11 Ways To Get More Social Media Organic Reach & Engagement
Gone are the days of social media strictly being a tool to keep up to date with friends and family. While you’re still able to do that, you might have noticed that your feed has become less populated with those people, and more populated with an excess of ads, influencers, video content, and the like.
With all of the rapid changes in social media, it poses the question- how do we change with the platform and use it to our advantage? The opportunity to make money on social media platforms and actually build a career is growing more and more possible everyday. While the possibilities are endless, the only way to build real success from the platforms that are at our disposal is through organic reach and engagement which can be harder to build than you might think.
As always, MOOD FOR THOUGHT wants to share our best tips to help you build a successful business through social media whether you’re an influencer, you have a brand, you’re a social media manager, or you’re hoping to build a following that will allow you to make money on social media in the near future. Keep reading to learn our tried and tested tips and check out MOOD FOR THOUGHT services for all of the ways we can help you build your organic reach and engagement.
What is organic social reach and engagement and why is it important?
Social media reach is a media analytics metric that refers to the number of users who have come across your content on a social platform. Organic reach refers to the number of people who have seen your content without paid distribution. While paid ads can be an effective way to reach new audiences, paying for followers or engagement through bots however, is one of the worst things you can do on social media and can actually harm your business in the long run. Organic social reach and engagement is always better than the paid alternative. