Stories of Organic Social Strategies that Hit the Mark: A Testament to the Potential of Organic Social Media Marketing
Organic is dead.
Let’s clarify that statement.
Many marketers believe that organic reach on social media is either dead or dying.
Unfortunately, blanket statements like this have left many brands wondering if they should invest their time, resources, and skills into a social media strategy that includes organic content.
However, through many conversations on The Digital Marketing Mentor podcast (TDMM), we believe that the organic reach on social media isn’t dead. It has simply evolved, presenting new opportunities and challenges.
It’s time to reassess your social media strategy.
In today’s dynamic social media landscape, success hinges on various factors, including the platform, creativity, and strategy.
If you’re still skeptical, consider the success stories of our former TDMM guests, such as sports radio host Adam Clanton and online lifestyle purveyor Adele Beiny. Their strategies have achieved organic social success and continue to do so, proving that organic is far from dead.
So, no, organic is not dead!
Today’s Social Media Marketing Strategy
The era of posting something and expecting it to speak to hundreds of thousands of people with little to no social media strategy behind it is gone.
With the rise in social media ad spending, there has been a steady decrease in organic reach.
Yet, for many social media marketers, this decline in organic traffic is an opportunity to adapt and embrace new ways to reach their target audiences.
Throughout our time on air, TDMM has had many savvy digital marketers as guests explain their strategies for evolving and succeeding with organic social media.
Those strategies include:
- Identifying and understanding your target audience
- Creating engaging and creative content
- Staying ahead of trends and embracing new technologies
- And engaging with the audience and collaborating with others
Regardless of our guests’ approach, their strategies have allowed them to grow their business or presence and extend their social media reach.
Know Your Audience: Adam Clanton
Sports talk radio host Adam Clanton describes X (formerly known as Twitter) as a ‘loaded gun.’ Once you fire, you can never take back the bullet. Despite hesitancy regarding this social media platform, this nationally recognized sports journalist signed on to it in 2007.
About a year later, the manager of the Houston Rockets, a professional basketball team, asked Clanton to tweet about the team’s interest in acquiring NBA player Chris Bosh, who was highly sought-after at the time. The hope was that Bosh would consider playing for Houston if there was enough hype around the Rockets wanting to sign him.
Though Clanton wasn’t convinced of the power of social media, he agreed to tweet.
That was the first time he’d used this social media platform as a recruiting tool; the effect was magical. Clanton’s tweet gained tremendous national publicity, and the sports topic around every water cooler was whether the Rockets would sign Bosh.
Whether Clanton knew his audience or not, the Houston Rockets general manager certainly did. His organic social strategy of a simple tweet ensured his message would reach the interested parties.
Clanton’s story shows that knowing your audience is critical to ensuring your organic posting achieves the desired result. To learn who your audience is, you need to delve deep into your analytics and evaluate your demographics.
You can also ask yourself questions such as:
- What do you know about your current audience?
- What information are they looking for?
- Where are they getting what they want?
Adam recounts that it’s crucial to narrow your focus enough to the people most interested in buying your product or service. Focusing on a broad audience will do more harm than good.
Quality Over Quantity: Adele Beiny
When Los Angeles-based Adele Bieny posts and writes about her lifestyle brand, she always likes to answer the question, “What’s in it for my customer?” She says her content gets deleted if she can’t answer that question.
Developing valuable and engaging content is one of the most essential elements of her organic social media strategy. Beiny estimates about 60% of the social media content she generates is jettisoned. The older she gets, the more discerning she becomes about what to post.
Beiny says that even though the algorithms for many platforms encourage her to create a certain quantity of content, it’s always about quality with her. She’s unwilling to fill the ‘airwaves’ with content because an algorithm rewards that. Instead, she provides fun, entertaining, and engaging posts that offer value to her audience.
Beiny understands that the power of organic social media can be found in creating engaging, informative content that is, above all, helpful to its users. As digital marketers adjust to the shifting parameters of organic, they’re forced to step up their game to attract the same number of users as they used to.
If done well, effective organic content fosters engagement and initiates conversations that can circumvent social media platform algorithms, thereby increasing a marketer’s organic reach and visibility.
As Beiny indicates, quality content creators will always beat those producing quantity by creating value and evoking feelings in their audiences.
Explore and Embrace: Mike Metzler
Regarding organic social strategies, Mike Metzler likes to ‘explore and experiment’ with as many different social platforms as possible, embracing what each offers. His approach is to always be among the first people on the new platform to maximize his organic reach. Metzler emphasizes staying ahead of the curve and exploring different opportunities for your product or service.
Metzler says those who thoroughly use the features of their social platforms will always have the most successful organic strategies. According to Metzler, there will always be some new platform or growth tool with which to experiment. Never wait to see what the latest social platform will become; instead, jump in there and start experimenting.
Staying ahead of the latest trends and techniques is a well-founded social media strategy.
By experimenting with emerging platforms or new features on your existing ones, such as Instagram Reels or TikTok Challenges, Metzler believes you’ll be able to engage your audience in ways you may never have realized.
Engage & Collaborate: Alison Reeves
World-class marketing consultant and somatic healer Alison Reeves takes a two-pronged approach to increasing her organic reach through social media engagement and collaboration. She engages in regular, genuine conversations with her followers on Instagram or Facebook.
Reeves says she grows her business and services by intentionally commenting on other people’s posts and hosting collaborations with others.
She also believes in ‘audience borrowing,’ a term for collaborating on social media with someone whose business is complementary to yours and not in direct competition. Reeves feels many content marketers overlook this ‘missed opportunity.’ Whether email swapping, guest blogging, or giving ‘shout outs’ on their social media platform, audience borrowing can benefit the businesses or service providers involved.
Content marketers often need to remember that social platforms love engagement. The more your target audience can engage with your organic content, the greater your reach. Engagement is also the easiest way to create a loyal community around your product or service.
Partnerships or collaborations are another form of engagement. By working together, content marketers can help each other extend their reach organically. One marketer’s audience can become a new potential pool of customers for another.
Organic Social Strategies-Alive and Well
Despite the naysayers, organic is not dead; it’s evolving. As several of our podcast guests have shared, it remains as powerful as ever. However, the tactics that once produced tremendous views and likes aren’t as effective, thanks to social media’s growth and evolution.
To realize a successful organic social media strategy, you must be adaptable and pivot to maintain your brand’s influence and visibility.
Organic is alive and well.