It’s well-known that social media giants like Facebook and Instagram limit your organic reach.

You know that carefully crafted caption and sleek infographic you made?

On average, only 6% of your audience will see it – unless you put money behind it.

Facebook is at saturation point: there are over 2.4 billion monthly active users as of June 2019 on the platform. However, it is still a key platform for brands to target, engage and promote their content, both paid and organic.

Brands and businesses are constantly vying for our attention. They are desperate for a chance to pop up in your news feed and compete alongside kitten videos and your mate’s local pub check-ins.

 

Why Has Facebook Limited Your Organic Reach?

Facebook has grown at an alarming rate over the past decade. It consumes our lives, which is why, in 2018, a decline in users resulted in major changes to the way we were fed newsfeed content.

Fighting The Algorithm

There were 2 key changes in how Facebook prioritises the content on our news feed:

1. Mark Zuckerberg announced that users should “expect to see more from friends, family, and groups” and less from “businesses, brands, and media”.
2. It was also announced that this change would reduce engagement for all Pages across the network

To summarise: In a bid to engage users, there is now less focus on branded content and more on who we interact most with online.

 

So, Does This Mean The End Of Organic Growth?

No. But there are severe limits to how fast your brand can now grow organically due to limited organic reach.

Paid Vs Organic

Don’t forget that paid content is essential if you want to grow your online presence.

Paid ads on Facebook should be a key part of your digital strategy. You can reach your audience in an instant and it is particularly effective when targeted properly.

If you combine great quality content with successful ad targeting, you will be able to see a great ROI. Subsequent reach is more likely to result in organic engagement too. Winner!

However, the good news is that organic growth is still possible and more significantly, valuable.

In fact, it’s an effective tool you can utilise to establish your online presence – without dipping into your marketing budget.

 

Why Is Organic Growth Still An Effective Tool For Social Growth?

• You’ll always have high quality, engaging content to share and promote throughout the year
• You can find out what type of content works best for your business before allocating a budget
• It gives you a great opportunity to grow your tone of voice and hone your creativity, especially if you are a small business
• Organic posts allow you to connect with your current followers and fans in a personal capacity
• Organic marketing may have a slower ROI but builds a good online presence for your business. In comparison, social growth from paid ads can drop significantly as your budget does – it’s cheaper too.

So, now you know the benefits, it’s time to incorporate the following into your organic marketing strategy:

 

Our Top 5 Tips To Boost Your Social Growth with Organic Marketing:

Quality Over Quantity

Make every post count. Every piece of content you create should add value to your audiences feed. Whether this is creating stunning visuals, sharing handy tips or blogs, make it worth it.

Timing Is Everything

Use social media analytics to discover your follower demographics. Who is online and when? Time zones, national holidays and different parts of the day have a huge impact on your organic (and paid) reach.

Consistency Is Key

Whilst growth creates a strong foundation for your brand, consistency will maintain and engage loyal followers. A cohesive feed will establish your brand, values and consistent visuals that followers will immediately associate with you.

Be Authentic

Be genuine and connect with your followers. Maintain your tone of voice and add personality too. Your followers are much more likely to engage with your content as a result. Ever heard of the 80:20 rule? It is a great rule of thumb to follow for optimal engagement. 80% of your social posts should engage your audience while 20% should promote your services.

Video = Views

Video gets more engagement than images. Facebook confirms that is favours video too! In 2019, 80% of all internet traffic comes from video – a staggering statistic for your notes that is only set to grow in 2020. If you don’t have access to specialist equipment, there are a whole host of apps and techniques to create engaging video for your brand.

 

Feel Like You’re Constantly Fighting The Facebook Algorithm?

Here’s Our Advice:

• Don’t be disheartened. Remember that all brands across Facebook, the algorithm changes affect everyone, from international businesses to small ones
• Refer to Facebook and Instagram as paid platforms. Organic reach is steadily in decline across all social networks
• Facebook is a world leader. Expect other platforms to follow suit in the limit of organic reach
• Make the most of other networks such as YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. They still have huge potential for large amounts of organic growth
• Finally: Don’t give up! Focus on building a strong online presence and share quality content with your followers, it will help create organic engagement in the long run

 

We specialise in paid & organic marketing Leeds – our services include PPC and Local SEO Leeds to get your content found.

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