In recent years, social platforms have engaged more of a “pay to play” strategy for brands and businesses to reach their audiences. Social platforms, like Facebook, are prioritizing friends and family posts over company updates in the newsfeed. As marketers with budgets to adhere to, we strive to improve the organic reach of our social posts so we can focus our budget on ad campaigns that drive ROI.
To put it simply, organic traffic is the viewership you receive without paying for impressions. And although organic reach has been on a decline over the years with the increased paid options, there are still many ways to resonate and engage communities organically.
Let’s take a look at some tips that can help you combat the natural decline and keep your company’s numbers more consistent.
- Algorithms
Each social network has adapted its own algorithm for posts, making the feed a competitive space. There are some overlapping similarities, but each platform stride itself in the differences. Step 1 to increasing organic traffic, is staying on top of these ever changing algorithms.
- Instagram: Based off of your interest and recent searches, and the relationship you have with the poster
- Facebook: Friends and family are naturally put over companies. Also, certain phrases like “Congrats!” or “Xoxo” are pushed higher in the feed.
- Twitter: A mix of both what is popular and what is the most current
- LinkedIn: Prioritizing content you are mostly like to engage with. Despite this, LinkedIn has a feature to sort by “Top” or “Recent” news (seen below) in its desktop version.
- Going Live
Have you tried Facebook or Instagram Live? This option gives you the opportunity to be in real time with your consumers. Oh, and LinkedIn is releasing a version soon, too. The platform is currently testing with select audiences.
Going live went from an extra feature on social networks to a necessary one. Some advantages:
- Increases brand awareness
- Increases engagement
- Humanizes your brand
- The recording sticks around
Anyone can go live. Consider doing a Q&A with customers, or maybe a demo of a product and/or service at a tradeshow.
- Content
It is important to know what kind of content works best for a given social network. Often times, content will not perform the same across multiple platforms.
But what content performs best on every platform? Some general guidelines:
- Instagram: Photos. Obvious answer here, but think high quality and really embrace any unique opportunities, like receiving user generated content. Instagram is the perfect platform to make your company stand out in a visual way. Also, Instagram Stories. According to EmbedSocial, 1/3 of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses.
- Facebook: Videos and custom content (think blogs)
- Twitter: News. Gifs. Blogs Links. Think quick content. 500 million Tweets are sent everyday, so make your posts stand out. And post more often here.
- LinkedIn: Share job postings, company news, event information, etc.
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