What are the differences between Community Management and Social Ads? 4 misconceptions deciphered
Among the growing number of opportunities offered by digital to acquire qualified traffic, social networks represent one of the most used channels. In the vast field of web marketing, they have their own specialty: SMO, for “Social Media Optimization”.
However, the SMO is itself a vast field, which brings together two large families of expertise: organic and paid.
On the paid side, we speak of “Social Ads” to designate all the acquisition strategies that are based on the advertising deployed by companies on social platforms.
On the organic side, we speak of “Community Management” to designate the strategies (not always acquisition) that are based on the organic reach of publications on social networks. There is even more and more talk of “Social Media Management” for the most advanced and most integrated strategies in the company’s global digital ecosystem.
But then, which of these two levers is best suited to your objectives?
Let’s go into a little more detail by analyzing 4 received ideas circulating about them…
Summary
- “Social Ads are more expensive than Community Management”
- “Unlike Social Ads, Community Management only aims for notoriety”
- “Community Management is more time-consuming than Social Ads”
- “Community Management and Social Ads are two relatively compartmentalized channels”
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the main difference between Community Management and Social Ads?
- Do Social Ads completely replace Community Management?
- Are Social Ads more effective than Community Management in reaching a target audience?
“Social Ads are more expensive than Community Management”
This one we hear often. At least, in the mouths of our interlocutors who do not take Community Management seriously enough or who struggle to make their Shopify Seo Services profitable. Inevitably, under these conditions, it is better to delegate to the new trainee the animation of the social pages of the company and to plug the leaks of cashflow on the advertising campaigns.
This received idea, which is still too widespread, is of course false, for at least two reasons:
- Social Ads, if they are part of a relevant strategy, should cost nothing but, on the contrary, generate a more or less significant return on investment. In the worst case, you should only need to provide a cash advance of a few weeks.
- Community Management is definitely not an expertise to be reserved for interns. To fully benefit from its potential, it is necessary to be able to develop a global marketing reflection on the profile of the targets, the editorial line, the brand positioning, the levers of persuasion, the links with the other elements of the digital environment of the company, etc.
In reality, Community Management is much more complex than one might think; which leads us directly to our second misconception…
“Unlike Social Ads, Community Management only aims for notoriety”
Are you familiar with the concept of “social selling”?
This is an approach to online sales that relies on creating a relationship with the prospect via social networks. The strong point of this approach is to mobilize for commercial purposes the natural character of social interactions, to create deeper and more lasting emotional connections than on other acquisition channels.
When we understood this, we also understood why Community Management is far from aiming only for notoriety. Gone are the days when brands only posted on social platforms to increase their visibility by saving money on their TV spots. Today, Community Management converts!
It is for this reason that we tend to talk more and more about Keyword Research Services. It is no longer simply a question of animating a community but rather of integrating the problems of social networks into the overall marketing strategy of the brand.
The counterpart of this new approach to social networks is that it takes longer, more than Social Ads according to many entrepreneurs…
“Community Management is more time-consuming than Social Ads”
It’s hard to deny that Community Management takes time. It involves in particular:
- Design an editorial line in line with the needs and values that bring the brand and its audiences closer together;
- Respond to requests (which can arrive end masse in some cases);
- Possibly moderate the interventions of each other;
- Establish regular reports to measure the impact of the actions implemented;
- Constantly adjust the links with the other channels of the global marketing strategy.
But Social Ads actually obey the same operational monitoring constraints…
It would be a mistake to believe that, as soon as a campaign starts to perform, it can run automatically. Nothing is ever guaranteed in this area and, to maintain a good ROAS, you must constantly optimize the various campaigns in the Ads account.
