Facebook or Google?

I think everyone can acknowledge that social media has changed the way PR and marketing now handle their products. In our talk last week with new media specialist Alex Cohen, corporations and brands are listening and tracking EVERYTHING. The music and entertainment industries are especially relying on brand cults to create buzz. Once a company has monitored and engaged their customers, the next step is monetizing their brand. Solution: social media marketing.

My biggest question for social media marketers is how does a company know when it needs to promote their website through paid placement or SEM? Will users actually take action and "click" on an ad? How do companies know if they should pay for Internet marketing on Google or a social networking site like Facebook? For instance, if an advertiser decides to use Facebook, the process to launch those ads is similar to Google's AdWords, except for the target. Facebook targeting is based on demographic, including gender, birthday, age, etc., whereas GoogleAd's targeting is by content, or the keyword a user searches for. Considering this, would a niche community that caters to a specific group be more successful using Facebook ads than Google's AdWords? Ultimately, you want whatever it is that you're promoting - a product, a service, a brand, etc. - to reach the right people with the right message. In deciding what social media marketing tools to use, it comes down to knowing your product and its objective.