Are all the best things in life free? Or does it pay to spend a little to get just a bit more? When it comes to managing a social media page it can be hard to know what exactly is the right move for your brand; go organic or go paid.

In general, social media and inbound marketing are known for their more ‘organic’ approach to marketing. Where a brands offerings or values are not ‘pushed upon an audience’ like outbound marketing, but instead are sought out and consumed but audiences with value-adding or entertaining attributes. But today with an abundance of business on social media sites advertisements have been introduced. 

What is paid and organic social media?

Paid

Paid social media include boosted and targeted advertisements, they will show up in users timelines and other placements like Messenger as advertisements or sponsored posts. Paid advertisements not only get your content in front of your follows but allow your brand to reach people who do not follow you too.

Paid influencer marketing a whole other kettle of fish altogether that we will not be going into on this blog – but keep your eyes out! 

Organic 

Organic social media post are not paid for and are essentially ‘free’ to post on social media platforms ( free not counting your time). These posts show up in the feeds of people who have chosen to follow your brand. However, if your followers choice to share, engage or like/react to your post may organically be shown to people would are not your followers.

Pros and Cons of paid and organic social media:

Organic 

• Pro: It’s ‘free’ well if you don’t count your time maintaining it 
• Pro: nurtures a more organic feeling connection between  brand and audience 
• Con: time-consuming 
• Con: algorithm hard to understand – changes often 
• Cons: only a small percentage of your followers will see your organic posts – ADD NZ percentage of followers seeing posts

As the algorithms change and the percentage of followers seeing organic posting is declining it’s getting harder than ever to get your content seen! That’s why paid Social media isn’t all too bad when it comes to  

Paid

• Pro: Target specific people
• Pro: Budget adaptable 
• Pro: Can see faster results 
• Con: Might not see ROI
• Cons: Understanding your target audience and advertising platform
• Cons: Possibly more time – mores analytics and changes to get better ROI

Tips for Paid and Organic Social Media

Paid

• Boost best organic content 
• Don’t feel like you have to advertise all promotions, sometimes the best success comes from producing great content your audience wants to share 
• Play around and adapt your advertisements based on data and results. A/B testing a popular word among marketers for a reason, it helps you improve your ROI and create better advertisements.
• Keep your brands KPI in mind when advertising 

Organic

• Post consistently 
• Post strategically 
• Post a range of types and forms of content 
• Think am I adding value?
• Respond to all comments and messages
• Encourage engagement and interaction 

So What Should You Use Paid or Organic?

Sorry, no simple answer here!
Overall we highly suggest using a range of organic and paid media when managing your brand social media page. We believe that although great consistent content can attract new audiences, paid marketing just does it so much faster for less effort. So should you pay for every content you post on social media, the short answer is no way!

Use paid social media posts when you are looking for to generate new leads, want to raise brand awareness, promote a deal, or drive conversions.  You wouldn’t put just anything on a billboard so be selective and think strategically about the content you chose to push.

Use Organic social media posts to build on creating great connections/relationships with existing followers, provide customer services and build awareness about your brand’s offerings.

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