Organic vs. Paid Social Media: Which is Best for Your Business?

With over 72% of American adults being social media users, it’s no surprise that it’s an extremely effective avenue for advertising. It’s great for small businesses with a limited advertising budget, as well as large corporations that need to be more relatable to their customers. Social media offers opportunity for all kinds of business with all kinds of budgets, however, the methods greatly differ. In this blog post I’ll be discussing the basics of organic and paid social media, as well as the world of influencer marketing. 

Organic Social Media 

Organic social media involves any user, whether it be a personal or business account, posting free content that is then pushed to their followers. These posts can then be further viewed through hashtags or when another user decides to repost it. Organic social media is often said to be the most effective way to create a connection with customers, since it allows brands to have a personality, be authentic, and consistently interact with their followers in a meaningful way. Although it’s a cost-effective way to increase brand awareness and customer satisfaction, organic social media does have its downfalls. 

The first drawback of organic social media is how time-consuming it is. Creating the content itself takes a lot of time and energy and so does staying up with the trends. With the advent of TikTok, the trend cycle has grown shorter and shorter, making it increasingly difficult to create relevant content that followers are genuinely interested in. Additionally, the algorithm has massive effects on the amount of followers that actually see your posts and it can be difficult to understand and tailor your content to its requirements (HubSpot). Not to mention, social media companies are constantly improving and updating algorithms, making it very difficult to stay up-to-date with. 

One last thing to mention about organic social media is the lack of audience flexibility. The only people that have the chance to see your content unless they’re actively seeking it out are your followers, their followers if they choose to repost your content, and followers of any hashtags that you may use. This greatly limits the reach that you have and can be detrimental to businesses with small followings. However, this fate can be shifted with another method of sharing content - paid social media. 

Paid Social Media 

Paid social media is similar to organic social media in that the types of content created are often very similar. However, they differ in the ways that the content is pushed to users. There are two common routes with paid social media: “boosting” organic content or creating new content specifically for advertising (HootSuite). “Boosting” is when content that already exists on a profile is simply shown to non-followers of the page. This option is less time-consuming than creating new content specifically for advertising, but may not be as effective. An increasingly popular method of paid social media that resolves this issue by outsourcing content creation is called influencer marketing. 

The World of Influencers

Influencer marketing is when brands reach out to popular social media creators, or influencers, to endorse their products. This method is often quite successful because it provides social proof while simultaneously exposing the offerings to new audiences. Influencer marketing tactics often feel more genuine than traditional advertising tactics because it features a real-life person that the audience already trusts using the product or service. 

There a few different methods behind influencer marketing. A popular one is gifting, where a brand sends an influencer a PR package with no strings attached, hoping that the influencer will organically share it with their followers. Another popular method is sponsorships, where a brand discusses collaboration terms with an influencer before sending products. Along with the free products, sponsorships also typically involve some sort of financial compensation. Influencer marketing certainly isn’t a cheap industry, but if brands invest in the right influencers they can witness great benefits. 

Marketers can track the success of influencer campaigns in many ways, but key performance indicators (KPIs) are a good place to start. At the beginning of a campaign, marketers should track their followers, engagement rates, conversions, and more to see where they are starting from (Forbes). Throughout and after the campaign, marketers should revisit these metrics to see if there is any improvement. Aside from this, they can monitor comments, track links, and ask for reports from the influencer to understand how well the campaign performs. There’s no “right” way to track success, as success looks different for each brand, influencer, and campaign.

All About Audiences 

Now that we’ve discussed the basics of paid social media, let’s discuss a bit about how audiences are chosen for these campaigns. These three types of audiences developed by Meta are typically used for traditional paid social media campaigns but can also serve as a guide to picking out appropriate influencers. The three types of audiences are core, custom, and lookalike. 

• CORE: This type of audience allows the advertiser to select specific types of users that they want their ad pushed to. Available criteria include location, past behaviors, demographics, interests, and more. This is a good option for those with a low budget because it can be curated to closely match your target market.

• CUSTOM: This type of audience utilizes the followers that you already have on various social media platforms. Since Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, they can use data from both platforms to find customers that are already aware of your brand. There are four types of custom audiences: website, app activity, customer list, and engagement. 

• LOOKALIKE: This type of audience uses information from a custom audience to replicate that audience, but made up of entirely new users. The system includes users with similar demographics, behaviors, and interests and can match the source audience to a predetermined percent range, meaning that it can be as broad or specific as you want. This type of audience is especially beneficial when building brand awareness. 

Although these three types of audiences were developed by Meta, they are now an industry standard and widely used across all social media platforms. In order to choose the right type of audience for your campaign, it’s important to understand the differences between the three types. I encourage you to use the links provided above to learn more about each audience type. 

Marketer’s Approaches to Organic vs. Paid Social Media 

To wrap up this blog post, I’d like to discuss how marketers use organic versus paid social media. When it comes down to it, it’s all about the goals of the firm. Are they a small business trying to find more customers or a large corporation trying to do damage control after a faulty product comes out? HootSuite created this wonderful diagram that highlights the most common benefits of both organic and paid social media. 

Whichever route you choose, social media is a cost-effective and personable way to help your business meet its goals. However, content creation is time-consuming and social media is a dynamic industry, leading to various challenges if not strategically approached. Thank you for reading and happy posting!