Organic Social: Expectations vs Reality

With over 4.62 billion people using social media every day, can your business afford to miss out on advertising on a variety of platforms, specifically built to reach a wide range of people and potential customers? Having said this, do you truly understand organic marketing? In this blog, we will explore the expectations versus the reality of organic marketing, and whether it supports your businesses development.

So, what actually is organic marketing?

Organic social media marketing is any social media activity without a paid promotion, it utilises free social media tools and platforms to engage with a variety of people online. In other words, organic marketing is your business portraying a message to all clients, new and old, what services and products you may sell or offer, without having to pay for the reach.

With both paid and organic marketing, platforms and techniques are ever-changing and adapting, being able to understand the advantages and disadvantages of organic marketing have never been more important.

What is expected from organic socials?

When posting organically (as the face of your brand) to your account, you should expect that the people who will see your posts; are a percentage of your current following, another percentage of sub-followers (followers of your followers who have interacted with or shared your post), and any people currently following or interested in the hashtags you use.

In theory, this sounds pretty simple and rather a necessity for your brand. But, in reality the reason that organic social media is the foundation of any marketing campaign is that it’s the most efficient way to nurture relationships with all customers.

The ideal organic social media strategy will nurture these relationships I have spoken about above, ultimately helping you grow and establish your brand’s presence, where people are already spending their time. As of January 2022, the average time spent on social media is close to nearly two and a half hours per day, making it much easier to get your message right in front of them

The reality behind organic social marketing

The truth behind organic socials is that; whilst you may be reaching hundreds of people with one simple message, it takes a long, long time to grow any social media presence, especially when trying to fine-tune your desired target audience.

For example, on Facebook – which is still considered to be the most influential social media platform, the average reach for your organic posts is 5.17% of your page’s total likes. When organically posting to your chosen platforms, it’s a guarantee you will reach eyes but not every like, follow and engagement will result in a new sale.

Why would someone want to utilise organic methods?

When using organic socials, it is important to keep your message and imagery clear and concise to help get your message across. Based on current research, it takes 13 milliseconds on average for your brain to process your images and relate them to the first few words of your post! So, keep those posts and images relevant and clear! Keeping your social profiles clear, clean and updated is a great convincer and essentially forms the foundation of trust between the buyer and seller. It can be seen to be a negative aspect of your business if someone cannot trust your online presence, as well as your physical presence.

But why would you want to use organic socials? Well, the advantages that come with organic posting, mean you can not only reach potential customers, but you can also develop brand awareness with the exact same message! There are arguments that social media marketing is becoming the new ‘meta’ for your marketing strategies, would you want to miss out on all of the ‘free’ clients?