AWS Step Functions is a step machine that executes AWS Lambda functions. If your task involves "do this, then this" activities, then Step Functions could be a good option. It includes logic to determine the next step and automatically handles retries. It's the modern version of Amazon Simple Workflow (SWF).
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) can also trigger Lambda functions, but it does not handle the logic nor the retries. It's a good fit for decoupled services, especially for fan-out where multiple subscribers receive the same message from a topic -- for example, for triggering multiple Lambda functions or sending multiple notifications. It's basically a public/subscribe service, of which Lambda is one of the subscriber types.
The choice will depend upon your particular use-case. If you don't want to redesign things to use Step Functions, then send notifications via SNS. If you sometimes send notifications (eg emails) rather than just trigger Lambda functions, use SNS.
Currently, Step Functions is not available in every region, while SNS is everywhere so that might also influence your choice.