One can’t imagine strategising Digital Marketing without Social Media. Social Media is a core channel/platform for digital marketeers. But is ‘Organic Social Media’ also very important? Is nurturing social media handles/accounts are really important? We will try to see this in article.
Before we do in depth, let’s understand the difference between paid & organic social media marketing
Paid Social Media Marketing (PSMM):– These are nothing but usual paid ads that we run from FB, Instagram, YouTube etc. These can be in form of video ads, static ads, carousel ads etc. These are targeted towards a set of audience with a set budget & a predefined goal in mind. This is a ‘USUAL’ way of doing any digital marketing on Social media platforms or on Google
Organic Social Media Marketing (OSMM):- This is unpaid form of content postings from the official handles of an organisation on social media e.g. when you visit an official Instagram page or an official YouTube channel, all the content that you will find there is OSMM e.g. here are the Instagram & YouTube channel of Zomato
Comparison chart of PSMM vs OSMM
Now comes a bigger question whether a brand needs OSMM or not. If yes, what should be the way around for this. How to build OSMM from scratch. Is this really helpful to gain traction?
OSMM + PSMM :- A integrated formula of success
Brands do leverage paid social media marketing a lot from start but don’t pay much attention to organic social media. They think that OSMM will not give them anything in start, which is right also, but it doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Brands should remember that, no doubt, OSMM is a very slow & steady process (in initial phases it will give nothing) but once it is grownup it will be a big marketing platform for the brand. Imagine planting a tree of mango. In initial years, it will demand lots of care & nurturing, but once it is grown up, you can enjoy the benefits.
So what are benefits of OSMM:-
1) Helps in building brand equity & salience
2) Top of the mind recall
3) If any campaign goes viral, brands get organic PR
4) Announcements of product launches, special discount offers etc. can be done
5) People search again & again for your page/channel to see the content
6) A way to engage with your audience on real time. You understand the pulse of customers
7) An awesome way to leverage ‘Moment Marketing’, contests for your customers etc.
Brands should always a devise a strategy in which OSMM should not be ignored. If ignored, it might not impact you in beginning, but in later stages it might hurt you. Your competition might be ahead of you just because he started OSMM at a very early stage.
How to grow Organic Social Media channels (FB, Insta, Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube etc.) from scratch
Here I am trying to provide you the step by step approach to grow & build your organic social media channels
Step 1 :- Everything starts from zero and slowly it gets build. So start early (highly recommended). Your first step should be to make an official handle of brand on all popular social media channels. Try to get this verified by getting a ‘TICK’ sign also. This authenticates the brand
Step 2:- Posting content on regular basis. Now comes the bottleneck. What to post, what not to post. What content to post on what channel. Let me clarify this. The secret mantra to grow the organic social media channels are:-
2) Contextual
3) Quality
Also each platform like FB, Insta, LinkedIn, YouTube are meant for different tastes. I will suggest to make a monthly calendar for your OSMM which can be something like this
Note :- Above is just a tentative example to showcase how the calendar can be made and followed rigorously. Few points to note in above calendar
1) Each platform needs different treatment so treat them like that. Copy paste of 1 content on all platforms is not right
2) While making calendar think though deeply, identify the special days, festivals as per your brand’s taste & decide on content. Remember the key is CONSISTENCY & QUALITY. Don’t put post/video only for sake of putting
3) There will be lots of opportunities for Moment Marketing that will come up. Leverage them but act fast
4) Try to make content which is in form of series. This creates curiosity in your followers mind and they will come back to check out like posting some pre launch teasers, ask anything from experts series etc. Brands can create a new property also like CEO Connect every Wednesday (something of this sort)
5) Contests, engagement posts works well for FB & Insta
6) For YouTube try to be make informative content which is relevant for user and not available on general Google search.
Step 3:– Monitor & measure your organic social media channels on a monthly (or bi-monthly basis) & take corrective actions. See likes, shares, comments on type of a post on a particular platform e.g. on an education post on FB you are getting more likes, comments & shares but less on Instagram. On Instagram engagement or contest posts works well, so brands can always tweak their content strategy in this manner i.e. which type (genre) of content to be posted on which platform to see maximum benefits
Digital marketing strategies are now widely used by many businesses, both from well-known brands and new upcoming brands (startups).
Social media marketing is a part of digital marketing that is widely used by brand, considering it is very effective in achieving the desired business goals. For example, to gain new followers and customers, promote quality content, and conduct research on target audiences.
Marketing strategies through social media are generally divided into two, namely organic social media and paid social media. Both have their characteristics, advantages and adapt to your business needs. In the end, you need both of them to be used together to get maximum results and achieve your business goals.
If you have any questions/suggestions plz comment or reach to me
