Organic reach is sometimes overestimated. The constant changes in social media algorithms have made it much more difficult to get good results from organic campaigns. On some social networks, organic campaigns sometimes have a reach of only 5.5%, which means that most followers will never see a brand’s organic post. While this is discouraging, it doesn’t mean that brands can’t achieve substantial growth through organic social media tactics.
What is required is strategic planning and smart advice to engage more people with the brand, because that is what leads to exponential growth. Imagine a social media post like a snowball. It takes more than a good push to get it rolling and getting bigger and bigger, but it can be done.
Strategies to grow organically in social networks
1. Visual content is king
There are plenty of statistics available to support the idea that people are visual creatures. People process and retain visual information much better than text alone, and perform 323% better when following instructions that have text and illustrations instead of just text. There’s a lot more where that came from, but the point is pretty clear. Visual content, especially on social media, almost always wins.
It’s no wonder, then, that visual content is the most common and popular type of content on social media. 80% of marketers use visual assets for social media marketing, and 63% use video. Today, brands have to be seen (literally) on social media or they risk getting lost in the haystack of more visually exciting posts.
There are plenty of tools out there to help brands create visual content, like videos, infographics, and more, and without spending a lot of money. In contrast, brands have proven time and time again that you don’t need a professional production team to achieve incredible organic growth and reach.
2. Look at the statistics
While organic growth is a free or low-cost marketing tactic, it still requires a strategy, and the key to building a strategy is statistics.
It is vital to keep an eye on the statistics behind organic growth as this is the only way to know what is working, what is not, what to focus on and what to discard.
For example, a social media post that is performing very well can be repeated or reposted to gain even more engagement. A topic that was very popular in one video can be expanded into a series of videos. Marketers need to spend time and energy analyzing social media traffic and engagement, and there are a variety of tools available to help do just that.
Social media platforms offer built-in analytics features, and Google Analytics also supports social media tracking, making them a great starting point for monitoring organic metrics.
More advanced insights can be gained from various types of social media analytics tools, such as listen and mention trackers, cross-platform trackers that monitor multiple social media channels at once, and content performance trackers to monitor which content gets the best engagement on social networks.
Some tools offer free plans, however, any business serious about growing their organic audience on social media will need to invest in a quality analytics tool sooner or later.
3. Use segmentation to maximize organic potential
This tactic will vary from platform to platform, but adjusting your post settings to target specific members of your audience can give you a boost in organic potential. For Facebook, you can use organic post targeting to modify who will see it. There are eight options on Facebook that you can use:
- Gender
- Relationship
- State
- Education Level
- Age
- Location
- Language
- Interests
The same kind of options are available on Twitter. For example, with the use of hashtags it allows you to categorize your posts. Take any opportunity you can to better target your audience so the right people see your posts.
4. Interact with your followers and engage them
Organic social media reach is never easier than when people land directly on your page.
If you properly interact with people and respond to their comments, you will build a great reputation that will spread. People will search for your posts because they will be genuinely interested in what you are doing.
Forging that kind of link is important to all aspects of your business, but you can create a viral effect for your organic reach. Word of mouth will spread among the new members of your audience and they, in turn, will come and see what your company has to offer.
5. Optimize your profile on the right platform
Make your profile easy to find for all those people looking to investigate or learn about you.
We recommend placing as many keywords as you can. Also add a brand logo or photo that is easy to recognize and simplify your username.
Make sure the link in your profile links to your website or a well-organized landing page and don’t go too long either, be clear and concise.
Another thing we suggest is that you look at where your competitors are creating a presence and where your content is being shared the most. Focus on those platforms above all else.
Conclusion
Regardless of the type of business you own (personal brand, service provider, or physical products), it’s never too late to focus on growing your social media following. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 followers on your social networks, you can grow organically.