Is Organic Social Media worth the time and effort?

You’ve got your social media strategy in place, you’ve worked out the types of content that you would like to post and your monthly messages are scheduled - but ‘is it worth it’?

This is a popular question (especially in agency life) and one that can be difficult to quantify for your clients. To sum up, the answer is, yes! Yes - there is value in posting organically on your social media channels, but the real question is ‘how do you measure the value in what you are doing’?

Don’t worry because we are going to break down the different ways in which you can demonstrate to your clients just how valuable organic social media really is.

Brand Awareness

With over 84% of the UK population using social media in their daily lives, it’s easy to see why an organic social media strategy is key for your business. This is the perfect opportunity for your business to work out which social media channels your target audience is using and is a natural place to reach current, new and potential customers.?

By posting regularly on social media you are helping to establish and grow your brand's awareness - which is the first step in any customer journey. By posting consistently you create an established name for existing and future customers.?

You can measure the awareness of your page through page/post reach, impressions and the number of followers you have. Don’t forget that on platforms such as LinkedIn, your posts will go beyond your business page reporting. For example; Each social media message that you post and is liked/reposted could be seen by an extra 400 connections (this is the average number of personal LI connections) bringing even more awareness of your business page organically.?

Engagement?

Social media is all about relationships and an organic social media strategy should help you nurture and engage with your customers. This can be achieved in many ways through your organic posts.?

Getting to know your customer?

You know the saying ‘bad reviews are more likely to be shared than good ones’ and this is certainly true with social media. However, this gives you the opportunity to listen to your customers and find out ways to improve your business and possibly rectify a customer relationship that has gone a little sour. Show your customers that you care, by responding to their queries and giving them useful advice. Not only will this strengthen your engagement rates but it will also increase your brand loyalty.?

Humanising your brand

A popular way to increase engagement is by showing your customers a bit more about who you are as a business and what you have achieved! Posts shouldn’t all be about sales and products - who likes seeing the ‘spam’ like content?!?

Use your social media channels to showcase your colleagues' hard work, thought leadership pieces and any achievements the business, partners, customers or colleagues have - just think, what would you find interesting to read in your spare time?

Engagement can be measured by engagement rates on posts, click-through rates and in likes, comments or shares. Don’t worry about if some of your posts do not receive a huge number of engagements - sometimes it is about the quality of the leads and the content you have produced. Your post may generate a lead in the future - it doesn’t have to be instant!?

Increased website traffic and leads

Organic social media posts are a key way to drive traffic to your website and possibly create more leads! This can be done in many ways - such as;

Blogs / Thought leadership guides

Share great content from your blogs/ guides onto your social media pages with a clear call to action to ‘read more’. Not only will this increase visitors to your website but it also has the opportunity to create instant exposure to this information from your social following. Whoever clicks through to your website will genuinely be interested in the topic at hand and may possibly enquire about the services/ products you produce.?

Creative Images/ Videos?

A powerful image or video can be just enough to tempt your followers to view your website or to find out more information about your business. The aim is to make your followers stop scrolling and engage in your content. Engagement rates tend to be higher if the customer needs to spend longer on the content to consume it - for example, a carousel of images or a top-tips video tends to perform well when it comes to engagement rates.

Stories?

Facebook/ Instagram stories can be great at increasing leads to your website. They are in a prominent location as they are visible at the top of the Facebook/ Instagram app. You can use this to draw attention to your main feed posts and if you have any offers or updates.

Stories are time sensitive and will disappear after 24 hours (hence why if you have an offer this can add to the urgency of people redeeming it) and clicking through to the website.

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Don’t forget that you can even use UTM tracking tags to collect data on your click-throughs as well as the engagement rates and CTR on individual posts that you will see in the analytics tools of your social media business pages.?

Brand Authenticity?

Social media is also used as a trust marker for consumers!

Don’t forget that first impressions matter. Social media is growing in terms of its reach and impact with 75% of internet users using social media to research products (DataReportal, 2022). ?For many businesses the first thing a customer will see is their social media page, meaning that an active and engaging profile is just as important as a clean and professional brick-and-mortar shop front.?

As a result of this, you should be regularly updating your profile with helpful and high-quality content for your followers. By creating rich and engaging content that easily resonates with your audience you will help drive the success and reputation of your brand - and more importantly a reputation that lasts.

The harsh reality is that if you're not maximising your social media strategy then your competitors will be, which can result in missed opportunities!

To sum up…

Organic social media marketing is hugely important as part of your marketing strategy - it helps with the full funnel marketing effect of your business from awareness to customer retention and brand advocacy.?

Ensure that you benchmark your results along the way to see what content types are performing well and if you can be doing any better within your business to keep nurturing your customer relationships and awareness.?

Do you want help with your organic social media strategy and content??

Speak to our social media specialists today!

Call: 01788 288020 or email: [email protected]