Organic social-media is HARD guys. The golden days where an aesthetically pleasing grid = guaranteed success are coming to an end and it's leaving plenty of businesses unsure about where organic fits into their overall strategy. Consumers are wising up to influencer product placements and are moving away from profiles and pages that are ~always~ trying to sell them things.
To be totally honest, this is nothing new. TV ads have come a long way in the last 50-60 years as consumers are presented with more and more information, products and decisions. As the initial rush of social media advertising begins to wear off, it's time we look for long term, more sustainable strategies.
What we think of as 'good content' is changing. Well-shot product photos still have their place, but increasingly it's the authentic, 'real' brands that are finding success across social platforms. As Instagram, in particular, keeps developing tools to tidy up your feed (when you unfollow someone, it now suggests other, similar profiles that you follow and may want to let go) one thing becomes clear: your social channels must be providing value to the people that follow and engage with them.
I'm not saying you need to go off and start posting recipes and workout videos - there are *so* many different ways to add value depending on your customers and target market. Generally the easiest way is just to think about who you follow as a social media user and why you follow them. Ask those kind of questions to your customers and have a look a brands that have similar target market and see what they're doing. When you've done all this, create some content and test it out! The worst case is you put something up, no one is interested and you move on or archive the post.
So how does one get the most out of organic social media? Is it really worth the time and effort? If there's one thing I've seen consistently throughout my time on Facebook Ads Manager, it's that brands that spend the time and energy building an engaged online community (with all that delicious top of the funnel stuff) are able to get SO much more out of their ad spend. Seriously, a 20x ROAS doesn't just happen on its own. Like a delicious cocktail, cake or literally anything that requires some mixing, multiple digital channels need to work together in order to succeed.
Organic social media doesn't guarantee sales on its own, but, in my experience, it's as close as you'll get to a magic formula for Facebook Ads success. While I totally get that it can be frustrating and time consuming (particularly when you're up against brands that have been in the game for a while), I don't think it's time to write it off just yet.
Happy posting!
Lizze x
