Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing content designed to build trust with your audience. Social media marketing uses social media platforms to distribute content, connect with audiences, and promote products. These are complementary but different approaches, both driven by creating and sharing content.
Wallet brand Ridge, for example, regularly posts founder stories and product demonstrations on TikTok as part of their broader content marketing strategy. Social media platforms help the brand distribute these videos and interact with audiences. Ridge CEO Sean Frank believes that investing in content is well worth it. “If you’re going to launch anything, I think it has to be content first,” he says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.
This article explores the key differences in the goals, formats, timelines, and discovery methods of content marketing and social media marketing and how you can use both together.
Content marketing vs. social media marketing: key differences
Here’s a breakdown of content marketing vs. social media marketing:
Primary goals
Content marketing and social media marketing share a top-level goal: to bring new people to your brand. However, content marketing focuses on capturing people already looking for a solution, leaning on brand authority, organic traffic, and search engine optimization (SEO). Shopify’s content marketing tools help you plan and organize the longer educational pieces that support these goals.
Social media marketing focuses on reaching users mid-scroll who weren’t actively looking for your product. As a result, it leans on audience engagement and community participation.
Formats
Content creation is an essential part of both content marketing and social media marketing, but each strategic approach prioritizes different formats, with some overlap. Content marketing formats include:
-
Blog posts. Written articles on your site that target search queries and keep attracting visitors after you publish them.
-
Videos. Searchable videos, like tutorials and explainers on YouTube.
-
Case studies. In-depth stories of how a customer succeeded with your product, to help buyers make a purchasing decision.
-
Newsletters. Email content you send directly to subscribers.
-
Podcasts. Audio content to deepen authority within your niche and build a loyal audience.
-
How-to guides. Step-by-step resources that answer a question in full, often ranking for search terms.
-
White papers. Research-backed reports, usually for high-consideration purchases.
Social media marketing centers formats such as:
-
Static social media posts. Images and graphics built for your feed to spark quick reactions and inspire shares.
-
Livestreams. Real-time broadcasts on platforms like TikTok and YouTube to drive in-the-moment interaction.
-
Short-form clips.Video content like reels and TikToks, optimized for immediate engagement.
-
User-generated content. Posts created by your customers—a form of social proof.
-
Paid advertising. Promoted posts and ads to place your content in front of your target audience.
As part of its content marketing program, men’s grooming brand Beardbrand publishes educational articles on topics such as beard care, grooming routines, and styling techniques. By helping people solve grooming challenges with free, high-quality information on the Urban Beardsmen blog, the brand builds trust with prospective customers.
When optimized for search engines, the articles can also draw in potential customers looking for solutions that the brand can provide. You can publish and optimize these articles using Shopify’s built-in blog engine.
For social media marketing or content marketing, your content doesn’t have to be strictly about the product. Canyon Coffee cofounder Ally Walsh says on Shopify Masters that the brand’s email newsletters range from selling coffee products to interviews with artists, musicians, and chefs, and other content that’s not related to coffee—a brand-building approach that provides valuable content to its audience without a hard product sell.
Use Shopify’s email and SMS tools to build and send newsletters and SMS marketing campaigns without needing an external email service provider.
Content lifespan
Another difference is how long each type of content stays relevant. Content marketing posts are often designed to be evergreen; however, plenty of content marketing is deliberately timed too, such as around a product launch or industry announcement. Discoverability sets it apart, as evergreen content continues to surface in search, while most social media content fades as it gets pushed down the social feed.
Some social platforms, however, such as YouTube, can serve as both; YouTube videos are often surfaced in search results rather than in scroll feeds.
Homeware company Lone Fox prioritizes YouTube over other social media platforms for its long-term searchability. “The thing about YouTube that I tell everybody is that it’s so searchable,” says founder Drew Scott on Shopify Masters. “Instagram Stories and the like go away so quickly. I need my stuff to live.” For an ecommerce business, this longevity means a single video can continue to bring sales months or years after publishing—without the need for ongoing paid ad spend.
Discovery methods
Content marketing is a pull strategy, meaning it is meant to draw people to your business. People discover your brand and products through search engines, email newsletters, website visits, and referrals. This is why SEO and content marketing go hand in hand. Content earns you search visibility, and search visibility is how people find your content.
Social media is a push strategy, meaning it aims to build awareness where people are. People find it through platform feeds, shares, recommendations, hashtags, and creator collaborations, all of which affect reach. When someone shares your post, social media algorithms push it to their audience and beyond, which is how posts go viral. Hashtags also attach your content to topics people already follow, which also gets more eyes on it.
Skin care brand Dieux Skin uses both strategies. Customers find educational articles on topics such as skin care ingredients, routines, and common skin concerns through search. That content is then adapted into short videos for its social networks to reach people who weren’t actively searching for it.
Shopify integrates with social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and the Shop app, so you can sell and engage with potential customers from a unified dashboard.
How to use content marketing and social media marketing together
Content marketing and social media marketing are each powerful on their own, but using them together cohesively can compound the benefits.
There are two main ways to create a symbiotic relationship between your social media and marketing content. One is to repurpose content marketing material into shorter social snippets. Content marketing pieces are often more in-depth and detailed than social marketing ones, so you can use a single article, video, or case study for several ads, posts, and reels. You can share your content straight to social platforms from your Shopify admin and adapt it for email too.
Another approach is to use your social media strategy to help you understand what your audience is responding to, so you can create content marketing material to match. For example, you can turn a popular batch of Instagram tips into a blog series or roundup. User-generated content that drives strong engagement can become a newsletter feature. These tactics allow you to maximize the strengths of both forms of content.
Content marketing vs. social media marketing FAQ
Which is better for ecommerce businesses?
When it comes to content marketing vs. social media marketing, the best approach depends on your goals. Content marketing builds authority, improves SEO, and generates organic traffic. If your goal is to increase engagement, grow a community, and boost overall brand awareness, focus on social media marketing.
Can content marketing and social media work together?
Yes. Social media is an important distribution channel in a successful content marketing strategy, and the content you use in your content marketing strategy can be repurposed into social media posts.
Which strategy is better for SEO?
Content marketing is better for search engine optimization (SEO) because blog posts, guides, and other long-form assets can be guided by a keyword strategy to rank in search engines and generate organic traffic over time.
