Organic Posts as Billboards: Making Social Media Work for SMBs

When marketers watch social media drama like the fuss over TikTok, they find themselves spouting conflicting advice.

The first bit is “don’t build on rented land,” meaning don’t rely on a social media platform to stay in touch with your audience. Those platforms could change their advertising rules or disappear at any time.

A social media “follower” is worth nothing compared to having that person’s email address, phone number or home address. Businesses need to attract audiences to their website blogs, email lists, podcasts, or even – Holy 20th century, Batman! – branded print publications.

Facing the contradiction

On the other hand, we marketers like to advise clients to market where the people are. And where are the people these days? Social media.

It’s not easy to do both.

“And so part of what marketers have to figure out is what that blended strategy looks like, which is you create in places where the people are to get the eyeballs, and then you funnel the eyeballs to the owned properties that you have.” – Christopher S. Penn during the In-Ear Insights podcast, Jan. 22, 2025.

Social media platforms have become hostile environments for businesses unless they pay to advertise. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, et al, want their users to stay on their platforms. So, if your Facebook post includes a link to your business website, there’s almost no chance Facebook’s algorithm will show that post to anyone. Ditto for most other social media.

Social media posts = billboards

In terms of marketing, it’s time to use organic (free) social media posts the same way we use billboards. The more our target audiences see us (hopefully) in their feeds, the more likely they are to Google us or visit our websites.

This brings us to Amanda Natividad’s “zero-click content” theory.? Natividad, who is vice president of marketing for SparkToro, described zero-click content in an article two-and-a-half years ago. Simply, it’s content that doesn’t require a viewer to click to get value.

Her thesis: If you provide value – something your audience finds useful, interesting or fun – eventually, customers will find you. They’ll want to learn more from your webinar, your blog or your email newsletter.

She’s got examples in her article, but let’s just say calls to action like “Click here to register for my cool webinar” ain’t gonna cut it.

Define your audience, then value

I realize that “value” has a million different meanings depending on your business and your target audience. For myself, I try to provide value in this email by writing about ideas and tactics I think my audience – local, small business owners – will be able to use in managing their marketing and their businesses.

I typically don’t use this email to “sell” (perhaps to my detriment), but I hope a few of you out there see value here and will hire me to help!

I’m still working on the social media aspect, though. I think generative artificial intelligence can help, first by helping me to better define the characteristics of my target audience and then by suggesting topics my audience wants to read about.

My ideal customer profile

I’ve taken a couple of stabs at asking generative AI tools to construct my ideal customer and his or her interests. In general, my ideal customer is a small business owner or general manager who is tech savvy but lacks expertise with online marketing tools and analytics.?

Some other characteristics:

• Tried DIY online marketing but didn’t see results.??
• Frustrated with the complexity of managing campaigns or interpreting data.??
• Struggling to compete with larger businesses in their industry.??
• Overwhelmed by the time and effort required to manage marketing while running their business.??
• Unsure how to allocate their marketing budget effectively.?

With a customer profile in hand, the next step is to research the types of content they find most valuable. Generative AI can also help here.

In my case, it suggested checklists or short videos on how to use tools like Google Business Profile or Meta Ads; case studies; tips on scheduling social media posts; and statistics showing the value of SEO or Google Ads.

Keep experimenting

The only way to know if posts on these topics will be compelling is to try them. However, the measure of success won’t be clicks, likes, or even comments. I’ll need to look for other signals like organic search traffic to my website and email inquiries.

Measuring return on investment won’t be as easy, especially because, like many local businesses, my website generates only small sample sizes of traffic.?

Honestly, there’s not much new in the marketing strategy I’ve described here. Know your audience. Know what it values. Know where they hang out. Share interesting and fun stuff. Capture information that allows you to contact them directly without relying on other platforms.

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Until next time, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.??

Mark

P.S. - This newsletter was written by me, a human.