If you own a business, you are probably familiar with the debate between organic and paid social media. Fortunately, we have answers.
In this post, we’ll explain why you need both organic and paid social media marketing to have a successful social presence in 2022.
Read on to learn the differences between organic and paid social media marketing, why you need both, and how they can benefit your business.
Understand organic vs. paid social media marketing
First, let’s talk a little about the differences between organic and paid social media marketing. While they share some similarities, you will find their value in the differences.
What is Organic Social Media Marketing?
Organic social media marketing refers to sharing unpaid posts and updates on your company’s social media pages.
You can share organic posts on all social platforms, and organic posts come in a variety of formats including:
- Text, image, and video posting
- Posts with hashtags
- Posts with links
- Events
- And more
As you can see, many post types fall under the organic social media marketing category.
You can use organic social media posts to:
- Promote an existing product
- Notify users of a new product
- Share blog posts, articles, and industry news
- Encourage people to visit your website
- Invite followers to an event
- And more
Regardless of the post type, it is not considered paid social media marketing unless there is a budget behind it.
In addition, the posts that you might create every day to share a blog post from your website with your social followers are also known as organic posts. As long as the post is not sponsored, amplified, or posted as an advertisement, it’s an organic social contribution.
What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?
Now let’s talk about paid social media marketing. As you may have guessed, paid social marketing is when you pay to advertise on social media websites.
Paid social media marketing includes strategies like:
- Boosted posts
- Sponsored posts
- Text, image, and video ads
- And more
These marketing strategies are considered paid social media marketing because you have to put some marketing dollars behind you.
You need to pay for sponsored and promoted posts in order for those posts to be part of a paid social media marketing strategy.
Note that there are organic and paid social media options for just about every platform, not just Facebook and Twitter.
Why do you need organic social media marketing?
When it comes to organic or paid social media marketing, they should always come hand in hand. But first, let’s talk about why you need organic social media marketing.
Organic social media marketing can be tricky since, for example, a staggering 70% of Instagram posts are not even seen by your followers. So why post organically? There are many reasons.
- It shows brand consistency
For example, let’s say a user’s first interaction with your brand is through an ad. That’s all right, but what if they visit your social media account and there’s nothing there?
By posting organic on your social platforms, you can build a robust social media presence that users can explore if they want to learn more about your brand.
- It strengthens brand awareness
Regardless of how many people see your organic posts, you can be sure that your organic social endeavors will benefit you in some way. One of those ways? Build brand awareness.
The more you expose a user to your brand, whether it’s organic or paid, the more brand awareness and loyalty you create.
When you use organic posts, you become a permanent fixture on users’ streams, making users more familiar with your brand and increasing the likelihood of becoming customers.
- It fills in the gaps
So let’s say someone opens their Instagram app right away when you start an organic post that shows a teaser for a new product.
This person has been more exposed to your brand than they would have been if you hadn’t posted organically – and they already know about a new product for free.
The users who see your organic posts are essentially getting a double dose of your brand. So it pays to use organic posts to fill in the time gaps when users aren’t exposed to your paid social posts.
- If you have a large following, organic posting becomes extremely effective
When you have thousands of followers, organic social media marketing can be a great way to reach your customers. A larger fan base increases the number of users who will see your posts.
For example, think of all celebrity influencers who organically post personal content on their accounts. They could be reporting on a new training kit they bought or a new product they love.
These organic posts don’t have to be sponsored to be seen simply because they have such an incredible following.
For example, Harry Styles has roughly 26.3 million followers – which makes it easy to see why his organic post could get so much exposure.
Remember, your business doesn’t need to have millions of followers for organic posts to be effective. Even a few hundred followers mean you can interact with organic posts.
Why you need paid social media marketing
Now that we’ve talked about the reasons you need organic social media marketing, let’s talk about why you need paid social media marketing.
- You can increase leads and conversions
Overall, paid social media marketing is a great way to increase leads and conversions for your business.
Have you ever heard the phrase “you get what you pay for”? This is a great example that perfectly illustrates that feeling.
While organic social media marketing is necessary, you are not paying for it and therefore cannot expect to increase sales and earnings from organic posts alone.
On the flip side, you can spend as much or as little on your paid social media marketing campaign and you’re far more likely to get leads simply because of the ad targeting options and the type of ad.
- You can retarget on social media
With organic social media marketing, you simply publish content that goes out into the world – and that’s it. With paid social media marketing, on the other hand, you can address customers again who have previously shown interest in your products.
For example, if a user has visited your website and browsed your products, you can use cookies to refocus them with social media ads. Then they’ll see ads for your products on their social feeds.
This is a great benefit of using paid social media marketing as it allows you to find interested customers who may have forgotten to make a purchase, have been disinterested, or have just made up their minds. It’s a great way to attract them and increase sales.
- You can target specific customers
There are no targeting options for organic social posts. Anyone who flips through their timeline can come across your contribution.
However, paid social media advertising allows you to target users who you know will be interested in your products and services.
You can address them in a number of ways, including:
- Demographics
- Interests
- Online behavior
- Level of education
- marital status
- And so much more
This type of targeting enables you to introduce your products to the audience that is most likely to buy from you.
- You can guide users to your website
Of course, you can post links to your blog or website in organic posts, but with paid social media marketing, you have a much better chance of attracting users to your website.
This is thanks to the help of call-to-action (CTA) buttons that are used to entice users into action. This action can be one of the following options:
- Visit your website
- Fill out a form
- Learn more
- Buy now
- Contact me now
- Sign up for a newsletter
In most cases, all of these actions will lead users to your website.
For example, if they want to learn more about a product, you can create a landing page on your website that shows the product in all its glory. This CTA not only directs users to your website, but it also creates an easy and hassle-free way for them to make an instant purchase.