Organic social media has always served a purpose in delivering impactful marketing. The question is whether the benefits that make it so purposeful have changed with a greater presence of marketers and the way content is consumed?
In this post, we will look at what the current benefits of organic social media are and how reach is organically affected on each platform. We will also look at ways to boost reach through alternative marketing, like how you can integrate a small advertising budget to enhance the benefits of your social media campaigns.
What Are the Current Benefits of Organic Social Media?
Organic social media is still a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. In fact, there are several benefits to using organic social media that make it an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Here are a couple of reasons why:
1. Organic social media allows you to build a loyal following of customers and fans who are genuinely interested in your brand. By creating engaging content and interacting with your followers, you can foster a strong sense of community around your brand. These can then translate into increased sales and customer loyalty.
2. You can reach a wider audience without spending a dime on advertising. By creating high-quality, shareable content, you can tap into the vast networks of your followers and their connections. Potentially, you can reach thousands or even millions of people.
3. You are able to showcase your brand’s personality and values in a way that paid advertising simply can’t match. This can be achieved by building a strong emotional connection with your followers that can pay dividends in terms of customer loyalty and brand recognition. Do this by sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company culture, highlighting your charitable initiatives, or simply sharing your brand’s unique perspective on current events.
4. An organic approach can provide valuable insights into your customers’ preferences and behaviours. By monitoring engagement metrics that include likes, comments, and shares, you can gain a deeper understanding of what resonates with your audience and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
In short, organic social media is a highly effective tool for businesses that want to build a strong online presence and connect with their target audience. With the right strategy and execution, organic social media can help you build a loyal following of customers, increase brand awareness, and drive sales and revenue.
Trying to strike the right balance in your social media balance? Read our guidelines here.
If at this point, you’re wondering what organic social media is and how it relates to reach, let’s quickly clear that up now.
Organic reach refers to the number of people who see your social media content without you having to pay for advertising. In other words, it’s the reach you achieve through your own efforts. This can be by creating engaging content, using hashtags, or interacting with your followers.
Let’s say you’ve just created a new blog post, and you want to promote it on your company’s LinkedIn page. By sharing your blog post on LinkedIn, you are essentially trying to reach as many people as possible without having to pay for advertising. The number of people who see your post is your organic reach.
Organic reach can be an important metric to track because it can give you insight into how well your content is resonating with your audience. A high organic reach indicates that your content is engaging and relevant to your followers, while a low organic reach may mean that you need to adjust your content strategy or target audience.
To Determine Whether Organic Reach Is Still Effective, Let’s Take a Look at How Social Platforms Treat Your Content.
While it’s true that organic social media has become more challenging in recent years, it’s far from dead. The truth is that organic reach on social media platforms has declined due to various factors such as platform algorithm changes, increased competition, and the sheer volume of content being posted.
Here’s how the algorithm changes have affected each platform:
- Facebook’s algorithm now prioritises content that generates meaningful interactions between users, such as comments and shares. This means businesses that don’t create engaging content or rely on clickbait tactics may see a decline in their organic reach.
- Instagram’s algorithm prioritises content based on user engagement and relevance, meaning posts that receive high levels of engagement (likes, comments, and shares) are more likely to be seen by users.
- Twitter’s algorithm displays content in reverse-chronological order, meaning the most recent tweets are shown first. However, Twitter’s algorithm also ranks tweets based on engagement levels, meaning tweets with high levels of engagement are more likely to be seen by users.
- LinkedIn’s algorithm favours content that generates high levels of engagement and conversation, such as posts that ask questions or share thought-provoking insights. Additionally, LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritises content that is relevant to users’ interests and careers.
The common theme across all platforms is that engagement and relevance are key to achieving organic reach. We have deduced that the winning recipe to increasing organic reach on social media platforms include these three things:
- Create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your target audience,
- Use tactics such as hashtags and tagging relevant accounts
- Engaging with your followers,
Adapting to the ever evolving social media landscape and staying on top of platform algorithm changes, will enable you to continue to achieve success through organic social media.
Not to sure which social media platform you should be on? We guide you in the right direction in our blog: Which Social Media Platforms Should My Small Business Be On to Make It to the Next Level?
What If despite Your Best Efforts, Your Organic Social Media Strategy Is Not Producing the Results You Need?
If your organic reach remains low despite your best efforts, there are a few strategies you can try to improve reach on your social platforms:
Analyse and Optimise Content:
It’s important to regularly review the performance of your social media content to see what’s resonating with your audience and what’s not. By analysing the data and optimising your content strategy, you can create more engaging, relevant content that’s more likely to be seen by your target audience.
Collaborate with Other Businesses or Influencers:
Collaborating with other businesses or influencers in your industry can help increase your reach and exposure to new audiences. By partnering with complementary businesses or influencers with a strong following, you can expand your reach and tap into new markets.
Leverage User-Generated Content:
Encouraging your followers to create and share their own content related to your brand or products can help increase your reach and engagement. By sharing user-generated content on your social media profiles, you can showcase your brand in an authentic way and build a stronger connection with your audience.
Integrate a Small Advertising Budget:
While organic reach may be declining, paid advertising can still help businesses reach their target audience. By investing in targeted ads on social media platforms, businesses can increase their visibility and drive traffic to their website or social media profiles.
If you would like more control of where your brand gets seen online, and by who, using a paid approach to deliver clear and measurable ROI, we can help you to do this. Get in touch to find out how hyper-direct paid ads can reach your target audience on the platforms they trust.
Overall, it’s important to be adaptable and open to trying new strategies to improve your organic reach on social media. By experimenting with different tactics and staying on top of industry trends, businesses can continue to achieve success through social media marketing.
Contact us to see how we can help level up your business. In the meantime, for more best practice guidance and exclusive news, sign up to our newsletter.
