Social Media Beatdown: Organic vs Paid

Let’s say you create a great piece of content to post that you know your followers will love. You know the best time to post is between 12 pm and 1 pm on a Tuesday, so you post during that time. You sit back and let the magic happen. But then you notice your post only reached a measly 20 people. What gives? Well, I’m sorry to say organic reach isn’t what it used to be.

Really?

That’s right. If you’re relying solely on organic reach you’ll discover your posts don’t go far. You probably heard social media companies are shifting to a pay-to-play model that encourages paid social. Disappointed? Don’t be. It’s become increasingly difficult to create content aimed at achieving high organic reach. Paid social is the solution to cost-effective marketing. Just take a look at the rise of paid reach on Facebook:

It’s obvious paid social reaches more people than old-fashioned, regular posts. But what can you do to get the most out of your posts?

Tip 1: Combine Paid with Organic

Combining paid with organic is even more cost-effective than relying on organic reach. When you think about it, organic reach is what you get for free – no matter who sees it. Your ad dollars on social are only spent on exactly who you are targeting. All paid social campaigns extend beyond your own network which creates residual engagement on the rest of your posts. This engagement will impact your reach within your network and beyond. As more users engage, the more likely they’ll convert depending your business’s goals.

So what else can you do to really add value to your posts?

Tip 2: Combine Paid with Email Marketing

According to this article, email is the “highest-impact organic channel out there” – and it’s true! While gaining a new “Like” or a follower is great, you won’t get much value nowadays. Mixing paid social with strategic email marketing is the way to go.

Email is still a relevant marketing medium. In fact, the industry average for email open rate is 20 percent. Marketers are combining email with social media to deliver their message even more effectively. A few things to keep in mind when developing an email campaign:

• Your subject lines matter. It’s important to tell the recipient what’s inside instead of selling it.
• Learn how spam filters work. Excessive use of exclamation points or using all caps are just a few things that flag your email as spam.
• Refresh stale emails. Delete emails that are no longer active and keep in touch with your subscribers now and then so they stay on your list.

As this article recommends, you want to be informative without being annoying. Utilizing paid social with strategic email campaign is a great way to reach your audience. But you don’t want to target users so much they end up blocking you. Keeping people engaged and converting depends on your content. Good content is king and this will keep people coming back for more.

The bottom line is that paid social is becoming the most cost-effective approach to reach a larger audience. So go ahead and spend a couple dollars boosting that post. You’ll be surprised how far your content can go.

Source:
Image by Yoel Ben-Avraham
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