What is Organic Social Media?
Organic social media refers to the free content that all users, including businesses and brands, share with each other on their feeds. This includes unsponsored posts made by brands, for example, a company’s Instagram or Facebook page. When discussing organic social you must also take paid social media into account, which is when third-party platforms are paid to share or boost content to reach new audiences and increase conversions. Paid and organic social media work hand-in-hand. Without a successful organic media strategy, it is unlikely to have an effective paid social media strategy. Paid advertising is extremely effective in regard to getting consumers to the top of the marketing funnel; awareness. Paid social media works to reach larger audiences faster! Once potential consumers become aware of a brand’s product or service, organic social media is the brand’s ticket to moving the consumer through the rest of the funnel. And assuming an effective organic social media strategy is in place, this also works to keep consumers coming back.
Utilizing the Benefits of Organic Social Media
Hootsuite defines four ways in which brands can utilize organic social:
- Establish their personality and voice
- Build relationships by sharing informative, entertaining, and/or inspiring content
- Engage customers at every stage of their buying journey
- Support their customers with customer service
So not only is organic social media cost-effective, but it’s also extremely valuable! As mentioned before, paid social is often used to gain awareness and reach a larger number of people within a prospective target market, due to ranking algorithms compromising the reach of organic content. If the paid social media campaign was effective, it would pique the interest of potential consumers, leading them to the brand’s organic content, which serves as a basis for curating and nurturing brand-consumer relationships. Organic social represents the values a brand stands for, which consumers will judge to determine if that brand is worth their time and money. Brands can harness this consumer-brand relationship through community engagement, which can boost the validity of a brand.
An effective organic social media strategy will promote user engagement, which gives marketers extremely insightful information. Consumers utilize organic social media to their benefit to find information regarding a brand’s products and services. Throughout this consumer search process, consumers leave comments regarding the product or service and even reach out to the brand or other consumers with questions, allowing brands to directly address the needs of consumers. As mentioned earlier, brands can utilize organic social to support their customers with social media customer service, which is the reactive support you offer customers across social media platforms. Tracking and being conscious of consumers’ input leads to the use of social listening tools.
Listen to Your Consumers!
Social listening is the process of analyzing conversations and trends related to your brand. For free, these conversations and trends can be found among a brand’s organic content. Utilizing social listening tools like Smart Inbox can provide brands with more knowledge regarding who their audience is, what their audience wants, and why they are active. Properly analyzing this information gives brands insight into how they can better address the wants and needs of consumers. This leads to more relevant and unique content that will improve customer acquisition and retention, which will also help the brand to stand out amongst competitors. These tools also allow marketers to make real-time changes to optimize organic content for their users.
Marketers Need Organic Social Media
Organic social media complements paid social media, therefore one cannot be successful without the other. Organic social provides brands with the platform to define their brand personality and make personal connections with consumers. Proactive efforts to nourish consumer-brand relationships through consumer engagement and customer service will keep consumers coming back!