The early 2000s were the time of social media firsts. Although rudimentary social media platforms existed in the 1990s, they lacked the interactive features that are characteristic of the platforms we know and love today. However, with the advent of LinkedIn (2003) and Facebook (2004), the modern era of selfies and lunch photos was born. And with it came a whole new marketing channel just waiting for businesses to explore.
The major social media sites we know and use today have evolved over time, and businesses that had grown accustomed to using them as a means to drive traffic to their websites are noticing several big changes. Organic traffic has declined as the platforms work to keep users on-platform. The ability to reach those who follow your business is more difficult organically, as the algorithms have switched from a connection-based graph to an interest- and intent-based graph. Now, with the increase in bots and an explosion of AI content and privacy concerns, however, you may be wondering if—and why—social media still matters.
As business owners and marketers, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on this important question and the role that social media continues to play in the modern marketing mix.
Why Social Media Still Matters
Social media still matters because our customers still use it—and they spend a significant amount of time using it. The Pew Research Center found that 37% of adults included in their survey check Facebook several times a day, 33% look at YouTube several times a day, and 19% of adults log into TikTok a few times a day for their dopamine hit. It’s astonishing how videos have captured the attention of people, especially short-form videos.
Many people turn to social media for entertainment—and that’s where videos reign. Short-form videos, longer videos, and all sorts of videos attract people of every age. Now, businesses must compete against AI-generated video and video created solely for entertainment and engagement.
Given that so many people log into social media every day, it makes sense that businesses continue to show up there, too. Companies aren’t just expected to show up, however. For organic visibility to people who are interested in your industry, businesses must participate in the daily dialogue, respond to questions, share stories, and build relationships. Each platform attracts a unique, nuanced audience and offers different ways to share information. Businesses should view social media as another way to provide customer service, interact with customers, and increase brand visibility.
Organic vs. Paid Social Media Marketing: What’s the Difference?
When marketers talk about social media, they often append the terms “paid” or “organic” to it. But what does each mean?
Paid social media sounds just like what it is—you “pay to play.” It takes the form of ads, paid placements, and payments to the social media platform to share your content or promote your page, brand, or products to a targeted audience. The platforms have gathered data on each person’s level of interest and shown it to them based on this information.
Organic social media is home-grown social posts. It’s something that you create and share with your users or followers. It may take the form of social media posts, interactions, or comments. Organic posts enable you to share your own voice and engage with people on a genuine, one-to-one basis.
Two significant evolutions of many major social platforms impacting the way businesses use social media are:
- Efforts to keep each user on its platform and reduce the visibility of posts that include links going away from the platform, like a business website.
- The algorithm on some of the platforms has changed to be primarily interest-based, showing each user content they know the user has an interest in based on searches, clicks, engagement, time spent on a post, and includes that user’s activity off of the platform. Long ago, you could “follow” a business that you support and like and expect to see posts from that company. Not anymore. If the platform algorithm doesn’t have signals that you have a current interest or will interact on a regular basis with that business’s posts, you aren’t likely to see their content going forward.
Because social media platforms are businesses like any other, they encourage businesses to pay for reach, frequency, and leads, whether through paid advertising, promoting a business page, or other advertising methods.
The Pros and Cons of Paid versus Organic Social Media
As a business owner, you’re guarding every penny. You want to know that money invested in marketing pays back in leads. It’s tempting to view social media through this lens and only consider organic social marketing—after all, it’s free! But is it? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of paid versus organic social media.
Paid Social Media
Pros
- You can reach many, many more people through paid posts than organic posts, and you can measure it more accurately.
- Advertisements receive priority placement and promotion.
- Ads can be targeted to specific demographics, making them even more cost-effective for reaching specific audiences by age, gender, geographic location, interests, and more.
- Testing is possible, enabling you to improve ROI over time based on test results.
Cons
- Ad costs can fluctuate greatly. Costs are calculated using an auction-based system. Predicting ad budgets can be challenging.
- People often instinctively distrust ads. Some social platforms make it hard to distinguish ads from organic posts, which adds to the mistrust.
- Advertisers must rely on the platform’s algorithms to show their ads appropriately. The algorithms may change over time or may make mistakes, wasting ad dollars.
- Paid ads require a solid strategy and more skill to create, and companies must be prepared to spend money on the creative output (images, videos, and landing pages) as well as the advertising costs for a truly effective campaign.
- Ads are rarely “one and done.” They must be tweaked and updated to continue producing viable leads, which means additional creative output, a larger advertising budget, and so on, all of which lead to higher expenses.
Organic Social Media
Pros
- On its face, organic social media is less expensive than paid advertising. It requires basic creative skills (for example, editing and generating original images and texts), which can be greatly enhanced with low-cost, third-party platforms and tools.
- It builds trust over time. While not a rapid way to build followers, it may be argued that the followers who do choose to interact with companies on social media through organic promotion are truly interested (not just attracted by an advertisement).
- It supports customer interaction in a natural, conversational way and adds another way in which customers can find and interact with your brand.
- Effective organic social marketing requires a thoughtful strategy, consistenty and time spent on posting and engagement. It’s not just posting. It requires active participation in not just your own account, but in accounts and groups that are relevant to you, with engagement and comments. Time is a cost to consider.
Cons
- It can have extremely limited reach. Facebook and LinkedIn, the top two social media platforms used by most businesses, show approximately 2% or less of your organic posts to followers. That limits their reach.
- Most of the algorithms prioritize “pay to play” or ads over organic content.
- It’s more difficult to test with any accuracy or assurance of test results.
Paid or Organic Social—How About Both?
We often think about decisions as either/or—paid social media marketing or organic. Why not both? Both types of social media marketing offer unique benefits and have their drawbacks, but when used together, they form a sound marketing strategy to build brand awareness, cultivate customer loyalty, and offer a unique way to reach specific customers who may be delighted to learn about your products and services.
It’s really not an either/or question, but a both/and approach. When deployed as part of an integrated digital marketing approach, social media marketing can be a valuable addition to your marketing plan. Speak with a social media marketing expert at Dashboard Interactive about your social presence and how it can be improved. Call 763-242-2454.