More than 92% of American businesses have adopted the use of social media marketing campaigns. Can you count your business in this majority stat? If not, you may want to reconsider just how much social media can do for you.
Incorporating organic social media into your overall marketing strategy is an easy way to increase your organic reach while communicating directly with your target audience. Plus, a solid social media strategy will allow you to repurpose content, helping you keep up with the changing tides of each platform!
The social media terrain can be difficult to navigate. Consider these 8 organic tips your guide, and you’ll be reaping the benefits of organic social media in no time!
See Related: Why Is SEO Important To Digital Marketing?
Organic social media refers to the free tools and content available to all users, including businesses and brands. These tools include organic posts, videos, memes, stories, and more, and are different from paid ads.
If you're a brand posting on social media, you can expect your organic posts to reach a percentage of your followers, your followers' followers (should they choose to share your post), and anyone following any hashtags you might use.
But why choose an organic social strategy over a paid one?
Much like the debate between organic traffic and paid traffic in SEO, there is a similar debate between organic vs. paid social media. And as a business owner, you're most likely asking yourself, "Which one is better?"
Consider this statistic for a moment:
Social media recently overtook paid search as an advertising channel, growing 25% YoY and exceeding $137 billion.
While paid social campaigns come with their own benefits, having an organic strategy that you can consistently execute over time will lead to more sustainable organic growth.
Like SEO, organic social media plays the long game. But your organic efforts are what set you up for success in the long run.
That being said, we don't want to discount paid social media entirely. In fact, coupling paid social media with organic social media is a great way to maximize your social media marketing strategy overall.
Paid social media can be particularly effective when you want to:
For now, we're going to focus on organic social strategies. As a leading Los Angeles SEO company, we've seen the positive effects that come with maximizing your organic reach:
There are a number of social media platforms available to you as a brand. But don't think you have to go and conquer all social platforms at once in order to remain relevant.
TikTok is obviously the top-dog social media platform of 2023. In fact:
TikTok is the fastest-growing social network with a 100% user growth rate between 2020 and 2022.
That being said, you may find upon researching your target audience that they're actually hanging out somewhere else. There are plenty of statistics for you to comb through across a variety of social media platforms. Like this one:
Facebook generates 4 million likes every single minute while Instagram ads reach nearly 30% of all Internet users.
Suffice it to say that each social media platform has its own set of advantages. But before you dive into every social media platform there is, look at where your target audience is hanging out. Then, meet them at the social media platform of their choice.
No matter if it's a Google search or a social media search, there are always several different ways you can boost your visibility. Here are just a couple of tips to help you get familiar with optimizing your social media strategy overall:
In 2023, it's not enough to rely solely on Google search to ensure potential customers become aware of your brand.
In fact, 75% of Internet users employ social media to look at and research products.
So, think of your social media presence as yet another way to reinforce your brand story. Plus, this will give customers the chance to get to know your brand through your organic content.
Content marketing, whether through organic content on social media or on your website, is the perfect way to show off who you are as a company.
81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying.
And how does that trust get cultivated? By sharing organic content that makes you accessible, relatable, and vulnerable to those within your organic reach.
Paid social media can certainly help you boost some organic content here and there. But if a brand solely relies on paid social media marketing, then users don't really get a chance to learn about that brand's personality.
If you go the route of paid social media, couple it with plenty of organic content. There's nothing customers hate more than being berated with ad campaigns when all they really want is to see who you are without all the frills.
Paid content might boost a post. But only through organic content can you actually engage with folks in your digital community.
Generating more engagement, reaching new audiences, and strengthening community are the top three marketing goals for working with creators.
And replying to comments on organic content can do wonders for your conversion rate like paid posts simply can't. That's because potential leads like to see how a brand interacts with its customers.
Think of organic content as a way to also showcase your customer service skills. As John Marcinuk wrote for Forbes:
"By demonstrating that you care about your community and that you're present and engaged in the conversations they're having, you will improve your ability to communicate positive brand values."
Bonus: The Importance Of Blogging When Running A Business
A lot of research goes into social media marketing - and for good reason. After all, you don't want to target people who simply aren't interested in your brand or waste ad spend on a demographic that's completely off-base for your product.
Consumers are 2x more likely to buy first, stay loyal, and advocate for brands they trust.
