Why both organic and paid social media should be integrated into your strategy

Social media marketing requires both creativity and strategy. As intimidating as the social space may be for a business without an in-house team, the benefits cannot go unnoticed in a digital-first world.  

As a beginner in the world of social media marketing, you might be uncertain about where to start. To add, organic and paid words sound quite intimidating right? Well, it doesn’t have to be. We’ve put together some advice on whether you should start with “organic” social media or “paid” social media. Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, it’s important to note that having both will enable more consistent growth for your organisation than one. Each of these can work alone, but they complement each other. 

With years of experience in this space, we have seen the power of social media marketing in South Africa, and the benefits you can harness from using both channels effectively. So, continue reading to find out more about paid and organic social media, as well as why you need both for your strategy. Firstly, let’s breakdown the difference between an organic social media strategy vs a paid social media strategy. 

Organic social media

Organic posts on social media do not have budget boosting their performance; it’s strictly based on organic metrics. This is a “free” content solution for your followers and a fundamental part of your startup social media strategy. Fortunately, with organic marketing, you can create brand awareness and keep your customers engaged, informed, entertained and inspired for free. And, if done well, the benefits of organic social media are endless. By using the correct hashtags, it can also open up your business to reaching an even wider audience. This also gives your organisation a human approach, which allows you to connect better with your customers. Creating a connection with customers is a necessity in the digital world. 

Paid social media

Essentially, paid media in this context refers to advertising on social platforms. You pay social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to have your content shared with your preferred audience. Paid social media will help you reach a targeted market through your chosen demographic options. It also gives you the potential to attract new customers, promote a new product or service, gain a wider reach, generate leads and drive conversions. The results of paid social growth can be measured through metrics, and brands will see an instant change. 

It’s important to keep in mind that paid isn’t the same as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is about leveraging someone’s social presence to target potential customers to gain their trust, and hopefully become an interested customer. Social marketing, on the other hand, is about using your platform to create a voice and personality that people want to engage with, and purchase from. 

Why do you need both in your strategy

As an SEO digital marketing agency, we know that a social media marketing strategy needs both channels to yield the best results. It can help to indirectly impact your SEO tactics and achieve your return on investments. So, this means you can gain organic reach and build your brand through sharing quality content. However, you won’t reach your full potential if you focus only on organic posts. You’ll be dependent on #hashtags and your followers sharing content. The same goes for a paid social strategy. It won’t go anywhere if your social accounts have nothing to offer your followers. To see a real difference, you need both. And to do that, you need to do the following: 

• Remember organic is there to serve and keep your customers, while paid is there to help attract new customers. 
• Boost your quality content, so that more people can see it. 
• Target your social ads to people who are similar to your existing customers. 
• Retargeting ads are fundamental in ensuring you stay connected to your customers. 

Final thoughts

Now that we’ve explained why you need both in your strategy and how you can integrate them, we realise that you might not have enough resources to ensure a good social media marketing strategy.

And that’s why you need us! We specialise in performance marketing, and our diverse team of experts can do both organic and paid social media posts. Our specialists are committed to helping you stay connected and engaged with your customers. So, contact us today to discuss a realistic content marketing services approach that will suit your budget and up your name in the industry.