Paid Social Media vs Organic Social Media: Which Should You Choose?

One of the most common questions I ask my prospective clients in a discovery call is, “What do you want social media to do for your business?”

I get an interesting array of answers. It ranges from wanting to be more profitable to growing their followers and engagement to just having a presence on social media. There are also some that haven’t really thought about it and see social media as an activity a business “just does” like it’s something to tick off their list.

These answers give me a really good insight into what these clients understand about social media and to dig a lot deeper into their primary business goals, their business model and how social media marketing contributes to them.

Firstly, we’ve got to understand the role of social media – It’s about being SOCIAL! Social media was fundamentally designed for people to connect with other people; not for brands to connect with people. Of course it’s massively evolved over the decades but knowing how to effectively incorporate social media (organic and paid) in your business strategy is going to be your roadmap to financial success on these platforms.

The difference between paid and organic social media

Keeping in mind that social media is about being social, here is how I see these two mediums personified:

• Paid Social Media: She’s super confident, talks about herself a lot and makes a bold first impression. However most experience her to be quite brash, boastful and intense. She’s always in your face and turns up unannounced. Even though she thinks she’s amazing, people can often be turned off by her.

• Organic Social Media: She’s more laid back than Paid Social Media. She’s the type to not speak about herself too much but people find her interesting and approachable. People do like her, however, she often gets overlooked as she struggles to compete with much bigger and louder personalities.

Solely using paid social media is offputting and consumers find that too many ads and sales messages can negatively impact their perception of your brand. Imagine if you met someone for the first time and all they did was talk about themselves. It’s unlikely you’d be friends with them right? You’d think they’re cocky and self-centred. It’s the same reaction consumers have to a brand that only uses paid social media to highlight their offering – consumers don’t want to be sold to.

Solely using organic social media is not an effective strategy either. Although there are successes in organic marketing, unless you’ve got something that’s out of this world, in the long term it’s really competitive to stand out and consistently have your point of difference visible.

What’s the solution?

You need a balance of both! You need a clear strategy for organic socials where you’re building trust, credibility and a strong community that can advocate for your business (not solely relying on vanity metrics). You also need an evolving strategy for paid socials to boost your visibility, awareness and sales to get new/existing customers to consistently buy from you – and not forget you exist because they’re being distracted by other brands!

Can you just use one without the other?

The short answer is no. You may find success in the short term using one medium more than the other, but if you want to scale a sustainable, profitable business you are going to need both, especially if your business model is an ecommerce, direct to consumers (B2C) brand.

What should you do?

If you’re interested in utilising social media marketing to grow your business, book a discovery with us. Let’s explore how we could partner together on this.