Many B2B marketers toss around “digital marketing” and “social media marketing” like they’re interchangeable catchphrases, but that’s a bit like confusing a Swiss Army knife with just one of its tools. As buying cycles grow more content-driven and social selling rises in influence, understanding the distinction is no longer optional—it’s essential. A whitepaper from IDC shows that 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions, underscoring just how central these platforms have become.
In this blog, we’ll demystify the difference between digital and social media marketing, compare their impacts, explore how they can amplify each other, and show where a platform like GaggleAMP fits into the modern B2B playbook.
Digital marketing is the umbrella term for all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. It’s the strategic powerhouse that allows B2B marketers to attract, nurture, and convert leads across the full funnel.
Some core digital marketing tactics include:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content to rank higher in search engines.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): Paid ads, typically seen on Google or LinkedIn.
Email Marketing: Lead nurturing and lifecycle campaigns.
Mobile Marketing: Targeting users on smartphones through SMS or app-based notifications.
Content Marketing: Blogs, whitepapers, videos, webinars—often hosted on owned digital properties.
Display Advertising: Banner ads on websites and retargeting campaigns.
Digital marketing excels in driving measurable outcomes. B2B marketers use it to build awareness at the top of the funnel and drive conversion at the bottom. Campaigns are tracked via metrics like click-through rates (CTR), cost-per-lead (CPL), marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), and conversion rates.
Why does this matter for B2B marketers? Digital marketing is precision-focused, performance-driven, and ideal for long sales cycles that require nurturing through multiple touchpoints.
Despite its wide reach, digital marketing’s strength lies in orchestration. Its ability to synchronize multiple channels—each with unique intent signals—creates a cohesive journey that converts anonymous interest into qualified demand. But among these tools, one channel has emerged as an engagement powerhouse: social media.
Social media marketing is a subset of digital marketing that focuses specifically on leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) to build relationships, grow brand presence, and drive engagement.
Unlike broader digital strategies that might aim for conversions through gated content or email nurtures, social media marketing is about sparking conversations and building credibility in real-time.
Key strategies in social media marketing include:
Platform-specific content: Tailoring posts to the norms of each network.
Employee advocacy: Enabling internal champions to amplify brand messaging.
Thought leadership: Sharing insights that position execs and subject matter experts as industry authorities.
Community interaction: Engaging with comments, mentions, and messages.
The power of social media lies in its ability to humanize the brand and create authentic two-way communication. Metrics here include likes, shares, comments, mentions, and post reach—all of which reflect brand affinity and engagement more than direct conversion.
A modern B2B social media strategy enables real-time dialogue, builds trust, and showcases the people behind the brand. But how does it compare when stacked up against the broader, data-heavy world of digital marketing?
Understanding the distinction between digital marketing and social media marketing is crucial for building a cohesive strategy. Let’s break it down.
| Category | Digital Marketing | Social Media Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Broad (includes email, SEO, PPC, etc.) | Narrow (platform-specific) |
| Primary Objective | Lead generation & conversions | Engagement & brand visibility |
| Channels | Websites, email, search engines, mobile apps | LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram |
| Metrics | CTR, MQLs, CPL, conversions | Likes, shares, comments, reach |
| Lifecycle Stage | Full-funnel | Top to mid-funnel |
While digital marketing is structured and multi-touch, social media marketing thrives on spontaneity and human interaction. But here’s the twist: they’re not mutually exclusive. In fact, they’re exponentially more powerful when used together.
Rather than treating digital and social media marketing as competing strategies, high-performing B2B teams treat them as complementary gears in the same machine—one driving precision, the other driving presence. This intersection is where true brand momentum is built.
Social media is often the spark plug that fuels broader digital initiatives. When layered into a digital strategy, it helps content travel further and connects campaigns to real humans—your employees, customers, and prospects.
Here’s how it works:
Traffic booster: Sharing blog posts or gated content on social drives quality traffic and shortens the awareness-to-interest gap.
SEO enhancer: Social shares and engagement send signals to search engines, indirectly supporting higher rankings.
Retargeting fuel: Social platforms like LinkedIn allow marketers to retarget users who engaged with prior campaigns, improving ad efficiency.
Brand amplifier: It helps transform static content (e.g., whitepapers) into digestible insights and discussions, enhancing personal branding efforts for your employees.
When social media becomes a distribution engine for digital content, the result is a multiplier effect—not just in traffic, but in credibility and trust. It’s not the cherry on top—it’s the catalyst that gives campaigns life beyond the inbox or landing page.
Social helps transform static content into digestible insights and discussions, especially when leveraging employee-generated content.
Imagine having your sales team share thought leadership content without lifting a finger. That’s the magic of GaggleAMP.
B2B marketers juggling demand gen, social media, and performance goals often find themselves chasing employees to post on LinkedIn. Or worse, posting in Slack and hoping someone shares. GaggleAMP flips the script, offering a comprehensive solution for employee advocacy.
One-click sharing inside Slack or Teams: No new tools, no logins—just seamless workflows.
Gamification & incentives: Leaderboards, badges, and points to nudge even the quietest team members.
Clear, automated reporting: Engagement, reach, and traffic data to justify ROI to leadership.
Time-saving magic: Most GaggleAMP users only spend 16 minutes per week but generate up to 10x the engagement.
It’s not just about getting more likes—it’s about making social a no-brainer for busy teams.
GaggleAMP doesn’t just support your strategy—it enables companies to boost brand awareness through employee advocacy while increasing adoption and visibility in ways that manual efforts can’t touch. It turns advocacy from an aspirational buzzword into a repeatable workflow that delivers impact.
Here’s the truth: You don’t need to choose between digital and social—you just need to balance them based on your goals.
Choose digital marketing when:
You’re running multi-touch campaigns aimed at lead generation.
You need high-precision performance tracking.
You’re targeting multiple personas across long buying cycles.
Lean into social media marketing when:
You’re trying to boost brand awareness or thought leadership.
You need to activate internal advocates.
You want to build trust before the lead form.
The best B2B marketers know it’s not about one or the other. With platforms like GaggleAMP, you can activate both without adding more to your workload.
When B2B marketers align digital precision with social authenticity, they create a feedback loop that strengthens every stage of the buyer journey—from discovery to conversion to advocacy—an evolution reflected in Gartner’s latest research on B2B marketing trends, which highlights how buyers now expect seamless digital experiences across the funnel.
Integrating your digital and social efforts isn't about doing more—it's about making what you're already doing go further. When your content strategy, demand generation efforts, and employee engagement tactics work in concert, the result is a more agile, visible, and influential brand.
Learn how GaggleAMP helps B2B tech marketers integrate digital strategy with social engagement—without the time sink. Book a demo today.