When it comes to building up your social media, it’s important to utilise all the tools available to you. The best way to ensure your content has the best reach, engagement and impact is to be consistent and balanced with your content. The easiest way to look at this is to put your content into two categories: paid and organic.

Many believe that only paid ads do well on social media, but that is a myth. Of course, paid social media can give you an amazing return on your investment, well thought out organic posts can have just as much of an impact, if you know how.

What is Organic Content?

Organic content accounts for most of the content you will see when on social media – it is any content that is free, including posts, videos, stories etc. This content is seen by a portion of your followers, people who are following any hashtags that you have used on the post and the followers of anyone who shares your content.

Unfortunately now, because of the amount of people using social media today and the competition for attention that comes with it, organic reach has been slowly declining. In fact, the average organic reach for a Facebook post is about 5.20% of your follower count with even less for brands with large followings. That means roughly one in every 19 fans sees your page’s non-promoted content.

What is Paid Content?

Paid social media content is, in many ways, the opposite to organic. But let’s be more specific. Paid social media refers to advertising across social media platforms – it is sometimes referred to as a “boost” or “paid ad” and it can either be content you’ve already posted, or a post specifically made for that purpose. Anyone with a business page can use this tool and target specific audiences to try and reach more people you can organically.

What Makes Great Organic Content?

Whilst many believe that simply posting a lot is what helps their account grow, this isn’t strictly true. Whilst posting consistently is great for account growth, making quality content that works is just as important. Organic content’s purpose is to establish you and your brand identity and the best way to do this is to make content tailored to your audience, content that speaks to them and in turn, will encourage them to engage with you and your account. Social media is about building a community after all, not just vanity metrics.

There are many great examples of organic content you can include in your marketing strategy:

  • Testimonials/reviews.
  • Meet the team posts.
  • Real-life examples of how your product and/or service is used.
  • Relatable information.
  • How-to guides.

Ensure the content remains relevant to you and your brand however – making a content strategy will help you think of this and keep track of it!

Why Use Paid Ads?

Because organic reach is declining and sometimes it can be hard to reach a large audience with organic posts alone, having a strategy for your social media that includes paid ads can make a massive difference. Paid social media is popular due to how affordable it can be, especially in comparison with other digital advertising platforms.

Some of the top benefits of paid content include raising brand awareness, promoting a new product, an event, or something newsworthy from your brand, attracting new followers, driving sales and more. Because you can target specific audiences using demographics, your posts will reach your target audience with ease. But don’t waste your money just promoting anything, be specific about what you choose to boost and what you don’t, in the same way that you would take advantage of only certain trends.

Balance it Out

At the end of the day, when it comes to paid or organic posts on social media, the two should be used together, not all of one or the other. Whilst organic content should help you establish and grow your brand voice and connect with existing customers, paid content should be designed to precisely target your ideal audience and reach the masses. Rather than posting for the sake of it, create a strategy that involves both paid and organic ads that work together. Doing so will ensure you are able to benefit entirely from what social media can offer you and your business.