What is better: Organic or Paid Social Media Marketing in 2022 - A Recruiters Telephone Interview!

As I discussed the role of a social media manager with a recruiter today, I shared my knowledge of social media marketing. When I talk to companies and recruiters, I quickly discover that I am indeed an expert. I don't do it because I have a lot of knowledge - which is solid by the way - but because I enjoy experimenting.

I am writing this article to share some of the expertise and analysis I shared with the recruiter today.

Recruter : Steve what is the advantage of organic growth on social media?

Steve: The ability to post unrelated content continuously on LinkedIn to build brand identity was one of the most effective effective tools that I found when growing News For You on LinkedIn last year. To create content that appeals to different target audiences, brands should not be fixated on just one content marketing strategy in order to establish a more robust brand. Until the growth of data intelligence is consistent, you keep experimenting.

The strength of LinkedIn organic growth - meaning the strength of its algorithm, which I had studied for a long time - was on my mind last year. Over six months, I was able to reach around seven million readers across News For You (digital news agency). Isn't that great? Indeed, it feels good to write that - however, based on my analysis of social media, most platforms work in cycles - thus, everything must end.

The LinkedIn update this year will emphasize personal stories, causing a surge in viral posts around mental health and equality. Further, it's much harder to go viral in a news sense, especially now that LinkedIn News no longer promotes LinkedIn members' articles. (News Posts)

LinkedIn Brand Intrusion & LinkedIn News

I mean that LinkedIn will now host their own news brands - as shown below:

LinkedIn selects their preferred stories - making it more difficult for the story to go viral if shared.

LinkedIn, as a brand, now appears in conversations arising from our posts. Personally, I don't think it's a good move. In my opinion, their Business Strategy on this new marketing initiative is poor for several reasons:

1) One thing I've noticed is that some LinkedIn users don't like LinkedIn getting involved in the conversation.

2) If that is the case, there is a risk of attracting users who may eventually not use the platform.

3) What is the brand damage if they get one comment wrong?

Of course, it's their business strategy, not mine, so time will tell if it helps them move in a new direction.

The power of organic growth is pretty cool when you get the data and the creative right, as I have been rather negative here on LinkedIn as such. On any of the big platforms, algorithms change every so often, and so does the way you show up on them. Experiment with your with creative ideas that alignour Business Strategy.

Recruiter: What Partuclar Social Media Platforms do you use and what would you recommend for this startup client?

My LinkedIn presence is well established and I've grown my thought leadership as much as I can - even with a weaker reach where it's much harder to go viral. This newsletter is here, and I've been experimenting with the algorithm on TikTok under a project where I used deepfakes to show the emotions of soldiers during the war in Ukraine. Therefore, LinkedIn and TikTok are my main media outlets.

However, as a deep researcher into each of the major social media platforms, I also have a small Twitter account, where sadly, the organic growth isn't that great. But some of the brand-new features like Spaces - where you can record audio talks - are quite useful for thought leadership.

Gary Vee and Contextualiation on Social Media

Gary Vee coined the phrase "keep it contextual to the platform." Well I agree with one of the world's leading social media experts. I disagree, however, with the amount of content you post and the way you leverage each platform.

TikTok for example, has great video content in various formats - however, a brand shouldn't just appear with a half-second video that's unplanned or unresearched. TikTok Is an interest-based app, so you should cross out the relationship. The client you are putting me forward for would need to understand what they are good at in terms of their own expertise and of course the brand's values, to create a video slice. I clocked 2.1 million views under my little deepfakes experiment which may seem big, but when compared to music videos, where you can get tens of millions of views per video - further, music entertainment brands can do extremely well on TikTok.

I would highly recommend that the client start by leveraging up on their own thought leadership and then pick a platform where their creativity is strong, either video or textual. If that makes sense, start there first.

Recruiter: Yes, steve that does make a lot of sense. Thanks so much.

Recruiter: Steve do you have experience of customer relationship management software?

Since I grew my own brand, I found no use for them, hence the power of organic growth. Although several jobs I've applied for require paid media experience and Google Analytics, which I haven't studied yet, I believe it is overrated. I am not saying that I cannot use CRM software or understand the setup of Salesforce. Organic growth wins. Additionally, most platforms now have pretty decent interfaces for data analytics tools. Just remember that Google Analytics is just a monitor. More time should be spent on creative and leveraging up the algorithm. Hopefully that answers your question.

Steve, thank you so much again. I am with you on this. Actually, the client uses more organic marketing and not paid social media. A few HR questions. Are you eligible to work in the UK? When can you start?

Steve: Recruiter: Yes I do and I could start immediately

Summary

Social media marketing is always changing. With all my knowledge and experience, I believe brands and startups are getting it wrong. Thought leadership marketing campaigns always win. However, you must always be mixing creativity and studying each and every platform's current algorithm strengths for your Business Strategy.