As you scroll through social media, you will find posts pop up that say “Promoted” or “Sponsored.” While these posts often blend seamlessly into the feed, they are very different than other posts. With the increased usage in social media platforms, social media marketing has become an effective tool for businesses and the best PR agencies to promote their products and services. At BLND PR, we broke it down to help you understand the difference between paid and organic social content and the benefits of the two.
Paid Media
Paid content is any posts or videos that have been “boosted,” or paid for by the brand posting it. This content usually has a specific goal behind it, and this goal can be measured easier than organic content can. With paid content, you are able to track performance, understand your audiences, and create new campaigns using the data.
Because platforms will put your paid content in front of targeted audiences, paid strategies are effective marketing tools. Paid content is worth it if you have a specific performance goal in mind that you want to boost its reach. However, if you do not have specific content and marketing goals, organic media might be the right content for you to post.
Organic Media
Organic media is content that you freely post on your feeds without any money backed behind it. These posts will only reach your followers and those actively searching for content similar to your account. Organic content is always necessary in order to build your overall strategy, and will create a feed that looks good for your brand.
With organic media, however, you must put a lot more effort into the strategy. Organic social media content has to be posted consistently, and each post has to stay on-brand and engaging. An organic content strategy generally consists of four content tiers: educational, newsworthy, entertaining and promotional. While crafting an organic content strategy, be sure to hit these content pillars to keep your feed interesting and engaging.
Which is Better?
The most important rule in deciding which content to use is to understand what your goals are. If expanding reach and gaining followers is your goal, paid social media content is a better tactic. However, if your goal is to build relationships and loyal consumers, organic content is a better focus. Ultimately, however, a blend of the two is the perfect sweet spot for social media content.
If you want to learn more about how a PR agency and business should market on social media, click here.
