Paid or organic social media. What are they and which platform is the best option for your business?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 – 15 years, then you’re probably familiar with what social media is. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok and many others have popped up over the years. They’re all social media platforms, and it’s likely you’re on at least one of them.

Every social media channel is different. Examples of these include:

• Twitter is for short-form content in the style of character limited tweets.
• Instagram focuses on images and videos to run your content.
• Facebook has its own marketplace for shopping.
• LinkedIn is the home of networking professionals.
• Snapchat focuses on short-form visual content with disappearing images and videos.
• TikTok is the home of short videos.

All of the platforms mentioned above are examples of where you can post both organic and paid social media. For those of you not sure what the difference is between the two, this blog will explain all.

Organic Social Media

Let’s start with organic social media. This is the use of free services and tools that each platform provides to its users. Think of things like updating your status, tweeting, sharing images and videos etc. Your main goal for organic social media is to build a following and community of customers. This can be done by posting relevant content and interacting with the people who follow you.

Organic social media is a great place to show your followers a glimpse into life inside your business, the culture of you and your team as well as your true values.

Over the last 18 months, social media engagement has grown a huge amount. This could be due to COVID-19 as more people are turning to social media as a way to keep in touch with family and friends and to look for the positive in the uncertain times we face.

More than 91% of brands are already on and using social media, so if you’re not already utilising it, then you’re already behind! Luckily, there’s a whole host of different places you can go to find the best ways to engage with your audience organically if you are starting from scratch.

With social media being such a huge platform that customers use, your social profile needs to not only speak to your current audience, but also link with your paid social media too. So, let’s look into what paid social media is a little more.

Paid Social Media

It may sound obvious, but paid social is the act of paying for social media platforms to display advertisements that you have created, while keeping in line with their policies. You can use paid social media to show advertisements or sponsored messages to people based on user profiles and characteristics.

This means your paid social media advertisements would be seen by the people who are most likely to engage with your business and potentially be a customer.

Of course, as the name suggests, you do have to spend money and allocate a budget. There are a few factors you need to consider when creating your budget. This includes how much you can actually afford to spend, who you are targeting and what your goal is.

Brands that want to be successful on social media, need to use both organic and paid social media, not just one or the other. It’s important to use them strategically in order to reach your audiences and maintain the relationship you create.

So there you have it, the difference between organic and paid social media. Keep your eyes peeled for our blog on the benefits of paid social media coming soon! In the meantime, read our tips on How to Manage Your Social Media During COVID-19.

Give us a call on 01642 130340 or email hello@acquiro.agency to discuss your paid social media account with us, or for any further queries.