And, again, this trust comes from generating organic content that speaks to the users and customers themselves. Another great way to boost this value is by publishing user-generated content.
This includes real reviews, whether text or video, of people who've purchased your product and are happy with the outcome. For potential onlookers who are just starting to become aware of your product, this kind of user-generated content can do wonders for increasing their conversion rate.
Creating a digital marketing content calendar is a no-brainer in this day and age. You want to be able to post consistently while also having access to an overview of your entire organic social media content for the month.
That being said, there are different strategies as to when to post depending on the social media platform you choose. For example:
70% of American users check Facebook at least once a day.
You may find a certain advantage to posting during active or non-active times. Either way, this will vary greatly depending on your target audience as well as your unique digital marketing strategy.
Haven't heard of the 80/20 rule? This rule says that 80% of your organic content should be informational, entertaining, or educational. Then, the remaining 20% of your content can be promoting your products and services.
But why follow this rule?
According to the Global Web Index, finding "funny and entertaining" content is the number one reason for using social media, followed by the desire "to fill up spare time."
Obviously, social media is yet another channel for you to plug your business. But, as is evident from the statistics above, users aren't going to social media to view paid advertising.
They're looking for a place to relax and chill out - away from paid campaigns. So unless you want to drive potential clients away, focus on the 80/20 rule so you can truly get to know your customers and their pain points.
Once all of this is said and done, you'll want to track your organic social media strategy for its performance. You can similarly track your paid social media strategy in tandem and compare the two.
But what's most important is leveraging what's working and letting go of what's not. While these strategies are tried and true, your audience remains unique and you can only know how they'll respond in real time.
Again, we're not trying to dismiss paid social media altogether. But here are just a couple of specific benefits you can only get with an organic social media strategy.
Brand awareness lies at the top of the sales funnel. So it only makes sense that this is where you'll want to direct your efforts before converting leads into customers.
And with social media, building brand awareness has never been easier.
41% of brands use influencers to increase their brand awareness.
With so many having cultivated a social media following of their own, partnering with influencers can be an easy way to tap into a specific audience while building on the trust the influencer has already established with them.
At the end of the day, the more people who know about your brand, the more they'll want to learn about what it is you provide.
Nowadays, customers like to know brands inside and out. And this means a lot of communication and transparency on your side as a brand.
According to Sprout research, 72% of consumers feel more connected to a brand whose employees share information about it on social media.
Of course, you can't force your employees to share information about their jobs on social media. But this statistic, in and of itself, proves that customers like that level of personal connection.
They want to know that you, as a brand, are just as relatable as the real people who work there. So when defining organic social for your brand, always keep your audience in mind.
Sometimes, paid advertising can come across as ingenuine. But the more you invest in organic content, and even user-generated content, the more customers will trust you as an authentic voice in the market.
39% of people say they like to see customer testimonials or real customer demos from brands.
After all, what's more convincing to potential clients than a real customer discussing their real feedback from firsthand experience with the brand? Not a paid campaign, that's for sure.
As with any kind of digital marketing strategy, you want to make sure that you can maximize the benefits of each by coupling various strategies together. And that's where SEO comes in.
SEO drives 1,000%+ more traffic than organic social media.
Despite social media's prevalence in today's society, nothing beats Google Search. That's why, at Up Inc., we continue to couple these strategies together to increase your brand's visibility while driving real, organic traffic to your brand's website.
From 2020-2021, we managed to 35x one luxury beauty company's organic visitor growth, resulting in 605 unique organic sales in 10 months and ranking them for 6,500 keywords in Google's Top 100 results.
With 35+ years of experience, our SEO company knows how to help you gain significant ROI on your organic traffic strategies as we build you a customized, impact-driven campaign that can help you increase sales, and turn visitors into loyal customers.
We may not have settled the organic between organic vs. paid social media. But at least with these tips, you'll have a solid foundation for setting up your organic social media strategy.
Keep Reading: 12 Ways To Find New Customers And Increase Sales
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Up Inc. eCommerce Agency is a digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles, CA. Founded in 2021, Up Inc. specializes in eCommerce, generating growth for brands by focusing on visibility, customer loyalty, and digital revenue. For more SEO tips and industry insights, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
