As social media platforms become “pay-to-play,” it’s getting harder to achieve organic reach with your posts.

As much as we’d love for these platforms to give everyone an equal playing field, social media platforms are businesses too and are simply capitalising on the opportunity to make more money. This means they are pushing out paid adverts above all other content.

Making paid posts part of your social media marketing strategy is becoming vital. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon your organic social posts.

Why is it important to continue using organic posts?

Paid or advert posts play a vital role in converting users into followers and eventually consumers. But for your loyal followers that are already a part of your brand’s tribe, organic posts tend to do much better.

Firstly, it allows you to nurture your audience by giving them a “fly on the wall” view of your brand and lets your followers understand the company culture.

Secondly, it allows you to provide added value for your followers. Your ad budget isn’t bottomless, so paid posts will focus more on your products and services. But organic posts are free, so you have no limit on the amount you can post. You can enrich your followers’ experience by creating how-to posts, tips and tricks, blog posts, etc.

How to improve your organic reach

While creating organic reach posts that make an impact is harder than paid-for posts, you should have no problem with a little know-how! Here are some tips to get you started:

Use data wisely

Make sure you look at the engagement on your posts to see what’s resonating with your audience so you can repeat it. Equally, see what’s not clicking so you can avoid or change it.

Optimise your content formatting

Especially with graphic and photo posts. There’s nothing worse than going on Instagram or Pinterest and seeing posts that don’t correctly fit the required size. A good graphics software such as Adobe Creative Cloud Express or Canva will have the option to format your graphics to suit different platforms.

Make your posts accessible

Make your posts inclusive by adding alt text on photos and captions on videos.

Use various media (videos, pics, live streams etc.)

Don’t rely on one type of media. Your audience will get to know you better and be more invested in the brand culture by mixing it up.

Find the best time to post

Use data to see when your audience is most active and post at those times.

Don’t use clickbait

Your audience will not click if it sounds too good to be true, and you’ll lose followers over it. It’s not worth it, so don’t do it.

Give your audience ‘the feels’

When your post makes someone feel something, they are much more likely to engage, so focus on posts that have sentimental or emotional value.

Ask followers to turn their notifications on

Finally, ensure your audience is notified when you post to keep your engagement numbers up.