The Importance Of Having An Organic Social Media Presence In 2022
Paper products, fast food, educational institutions and manufacturing corporations are just a few varieties of industries that have brands rolling out content every day on social media platforms. If your brand still hasn’t boarded the social media train, now is the time to do so. With over 4.2 billion people actively using social media, it’s your opportunity to connect with new audiences and build relationships with your customers. It’s important to note that although we believe every brand should be utilizing social media, it does not mean that every brand should be on every platform.
What is Organic Social Media Marketing?
Before we take a deep dive into the benefits that come with having a strong organic social media presence, let’s cover some basics, like what the heck is organic social media and how is it different from paid social media marketing. The main difference is that organic social media means posting without an ad budget. Instead, you’re using free content you post on your profile for anyone to see on their feeds. Some examples of successful posts include copy, images and videos about your brand, the products or services you offer, the company culture and reasons you stand out above the competition. This is a place where you should be sharing your company’s goals and values and connecting with your followers.
Paid and organic marketing are not mutually exclusive, rather they are most successful when used together. Paid social media is an effective way to target your specific audiences and promote yourself on the platforms your audience frequents. Once an ad catches your audience’s interest, they’ll likely head to your profile to see more relevant content. That’s when having a well-built organic social media presence really matters. The ad was interesting enough that they wanted to learn more and your profile is where they will go to get essential information. If they find a dormant profile, you’ll lose a potential customer. After all, paid social sends your audiences to your social pages, consistent and well-rounded organic content keeps them there.
Why Does An Organic Social Media Presence Matter?
With competition continuously increasing, brand loyalty and customers’ perceptions of your company play an important role during the buying process, which is why an organic social media presence is vital. Online reviews written by other consumers are trusted by 79% of people, just as much as recommendations from their personal contacts. In addition, what their friends share on social media also makes an impact on their decisions with 81% admitting to being influenced by what their friends share. With customer reviews and perceptions being so important to consumers, you must be able to connect with them. By bringing authenticity to your platforms, you can establish relationships with your followers while you both learn more about each other.
Interacting with customers is a great way to increase user engagement and even establish a level of brand loyalty. When you respond to their positive engagements and address their concerns, you give more personality and validity to your brand and encourage even more engagement from current and future audiences.
An authentic brand voice is important, but consistency in tone between your organic posts and your paid ads is key. If your organic strategy does not include consistent content, frequent engagements or you don’t address customer joys or concerns, it makes your brand’s legitimacy look suspicious. When a paid ad works, it means the consumer is interested in that content and is looking for more, and a divergence from that will have consumers questioning the reliability of your brand.
Again, the main difference between organic and paid is the price. One thing that makes organic so great is that it’s relatively inexpensive. Organic social media doesn’t deal with ad budgets, and costs appear as the time and labor put into creating posts and strategy. It’s a cost-effective way to connect with your audiences, build relationships and share your brand.
What if My Brand Isn’t Like the Others?
Social media is effective for more businesses than lifestyle brands and popular restaurant chains. It’s for any business that’s looking to connect with their audience. As of now, 91% of brands are active on more than one social media platform and 65 million businesses have active Facebook pages. For B2B businesses, 84% are utilizing social media in some form. If none of your competitors are on social media, now’s the perfect opportunity to establish your presence and speak to the audiences your competitors are failing to reach. Like we mentioned before, your brand shouldn’t be on every social platform, it should be on the most applicable ones. There’s a platform for everyone; a place to showcase your products or services, your values and your goals to audiences on social media.
I’m in! Now What?
While an organic social media presence is necessary, cost-effective and an ideal forum to engage with your target audiences, it takes some work! To remain consistent on each social media platform, we generally recommend a cadence of 3-5 posts per week, but that differs from platform to platform to optimize your content. Even before you jump in and start posting, you need to evaluate your goals and have an understanding of what you would like to accomplish with an organic strategy. This will help you decide which platforms to utilize as each has their own capabilities and demographic groups. While creating a following, make sure to be interacting with followers, answering questions and learning more about your audience.
With more brands joining the world of social media every day, it’s time to start developing your organic social media strategy! You can directly connect with your audience in an authentic and meaningful way to develop relationships and build the trust that consumers are looking for, without the need for an ad budget.
Organic social media marketing is no easy task, but you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to our social media t::team so we can help get things going! With experience in both organic and paid social media services, your strategy will be comprehensive and consistent to create the authentic brand voice you want.
