10 Ways to Strengthen Organic Reach on Social Media
The average number of people who see posts on social media that aren’t backed by ad dollars is low. It’s no secret that most social platforms operate on a pay-to-play model for brands.
On Facebook, the average reach of an organic page post hovers around 5.20%. That means roughly one in every 19 fans sees the page’s non-promoted content. The easiest way to boost distribution and direct sales is to boost your ad budget.
As a result, businesses often underestimate the importance of organic marketing. But organic social is the foundation that your ad strategy rests on. Behind every successful ad campaign is a consistent and creative social media presence that strengthens brand, relationships, and trust.
1. Learn Best Practices for Each Platform
Having general knowledge of how to write a caption or how to create a video is good. Knowing how to write a good caption for Instagram and create videos for LinkedIn is better.
Never take a one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing, especially with organic content. To reach the most people, organic posts need to be optimized. And to optimize content, you need to understand the platform and audience you’re optimizing for. A good place to start is by getting familiar with social media demographics.
Focus on the platforms that make the most sense for your business and set out to master them. Know which audience you are trying to reach:
- • Younger Crowds – Snapchat filters, TikTok hashtag challenges, and Instagram Stories
- • B2B Companies – connect via LinkedIn hashtags or Twitter Live
As a general rule, content that is designed specifically for the platform it’s going on performs better. Learn the in’s and out’s so you can use social media features to their fullest potential. Tools like hashtags, geotags, people tags and shopping tags can all boost the reach of organic content if you use them correctly.
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2. Develop a Strong Content Strategy
Shortcuts won’t get you the best results. If you don’t spend time on a social media content strategy, why would a stranger spend time on your content? To get organic content to perform well on social media, you have to put some thought and effort into it.
To start, learn about your audience:
- • What are they interested in?
- • What are your audience demographics?
- • How do they vary by platform?
- • Most platforms offer business accounts access to these insights through their analytics tools.
Social listening is another way to learn what content your audience—and competitors—are engaging with. Look at what some of your favorite brands are doing for inspiration.
Establish realistic goals for your content strategy. You won’t grow an organic audience by pushing sales constantly. Ergo, you won’t drive sales that way either. Focus on building your brand, audience, and community. Measure your success with growth and interaction metrics.
3. Focus on Value
Organic content should offer followers something of value. Give people a reason to follow and share your posts. That could mean entertainment value, pearls of wisdom or motivation, or the opportunity to connect with a community.
Merriam Webster’s Twitter account taps the dictionary for its full value potential. In addition to tweeting the Word of the Day, the account tweets “lookup” trends that are often as revealing as they are relevant.
There’s also value for your brand in this approach. Take Lululemon, for example. Technically the company is an apparel retailer. By sharing tips and hosting workouts on IGTV and Instagram Live, the athleisure brand is able to position itself as an authority on all things fitness. With workouts, Lululemon inserts its brand into its customers’ daily routine and shows off its products, too.
4. Be Consistent to Maintain a Presence
Post regularly and post at the right time. When is that, exactly? It’s when your audience is online and active. Make sure to double-check your analytics and adjust accordingly. Use a social media management tool, such as iLoyal Social Genius, to help you narrow down the best days and times to post.
Post consistently to establish and maintain a presence. But remember, when it comes to organic social media, quality always trumps quantity. This is why creating a good content strategy and social media content schedule is so important.
Planning ahead keeps the routine sustainable and prevents burn-out. Think long-term. Develop content themes, regular installments, or a recurring series.
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5. Connect with People
Here’s a little tip: Go to any brand’s Instagram account on your desktop. Hover over each post. Compare the number of likes and comment counts as you go. You’ll see that pictures with people in them often have more likes and comments.
People connect with people more than products and services. Plus, consumers increasingly want to know the faces behind a brand. A survey by Deloitte asked consumers what they cared most about when making decisions about brands. The answer? How the company treats its people.
6. Boost Engagement
Want to boost engagement on your organic posts? Just ask for it.
Questions are a great prompt. Ask your followers something you’re interested in hearing about. Use this as an opportunity to learn more about your audience.
Fenty Beauty asked followers to reply with a picture and matched them with a lipstick shade. The single tweet received more than 1.5K responses and 2.7K favs. Penguin Random House took a similar approach, offering book suggestions based on favorite authors. Cash App offered six words of advice to anyone who asked a question.
One LinkedIn professional took a poll from followers through the creative use of LinkedIn’s reaction options. Her survey got more than 4K responses. Polls in general are great feedback and engagement tools. As are stickers in Stories.
7. Respond Fast and Often
Response time is of the essence here. After you post something, stick around and respond to your first few comments. This will increase the odds of you receiving more. It’s also a good opportunity to promote brand values and personality. If you spot abusive comments, address them right away so you can maintain a safe and inclusive space.
Responding to customers on social media pays off in the long run. Twitter research shows customers are willing to spend 3-20% more with brands that respond to their tweets. On the flip side, those who don’t get responses are less likely to recommend brands.
Use social media management tools like iLoyal Social Genius to keep tabs on comments and mentions across all platforms and bring up your response time. People are much more likely to engage if they know they may get a response from you.
8. Explore the Algorithms
Social media algorithms use ranking signals to sort the order of organic content in their timelines and newsfeeds. These factors typically include relevance, timeliness, and the relationship someone has with the account.
Algorithms prioritize posts that have a high probability of engagement. Early engagement is often taken to be a good indicator. Posts that use rich media such as videos, images, and GIFs also tend to be favored. Video is still the star of social media content.
9. Collaborate and Tag
A good way to boost organic content is with hashtags. Look for ways to collaborate with other accounts. That may include like-minded brands, creators, or even customers.
Warby Parker’s showcased the different styles of influencers and customers in its #WearingWarby series. Prados Beauty reposts pictures its customers share wearing the company’s makeup and lashes.
Collaborations and crossovers like these have the potential to spark early engagement and expose accounts to similar audiences.
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10. Host Virtual Events
Host a virtual event to up the entertainment ante and build buzz around your brand. Virtual events can include anything from Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) to social media contests and live streams on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. Ultimately, when it comes to social organic marketing, the most creative brands will prevail.
iLoyal Social Genius is a great tool that will help you manage and amplify your creative ideas effectively across multiple social media channels. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, boost top-performing content, create ads, measure performance, and much more.
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