Social Marketing vs Social Media Marketing Infographic
“Social marketing, is that like Twitter and Facebook and stuff?”…If you work in social marketing, it’s likely that you spend a lot of your time disambiguating the terms ‘social marketing’ and ‘social media marketing’, especially if you talk work to people outside the sector.
Head over to our Resources section for a larger version.
It’s galling to a social marketer that their beloved 40-year-old discipline is being confused with this cheeky, upstart little corner of the internet that’s rapidly taking over the world. So what to do? Design a behaviour change campaign to raise awareness around the use of the correct nomenclature? Well, maybe not, but we’ve designed an infographic (below) that hopefully clears up some of the primary differences.
It all gets more confusing because both social marketing and social media marketing involve marketing theory. And social marketing CAN involve social media. And social media marketing CAN be used for the social good (charity campaigns etc – here’s a brilliant example of an online campaign we helped publicize in the UK recently). So what’s the difference?
Well, simply put:
Social marketing is designed to lead to changes in behaviour, changes in policy or changes in environment to benefit the social good. Social media is a tool (alongside direct marketing, advertising etc.) which utilises social networks to drive sales (in accordance with a marketing plan), create positive PR and/or drive brand awareness.
Both represent a shift towards consumer orientation to realize organizational (social) goals and tailoring the product to the customer.
Hope that helps!
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Comments
Terre Dunivant
21 September 2011, 07:46 AM
Great infographic! Good distillation of these two different subjects.
Aiden Truss
21 September 2011, 09:08 AM
Nice infographic! This has been the perenial problem for social marketing organisations when it comes to informing people what we do. I think this will make it a lot clearer.
Shad
22 September 2011, 03:19 PM
Decent article, I will be viewing back on a regular basis looking for updates.
Daniel
25 September 2011, 04:22 AM
Much appreciated for the information and share!
Gary Wootten
27 September 2011, 03:16 PM
As a social marketer tentatively enjoying the first moments of life with a twitter account…this is music to my eyes.
neil
27 September 2011, 03:34 PM
Haha, we thought this may be the case! Please make use of the creative commons license and distribute it! There may even be scope to produce a more professional looking version of it for education use if there’s a demand.
Glad people are finding it useful!
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01 October 2011, 04:52 PM
Do you have a Facebook page or Twitter? Would love to follow you there, I’m on my iPhone and love reading your stuff!
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02 October 2011, 04:14 PM
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02 October 2011, 07:35 PM
Generally I don’t learn post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, quite great post.
Viv Caisey
06 October 2011, 07:54 AM
You should send this to Tim Harford – he needs to be told!
See
http://timharford.com/2011/07/why-social-marketing-doesn%e2%80%99t-work/
neil
06 October 2011, 10:36 AM
Hi Viv
It’s quite disturbing to see experts in the field tripping up like this! We’ve just emailed him and apparently he doesn’t write his own headlines…
Thanks for pointing it out to us!
Sandy los vein
22 November 2011, 02:48 PM
Very cool I’ve bookmarked ya on Digg under “Social Marketing vs Social Media Marketing Infographic thornelyhill.co.uk”. Thanks.
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23 November 2011, 09:36 PM
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I?ll be subscribing to your feed and I’m hoping you write again very soon!
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24 November 2011, 11:01 PM
Appreciate the post, keep on keeping on!
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29 November 2011, 10:41 AM
A very interesting and informative comment.
Cindy Witkowski
14 March 2012, 10:07 AM
Talk about formative research!! During a discussion with my students (all 20-somethings) on a social marketing lecture they had heard, I realized that they understood the lecture from their point of reference (social media) and completely missed the subject matter! From the opening objectives to the conclusion, the students understood social marketing to be a component of social media. In my “Aha” moment I realize that I must now define both at the outset, and the infographic is a great visual support.
Neil
14 March 2012, 03:25 PM
Glad it came in useful for you! Social Media is obviously an important development in how we communicate but the nomenclature is such a source of confusion for people!
Nikita
28 October 2012, 09:13 AM
This infographic is brilliant! I thought I was the only one breaking my head explaining the difference!