How Expand Your Organic Reach on Social Media

Social media is ALWAYS changing. What worked a year ago, is practically the social media stone age. So staying on top of tried and true strategies is important to reach your social marketing goals. Whether you’re on Instagram, Linkedin, or Facebook, you probably care a LOT about your organic reach and your audience growth.

Marketing research has shown that overall engagement is down, however, before your audience will engage, you’ve gotta get eyeballs on your content. If after that, you’re seeing stagnant engagement or a drop, then shift - either with content formats or what you’re posting about. It’s NOT always your content, sometimes it’s the greater atmosphere of social media - with more users shifting from Facebook & Instagram to Tik Tok, or just realizing that the endless scroll is exhausting. That all being said, there are still MILLIONS of daily users you can reach to attract new audiences to your brand. So if you want to grow that organic reach, then keep reading.

What is Organic Reach?

Organic reach is the number of people who see your content. Or eyeballs on posts as I sometimes say. It matters because you want that number to grow. On Instagram, you can see how many people that see your content are followers and non-followers. In an ideal world, the non-follower reach would turn into new followers. This is how you build your brand awareness on social media platforms.

How to Grow Your Organic Reach

1. Use video
   Facebook started the whole video craze a few years ago with the Facebook Lives, and they’ve been pretty unapologetic in stating that video content gets the most organic reach. Instagram, as of last year in its efforts to compete with Tik Tok, has also been unapologetic about prioritizing their short form videos (Reels) in the algorithm. And even Linkedin has a video option. If you have not yet incorporated videos into your social media strategy, chances are your organic reach is in the gutter and you’re probably scratching your head wondering why.

2. Be Consistent
   Whether you post once per week or every dang day, consistency. Most of my clients win at 3-5 times per week, especially if their content adds value and their audience engages with it. If you’re struggling to create content or running out of ideas, thats’ fine. I’m 100% against the idea of posting just to post. I believe that every post should. be valuable even if it’s not meant to convert but just to inspire and build engagement with your audience.

3. Engage with your followers
   Social media is meant to be social! Don’t post & ghost. Engage with those engaging with YOUR content. Engagement is key to growth and converting those followers. Not to mention, if you’re getting GOOD engagement from your followers that means they LIKE the content you’re putting out there for them. Your content is adding value and that’s really important to social media growth on ANY platform.

4. Have a solid content strategy
   Do you have content pillars? Or, content topics that you post about regularly? Usually, these content topics are in line with your product/service offerings but could also be tertiary topics that your audience also cares about (i.e. if you’re a realtor, you might also post about home maintenance or organization. If you’re a massage therapist, you might also post about self-care and wellness.). Knowing what those content pillars are, helps your content stay focused on what your audience cares about and views you as an expert in.

5. Optimize your profiles
   Keywords are the new hashtags y’all. If you haven’t optimized your profiles, or honed in on what keywords are relevant, now is a great time to do so. Between your website, your social profiles, and everything in between, keywords should be a keystone in your overall marketing strategy NOT just social media. The difference in keywords between now and a year ago, is that NOW social algorithms are paying attention to them, not just the search engines.

If you need some help with your social media and building your organic reach - from creating a social media strategy that works, to managing your profiles & content - download our social media strategy planner to help you get some clarity on your marketing efforts. If you need a bit more hand-holding to feel successful in your social media efforts, contact us directly!