Social Media Marketing

Social Media vs. Traditional Media

social media vs  traditional media

It’s often said that various forms of social media have existed since the very beginning of mankind, when human beings started communicating with each other. More recently, however, the term social media has been used to describe various Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Social media is not only used by individuals to keep in contact with friends, but also by brands as an effective means of interacting with their audience. Social media has made such an impact that we would consider it to be a necessary tool in the marketing arsenal of any business.

Social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) differs from traditional media (newspapers, television, radio, etc.) in many ways. For this reason, it has several distinct advantages when compared with traditional media.

Find, Convert, Keep

Traditional marketing prioritizes finding and converting new prospects, but places less emphasis on keeping these newfound customers. Social media marketing has flipped this model by prioritizing retention and allowing retained customers to find and convert for you through word of mouth.

To put this into perspective, we can compare a television advertisement with a short-term Facebook campaign. The television commercial places greater emphasis on catching the attention of potential customers and makes an effort to convince them to buy into their product or service. However, the television advert places little to no emphasis on retaining these newly converted customers.

The Facebook campaign, on the other hand, places emphasis on catching the eyes of potential customers and converting them, but prioritizes retaining these customers by using various interactive techniques, while encouraging fans and followers to become “brand ambassadors” and spread the good news about your product or service.

Fixed vs. Flexibility

Social media offers a level of flexibility that traditional media does not afford. For example, once an article in a newspaper is published, it cannot be taken back. The most that can be done is to publish a retraction in a subsequent issue. Social media allows for editing of content to suit any situation. In our fast paced world, it’s easy to see how this can be advantageous. Audience vs. Community

Social media allows brands to build communities that are dedicated to celebrating what’s great about the brand, while discerning what’s not-so-great, in an effort to constantly improve and evolve. Conversely, traditional media only allows a brand to build an audience – a group of persons who will intake information, but will not contribute to a discussion.

A community affords a much higher level of interactivity when compared with an audience. This level of interactivity is perhaps social media’s main distinguishing factor.

Connectivity vs. Interactivity

Social media is interactive, while traditional media is passive. The former not only encourages a response from fans and followers, it requires it. Social media makes it extremely easy for your target audience to provide feedback and constantly interact with you. Traditional media, on the other hand, does not readily provide the means for your audience to interact with your brand and with each other. Traditional media fosters connectivity, not interactivity.

These are just a few of the many distinctions between traditional media and social media. It’s easy to see how social media can be advantageous to any 21st century business.

Chrysalis Communications offers social media management services to get you the results you deserve. We’d love to take your brand to the next level! Please access our contact page or give us a call at (876) 946-3980. We’d love to hear from you!