It’s 2024. If you’re not already aware of the power of social media marketing, you’re already behind and it’s time to catch up. But even if you are familiar with social media marketing, or use certain aspects of social media to promote your business, there’s still a lot to learn. Organic social media versus paid social media are important concepts to understand, because they both play different and crucial roles in building your brand and company. This article discusses the benefits of each and how to utilize them to your advantage.
Pros and Cons Of Organic Social Media
Organic social media is a term for any free content you share on your social media platforms without having to pay for it, including any videos, posts, or stories that are freely seen and shared by your existing followers. This content has the potential to reach a wider audience – but it all depends on your followers’ engagement. The strength of organic social media lies in how it can establish authenticity and build trust and credibility with your following. To sum it up, the advantages of organic social media are:
- Cost-effectiveness – There are no direct costs for posting organic content
- Authentic engagement – Your company can have genuine interactions with your audience, building trust
- Brand identity – Your brand is reflected in your content output and its engagement
- Longevity – Organic posts that capture high engagement can be the gift that keeps on giving for a long time after posting
The challenges of organic social media:
- It takes time – This strategy requires time and consistency, which means it’s a long game
- The reach may be limited – Organic posts can be easily buried from algorithm changes on platforms, which are frequent
Pros and Cons of Paid Social Media
Paid social media refers to paying to promote your ads or content on social media platforms. This can include video ads, sponsored posts, and display ads. These campaigns can reach a larger, more diverse, and more target audience than organic posts and activate results faster. You’re essentially paying to achieve more in less time. Some benefits of this strategy include:
- Precise targeting- You can specifically match certain ads to certain demographics and behavior patterns
- A wider reach – You can reach a much larger audience, beyond the scope of your active followers
- Detailed analytics – You can use the ad analytics to effectively glean insight on how your ads work and adjust as you go
- Instant results – Paid social media typically drives leads, traffic, and conversions significantly faster than organic strategies
Some limitations of paid social media are:
- Expense – You need to have a large ad budget, which can increase depending on the campaign’s objectives and how competitive the industry is
- Short-term focus – It doesn’t contribute as much to long-term brand building
- Desensitization – Users are quickly exhausted by ads it may have rapidly diminishing returns
Finding The Right Balance
The best way to approach social media marketing is to have a solid organic social media presence and use paid social media to amplify its success. You can boost the visibility of high-performing organic posts with paid ads. When it comes to social media marketing, the key is to go in with a clear goal in mind and a good understanding of your target audience, and then utilize the tools at hand to achieve it.
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If this all sounds overwhelming, don’t worry – you don’t have to do it yourself. Call Affordable Digital Marketing to handle all your digital marketing needs today!