Advertising on Social Media vs Traditional Media

Should I move all my advertising budget from traditional media to online advertising?, ™Will I have a greater impact if I do? Are probably the questions many owners of small businesses are having. Some fields of marketing are very expensive, which may be one of the factors that play a big role in this case.

Recent studies conducted by the Universities of Basel and Munich in different categories of products of mass use as tourism, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals, collected the main difference between the effects of applying traditional advertising versus social networking.
While the former has a greater impact on achieving greater recollection or knowledge about the brand, the second has more influence in developing a better brand image, especially if this communication in social networks was gone viral.

Traditional advertising works with the creative force of impact of the message and/or repeatability of the same media with high penetration or reach. If the message gets the consumers' attention and they associates it with their needs, thoughts and/or previous experiences, it becomes significant, comes to a long-term memory by becoming a new information (it has generated new knowledge), which you can or should decant into an emotion such as sympathy or liking to the brand in a purchase action.

Social Media
In the case of advertising on social networks, companies can generate a closer interaction with their customers via Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, blogs or forums. Here, you can identify two types of messages: the first is that generated by the company itself and the message generated and disseminated by the consumer himself, based on his own experience. This is the word of mouth communication, enhanced by the online Internet capability, which is known as earned media.

In the earned media, information must be moved as news; that is, the message is generated and consumers share it or make it viral by forming a wave of interactivity via comments, questions and answers, recommendations between the brand and its consumers and between consumers and other consumers.
Once the wave passes, nobody will really look at it anymore when it becomes old. For this reason, it is considered as a single blow of great impact where the transmission frequency is highly concentrated in time as if it were unique. The level of impact of a communicative wave can be high or average, depending on the content of the message.

Traditional Media
If what is sought is to enhance the knowledge of the functional benefits provided by a brand, traditional advertising may be a better choice because the information remains. In comparison to Social Media, flyers, billboards, radio and TV campaigns are more available to the audience that does not seek anything. For example, to see something about your product, an individual should have an Internet connection and come across your campaign somehow. On the other hand, the same person can spontaneously see a banner or flyer of your brand and get interested in it, which applies to TV and other Traditional Media methods as well.

Conclusion
Ignoring the change and impact Social Media has on everything, including marketing, is not recommended. Both of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. While Traditional Media seems safer and is more available to the audience that don't use the Internet as much, Social Media is easier to manage and can go viral overnight but the results may be temporary. One way or another, marketing is essential for every business, no matter how it is. That is why regardless the method you choose, ensure the quality is very high and the campaign is impeccable.