If you're new to paid social media management, 2020 is an exciting time to get started in your social media strategy.
Organic social media is posting free content on social networks that businesses and brands want to share with their target audience.
As a brand, when you post organically to your account, you can expect that the people who will see it are:
It sounds pretty simple, but there's a reason organic social media is the foundation of everything digital marketing strategy today because it's the best way to nurture customer connections at scale.
For example, brands today use organic articles to:
But of course there is also a downside to organic posts.
For example, on Facebook at the end of 2019, organic reach decreased by 2.2%, which means the average organic reach for a Facebook post is about 5.5% of your followers.
Decreasing organic reach has been a fact of life for several years now, as the world's largest platforms reach saturation, attention spans shorten, and platforms prioritize more "meaningful" or "accountable" user experiences.
Paid social media is another word for advertising.
According to eMarketer, paid social media is on the rise as users become more comfortable with the idea of purchasing directly from their feed browsing experience.
But B2C retailers aren't the only industry focusing on social media advertising.
Organic strategy helps brands nurture and maintain relationships with customers and page followers.
However, organic strategies often progress very slowly to achieve business goals, and although technically free, require a lot of time and experimentation to achieve the exact goals.
Meanwhile, a paid social media strategy is how you connect with new customers or audiences more quickly, because:
While organic activities are necessary to build relationships, as ranking algorithms become more sophisticated, it means you have to pay to participate in the game called social media – a fact of life on social networks today.
The foundation of most integrated social media strategies is using organic content to serve and delight your existing customers, while also attracting new eyes by investing in your advertising budget.
The things you should know below will help you achieve your goal of making your brand widely known to social network users, especially potential future customers.
The first thing you should know is that brands should only pay for ads when they can actually help you achieve your KPIs and achieve your business goals.
When you announce something new — whether it's a collaboration, a repost of a flagship product, etc., your existing followers need to be notified.
However, if your organic posts aren't getting the reach or impressions you expected, it might be time to open your wallet.
The best performing posts do more than just boost their metrics.
Investing in organic content is often considered an entry-level tactic because it's low risk — you don't need to advertise.
For example, you can start by allocating a small budget to your initial weekly or monthly posts or whenever you run your analytics reports.
Before you allocate your entire social media budget to an ad, run versions of that ad to a small audience to see if it's any good.
The more you grow your social presence organically, the more data you will have about your ideal customer or audience.
Emphasize all of this information when you create your ad to resonate with customers, engage them, and maintain their interest in your business.
Retargeting campaigns can be highly effective at a relatively low cost, because you're reaching people who already know your business.
Maybe they visited your fanpage or website, or even put products in their cart.
Watching a campaign fail is extremely painful whether it is a paid or organic campaign.
The key point of combining organic and paid is that it takes more budget, time, content and postings.
Learning about the general picture of paid and organic social media will help your brand choose the appropriate direction in the current period.
Source: Paige Cooper
