Social media marketing has completely revolutionised the digital marketing world and created unprecedented opportunities for brands and businesses to connect and reconnect with their audiences. Previously, brands used social media to communicate with their audience through updates and respond to customer queries. Nowadays, it encompasses the whole customer journey, from acquisition to remarketing, retention, and service. Today's blog will discover 'What is the difference between organic and paid social media?'

What is Organic Social Media?

Organic social media is simply posting on social media platforms; it's free and allows brands and businesses to post valuable content anytime without relying on an advertising budget to secure engagement and reach. Research shows that in 2023, 4.89 billion people worldwide were using social media, so the pool of potential customers extends far and wide across the online sphere. 

Your organic efforts will typically only be shown to users who follow your brand's social media page. However, these organic social posts can appear on the feeds of users who do not follow you if they have been engaged with or shared by your followers. 

An example of an organic social media post is below. 

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This is a carousel post that users can scroll through to find more information. It showcases three things our customers may not already know about Soar With Us. This is an excellent example of organic social media content as it promotes interactivity. Our followers must engage with the post and scroll through it to discover more, and it talks directly to our audience. 

Organic posts can be used within a marketing strategy to reach your target audience by creating shareable, valuable and informative content related to your brand or niche. 

What is Paid Social Media?

Brands and businesses use paid social media to reach a broader audience on social media platforms through sponsored advertising content. This social media content makes up part of a wider social media strategy. It uses a brand's existing social media presence to promote itself to new or existing audiences further to increase brand visibility, website traffic, and engagement to generate new business opportunities and grow revenue. 

An example of a paid social media post is below.

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This post uses a video ad as a part of this paid social media strategy to show our target customers the previous results achieved by SoarWith Us for a client. It aims to reach a larger audience and encourage them to engage with the ad by clicking the 'apply now' button, which instructs users to submit a pre-filled out form using their LinkedIn details and start the journey to a better, more effective social media strategy with Soar With Us.

Running a paid social media advertising campaign has many benefits, including increased brand visibility and awareness, reduced overall advertising spend, improved targeting to reach the right people, increased engagement and more. Research has shown that the average ROI for social media ad campaigns is 250%.

For more on the benefits of social media advertising, see our recent blog, 'Why Use Paid Social Media Advertising?'

What is the Difference Between Organic and Paid Social Media?

The differences between organic and paid social media are the business goals that come with implementing both types of marketing strategies.

Paid Social: Paid social media business goals should focus on precisely reaching your in-market target audience based on your business's buyer personas, demographics and traits that they have. This strategy is used to reach users beyond your followers, drive marketing-qualified leads and increase conversions from your target audience.

Organic Social: Organic social business goals should focus on growing your brand's voice on social media and connecting with the customers you have already acquired. This strategy should drive brand awareness, support customers and build real relationships with your audience. 

How to Create a Unanimous Strategy with Paid and Organic Social

When implemented together, paid social and organic social can help your brand increase conversions, improve engagement rate, and significantly grow your pool of customers. 

Here are a few ways to use paid social and organic social together to change the game for your business!

Organic Social Provides Valuable Insights

Through an organic social media strategy, your business can use insights into what content resonates with your audience to inform your paid social media strategy. It can help you to create a more detailed and targeted buyer persona so your paid social ads are a success every time! 

If an organic post on social media has worked well and has been well received by your audience, you can use this within a paid social media campaign with a few tweaks to stop the scrolling of potential customers and encourage them to take action. 

Retargeting Campaigns

Only some potential customers will land on your website and immediately buy your products or services. Sometimes, we all need a little push to make the purchase; in this scenario, you can use retargeting ads to promote your brand once more to users who have visited your website but have not taken action.

Drive Qualified Traffic

By simultaneously implementing a paid social media and organic social media strategy, your brand has a unique opportunity to attract potential customers.

Suppose a potential customer sees your brand or products across multiple channels and social media platforms through a mixture of organic and sponsored posts. In that case, they are more likely to recognise and engage with your brand. Not only is familiarity great for building brand awareness, but it can also significantly improve the efficiency of any retargeting campaigns. 

Our Final Thoughts

Organic social media is a little like holding a garage sale in your front garden and waving to your neighbours to come and have a look. Paid social is more like encouraging new faces to come over to your garage sale and enticing them with offers. Combining both is creating a buzz and becoming known for that wicked garage sale you hosted last week!

By leveraging insights from your organic social campaigns, you can use these to influence your paid social media campaign and adopt a more targeted approach to enhance your social strategy and, overall, your brand's social presence. 

So, if you want to take your brand to new heights, speak to one of our specialists to understand how SOAR With Us can help your business unlock its true online potential.

Our savvy social media specialists utilise dynamic social strategies to unlock exponential growth for ambitious E-Commerce brands. Check out our Paid Social Media Services today!