Whether you should use paid or organic social media depends on a range of factors. One thing is for sure, we would definitely recommend having a presence on social media, as it can really help you to gain a wider reach. In this blog we’re looking at paid vs organic social media.
Social media marketing has definitely become much more business friendly since it first began.
What is organic social media?
Organic social media is not a complicated term, it essentially means any social media content that is shared without paid promotion.
For example: You created a post and shared it to your business page, and that’s it. You didn’t pay for a ‘boost’ and you didn’t select a specific demographic to target.
That means that your post will appear to those who are following your page and only appear to others if users share the organic content themselves.
Organic content can be just as exciting as paid content, it just usually doesn’t have as wide a reach.
What is paid social media?
Paid social media has come a long way in recent years, with more and more platforms adapting to offer it. Paid social refers to any content that has been promoted using money, it is basically advertising.
Most social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram now offer businesses the ability to promote their content. Most of the time the platforms allow for an ‘ad spend’ which can be adapted to suit the needs of your budget.
Choosing the right social platform for your business can be hard, but it’s important to be where your target audience are.
A paid social media strategy can be used for many reasons, maybe your business has a new product launching, or you’re simply creating an integrated marketing campaign. Either way, building paid social media campaigns means that you’ll reach a wider audience.
Platforms such as Facebook (or Meta) allow for advanced targeting options within their paid advertising. This means that it’s possible to select individuals based on their demographic.
Elements such as age, location, gender, job title and more can be considered. Of course, for this to work efficiently, users have to have submitted this information within their profile.
How to use an organic social media strategy
Organic social media can be used to share more light hearted posts. These can include memes which deliver on humour appeal or an exciting appeal covered by ‘weekend’ posts.
It is important, if your industry allows, to share these types of posts within your social media marketing strategy.
How to use paid social media marketing
Paid campaigns should be much more informative. At the end of the day, you’re trying to make people aware of your brand to drive leads. Most paid content would include general information about what a brand can offer or even posts about an upcoming sale.
What are the key benefits of organic social media?
Keeping it small
Organic social media definitely feels like a more niche approach. But, that’s not a bad thing at all. Many businesses use organic media to maintain a positive relationship with their followers.
This can be done through more personal posts or posts that only your existing customers would understand. Given that organic reach is naturally lower, it makes sense to promote content like this.
Building on these relationships is a great way to increase brand loyalty and means that existing followers may have a more positive attitude towards your brand.
Keeping costs down
Organic social media involves free content! All you need to do is create and share the post organically. Although free, creating regular social media content can be time consuming.
We offer a social media management service where we can take care of creating and scheduling your social media posts. We create valuable content for each social network that matches your brand voice.
What are the benefits of paid social media?
Wider reach
The most important benefit of paid social media is that you can target a much wider audience. Due to social media algorithms, it is estimated that only a small percentage (around 5.5%) of your followers will actually see an organic post.
These followers are likely to be people that interact with your content frequently. Therefore, they have essentially taught the algorithm that they are interested in what you post.
Target who you want
Another huge benefit of paid social media is that it gives users the ability to target their ideal customer. If you already have a solid target audience but you believe that a new product is aimed at others too, you can use paid social media to target them.
Having access to more targeting tools means you’re more likely to target those who are genuinely interested in your brand.
And don’t worry, if you find that the advertisement isn’t quite getting the reception you thought it would, you can alter the targeting options so that you reach different audience demographics.
Additionally, you can alter budgets and timeframes to make the paid posts work for you. It isn’t always a great idea to use your entire social media budget on one post, so take your time when planning your paid social ads.
Driving and generating leads
Isn’t this what every business wants from their marketing efforts? Through targeting specific individuals with your content, you can drive leads and hopefully generate sales.
You should direct them to your website to increase traffic, this may also allow you to upsell items before the user checks out.
Organic vs paid social media campaigns
All in all, both paid and organic content on social media have a huge range of benefits to consider. In addition to the above, there’s even more benefits that they both share.
Establish a target audience
Your business might have been going for years or you might just have started out on social media. Either way, social media platforms can really assist you with getting to know your own audience.
Why not use other features such as stories on Facebook and Instagram to ask questions to your followers and interact with polls? Not only do these create positive relationships with followers, they may also help you with increasing the number of people who see your organic posts.
Gain new followers
Through sharing meaningful content with your followers, you’re sure to reap the benefits of word of mouth and also post sharing online. This can help you to gain new followers.
If you create content that encourages people to visit your website, it’s quite likely that you’ll start seeing an increase in sales.
Using digital marketing has its own benefits in that sense, whereby it’s even easier to monitor your content marketing. Many social platforms allow you to see where a user came from, whether that was down to your Instagram post or somewhere else.
You could also consider using the Facebook Pixel. This is a short piece of code used on your website that allows for retargeting. This works with Facebook to share your website with users who may be interested or who’ve already visited your site in the past.
So, organic vs paid social media?
We would recommend combining paid and organic socials. Both content options have their own benefits that can provide business success. Both paid and organic social posts can help you to reach your business goals, increase e-commerce sales and build on your social presence.
Some business owners can be worried about spending money on paid social campaigns but the truth is, if the content provides you with a high return on investment, it’s definitely worth it.
If you need any assistance with your social media strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us.