Source: Business 2 Community
Featured Photo Source: Unsplash, Mike Setchell
1. Organic Social Media is Cost-Effective – Even though it takes time and energy to create social media updates, they’re still extremely cost-effective. You can post as many updates as you want across your social channels and every single update is free to share, making it a realistic option to combine with other marketing tactics for a comprehensive content strategy.
2. Social Media Provides Authenticity – As Sprout Social explains, “The majority of consumers say their loyalty to a brand increases when they feel connected, and more than half (57%) say that they’ll increase their spending with a brand and buy from that brand over a competitor (76%) when they feel connected.”
Social media users know when they see an ad and someone is trying to sell them something. However, through non-paid updates, brands can provide a genuine look into what defines the organization and build authentic relationships with their audiences in a way that makes them feel connected.
3. Organic Social Media Compliments Advertising – If you see a Facebook ad in your feed and click on the brand’s profile, you expect to see more relevant content on their page, right? Keep this in mind if you invest in advertising. While running ads, you also want to update your page with interesting, quality non-paid content. Research shows 51 percent of consumers research a business on the internet – including on their social media profiles – before buying. You want to make sure you’re making a positive impression on any potential customers that may be evaluating your company.
4. Social Media Fosters Your Creative Voice – Organic social media updates are a fantastic forum for exploring your brand’s voice and creativity. Before you invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in an ad campaign, use your non-paid channels to build a solid foundation.
Consider these questions as you ponder your business’ creative voice:
What types of content are relevant to your brand?
Are there particular words you want to use to evoke certain emotions in your target consumer?
How will you creatively connect with social media users?
What updates are receiving the most interaction?
While there is a lot of helpful information you can glean from a little bit of ad testing, there’s also plenty you can learn from your organic approach. It takes time, but it’s worth it!In addition, you’ll need to be creative to drive engagement on non-paid social media, which can help you build content marketing muscles you may not have developed yet.
5. Social Media Provides a Forum for Customer Care – Today, customers expect companies to offer customer service via social media. In fact, 67 percent of consumers have actively reached out to business social media pages for help.
It’s important your brand maintains at least a minimal social media presence. If customers go to your page for help but see you haven’t posted an update in months – or even years! – they may assume the page is abandoned. By posting at least one update a week, you show consumers you’re active and engaged, and much more likely to provide the help they need.
6. Social Media Builds Engaged Communities More Effectively – While a social media ad may catch a user’s eye, it’s not going to turn that person into a brand advocate overnight. However, by seeing a variety of your business’ updates on a regular basis, they’ll begin to learn more about your company and slowly become loyal to your organization.
In addition, when one of your followers interacts with your brand and their social media contacts see it, they’ve endorsed your company. A smaller community of users that interact with your business’ social channels is so much more important than hundreds of disengaged followers. Over time, engaged communities build on themselves in ways that ads simply can’t.
7. Social Media Helps Search Engine Optimization – What does your organic social media presence have to do with search engine optimization, or SEO? Updating your profiles regularly can help you show up in relevant search results.
Gill Solutions shares a fantastic example. “If a user searches ‘Best bistros in Connecticut,’ a website with an active social media page providing backlinks with the words ‘Bistro’ and ‘Connecticut’ in its profile information will rank higher in search results than one without these backlinks.”
How To Build A Strong Organic Social Media Presence In 2020
1. Develop a Social Strategy – Before you go on a trip, you know where you’re going, right? You come up with a plan and make arrangements before you hit the road or even drive to the airport.
The same is true for your business’ social media pages. Don’t just start sharing random updates. Take the time to develop a plan.
Consider these important questions as you develop your brand’s social media strategy:
How frequently will you post?
How often will you sit down to write new updates? I recommend once a week, as that lets you sit down and do it all at once, but still keeps the content timely.
How will you showcase your business’ human side? Will you show behind-the-scenes photos, Live videos or upcoming projects?
How often will you promote your brand within your updates? I always recommend the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of your updates shouldn’t tout your business, services and/or products, and the other 20 percent can be promotional.
How often will you share articles vs. videos vs. images?
Are there specific hashtags you plan to use?
Are there holidays or seasonal promotions coming up you want to promote?
There are a lot of questions to consider. We will help you clarify and develop a strong social media marketing strategy. Contact Us today and begin Soaring by Design.
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