I am a member of Linked In and FaceBook, and recently there was a good question posted on LinkedIn that I felt was worthy of blogging about. The question was: Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Marketing, which is better?

As simple a question as that sounds, it's really funny to see the answers that were posted. That question led to a divide, in most cases. You were either strongly PRO-SMM or strongly PRO-SEM. I think there was only one other person that felt it is useful to do both.

For those that do not know what these terms refer to:

SMM - refers to the social media scene right now on FaceBook and Twitter (and other social media sites). Many business owners, and working people in general, are using these kinds of sites to promote their businesses.

SEM - refers to the Search Marketing scene, which is mainly paid advertising like Google Adwords and so forth. It DRIVES traffic to your site.

I think that it really depends on the individual that need to lead traffic to their website. What are their goals, and who is their target market? Although Social Media is catching on, your target market may not be on social media websites. Whereas SEM will target your target market every time; but your ad has to be spot-on for what they're looking for and has to be relevant for them.

SMM might seem good to some. But to me... it really can only help your business so much. When you think about it, most of it is filled with nonsense. For example, most of FaceBook is filled with "eating a sandwich now... mmmm tastey!" ... in other words, useless chatter that no one really cares to read. In my opinion it's mainly a friends networking site, much like MySpace. To make it really beneficial, you have to work at it for many hours to get the results you want. Twitter also just doesn't seem to give you the exposure that you need. For SMM also, you have to constantly have things to comment about, blog about, post about, ask about, etc... if you run out of stuff to talk about fast... you're S.O.L. If you let it get too personal, like updating your status on facebook about what your kid just did or where you were today, maybe out to lunch... not good for business... you have to be all business all the time... otherwise you just use it to keep up on what your friends are doing at that very moment. Linked In is a good example of All Business All The Time... that's what it's geared towards. It's not geared towards making friends, but making contacts, business leads, and so forth.

I have many clients who are pressured by their peers and family members to get a FaceBook account or Tweet-tweet on Twitter. They come to me for advice... and this is what I say: Do you have a lot of free time in your day to waste? And as bad as that sounds to say, it's really true. While it can be beneficial, it's only so if you can spend many hours on social media sites to make these "relationships' or "connections". Yes, maybe one account doesn't sound bad, even if it takes up 1-2 hours per day of your time... but to be really beneficial you need to plaster your business all over the social web. Now add all those up and times them by 1-2 hours... it really adds up. I don't mean to sound pesimistic about the whole SMM band wagon, but not many people respond to my question with: "yes, I have so much free time it's killing my business". My clients, don't have the time to do it themselves; they are busy "doing what they do best" with their business (ie. selling, fielding calls, etc). Case in point:

One of my clients just recently asked me about a new site she heard about that can help you to get backlinks to your website. It's called Lotus Jump and it's a cheap "do it yourself" alternative to having a professional SEO company handle it all for you. Her concern was mainly about money. She wanted my opinion on Lotus Jump because her daughter told her about it, and it's much cheaper than the thousands of dollars that would be spent on a professional. That is true. I took a look at it. And indeed, it's pretty neat... it takes your keywords and produces hundreds of things you need to do (comments on specific websites, blog on websites, do this do that... ) however, again we fall into the pit of dispair when I ask her if she has the time to do this herself. "NO!" was the resounding answer. Of course not. So she has to pay someone to do it anyways. Her next thought was, "can't I hire a student right out of school to do it for me?" my answer: "yes, but you'll have to pay all that money on their time as well to do it... in addition to checking what they're posting using your company's name - and in most cases you probably have to write out stuff for them to post and so forth. You might as well do it all yourself if that's the case. I don't know about you but I want to know what's being posted to represent my company, not just some kid who can post whatever THEY feel is relevant (straight out of school it could come off as purely academic in content).

You see the dilemma.

SEM - again, another great tool for marketing your business. Some say it yields up to 90% ROI. I highly doubt that. PPC for example allows for people to click on your ad and come to your site... however, once they're there HOW LONG DO THEY STAY? My bet, on average, not very long at all... a few seconds unless they're extremely interested. However, if targeted correctly this absolutely can be a great tool. For example, an ad for a specific product would probably yield high ROI, but a generic ad to just get traffic to your site does no good in the long run. So it really depends on your goals and why you're trying to get traffic. What's the real push? What needs to sell more? Traffic is great and all, but if traffic is all you want you can do it in different ways... traffic that STICKS is what you want... you need traffic that makes a conversion. They need to buy your product or service... being specific will always help you achieve a better SEM campaign. If all you want is more traffic, add FREE stuff on your website and use the word "FREE" freely. ;)

Bottom line: use both methods in conjunction with strong SEO of your website. SEM will help drive traffic to your site, and SMM will help build more relationships that may lead to hot leads at some point. But don't go nuts with the SMM. Spend only the time you have to do it, if you are going to do it yourself, or pay someone to do it for you - but make sure it's a professional or someone you trust  using your company name out on the World Wide Web.

Using all three methods will cover all your web bases. SEO covers keywords and ease of visitors finding your site and the products they're searching for; SEM drives visitors to your site in hopes that they stick; SMM builds relationships in hopes that you make more and more connections that will pay off in the long run. Plaster the web with your name - don't just do one thing... do them all.

You know, people only retain 1/3 of what you tell them.