example. Then there is the importance of having a solid, well hosted site.

5 Reasons Social media is Just as Important as Content in Marketing Today

But you should still be spending as much time and effort on your social media marketing as you are on your content marketing. Here are five reasons why:

1. You Want People To See Your Content –There is no point in having excellent content if no one is going to be seeing it. That is where social media becomes so important. No matter what the media style, from blog posts to videos, you want it to be visible to as many online users as possible. Step one to that goal is getting it out there into the ether. While sending out newsletters is one way, it isn’t an extensive practice. A social networking page like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ is much better. So are other social sites like YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Vimeo and the myriad of alternative sites that are good for specific elements to a well-rounded campaign.
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3. You Want People To Share Your Content – You don’t just want people to view your content, you want them to share it. Word of mouth took on a new meaning when the Internet began to advance to the level it is at now. Just one person sharing a link can immediately put you within reach of hundreds of people, sometimes thousands. That is just on a single profile! The easiest way to get others to pimp out your link is just to encourage them to do so with a simple call to action. But there are many other strategies you can turn to.
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5. You Want To Find Ideas For New Content – What are people talking about right now? There is no easier way to find out than turning to social websites to see what is trending. Twitter is especially useful for this, since you can do a wide scale search specific to your industry, or just see what is hot in general. Facebook has recently implemented a similar function, but the private nature of their system still makes checking tweets a better tool. You can also take a glance over what people have been saying on your pages, and they will often suggest topics for you to cover. That gives you a direct line of sight into what they want. Just imagine how powerful that knowledge can be!
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7. You Want To Recycle Old Content – Old content needs love too. You might be shocked to find how much you can wring out of something long since posted. Remember that you will be gaining new eyes every day. Many of them haven’t seen what you’ve published in the past. Every couple of months you should be able to post a link to content that got a lot of positive attention the first time. New followers means a whole new pool of people to check it out the second time. There have been cases of content that did well the first round actually going viral the second or third rotation as the publisher’s social circle increased.
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9. You Want To Talk To People About Your Content – Here is probably the most important reason: engagement. You don’t just want to throw things at people to see. You want to take part in a discussion about it. From seeing their opinion to giving your own, social media marketing allows you to create a relationship with the people you are targeting. Now you even have access to users on the go, thanks to the prevalence of mobile social apps. Nothing is more valuable on the web today, and it gives you a chance to build brand loyalty one on one with the very people you would have once indirectly advertised to. Is it any wonder social media marketing became such a big deal in such a short amount of time?

Bottom Line:

Social media marketing is just as important as content marketing because that content couldn’t do as much without it. It couldn’t reach as far, inform as much, or bring the same results. Which is why it should be given just as much priority as anything else, if not more.

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