Can Social Media Marketing replace Search Engine Marketing as a viable way for companies to market online?

Great information on marketing with social media

Question: Can Social Media Marketing replace Search Engine Marketing as a viable way for companies to market online?
I “Stumbled Upon” www.FtheBigThree.com which does a good job of showing the opportunities that could be available for marketers in the “Social Media” category. Not completely sold yet on it but kinda warming up to it. I guess I’ll have to start learning SMM to go along with my SEM and SEO. So, many abbreviations….so little time.

Best answer:

NO — they can work hand in hand, but social media marketing cannot replace search engine marketing

Search engine’s usage is far way more than social media use. Plus traffic from search engines are more sustainable and longer term, while social media traffic is more sporadic.

If you get a top placement for a keyword in Google, for example, you can expect that to continuously give you traffic until someone else topples you from the top spot — and that is not always easy to do unless you made a huge mistake or the search engines changed their algorithm.

You can get a huge burst of traffic from social media sites such as Digg — only if your link is in the homepage. Once your link is pushed to the archives, traffic dries up.

Social media sites depend on the FRESHNESS of the information, while search engine sites depend on the RELEVANCE of the site to the search query and that gives an edge to older pages

For a savvy marketer, he/she needs to utilize and maximize both venues to get the most traffic. The two should work hand in hand, and not one over the other.

What do you think? Answer below!
The Future of Internet Marketing and Social Media

Social media sites have revolutionized the way online businesses market themselves and their products or services. Tapping into a community which often is predisposed to your particular brand, product or service has led to increased visibility and sales. The viral nature of some social media sites, like YouTube has also increased brand awareness. As we move forward, the tools and techniques we utilize for our social media campaigns will continue to change. The future of internet marketing and social media is bright.

Perhaps the biggest change for social media marketing will be incorporating social media directly onto business websites. Allowing members to post videos, comments, pictures and more will become more commonplace. Other popular social media tools such as sharing will continue to become a large factor when developing websites and media campaigns. We are likely to see ‘memberships’ on business websites. Much like popular social media sites such as FaceBook and Twitter, businesses may be making the leap towards fully incorporating social media directly on their sites.

Businesses will continue to utilize the popular social media sites as a part of their advertising campaigns. In fact, they are likely to begin to designate more time, effort and even funds towards developing strong social media campaigns. For example, many businesses have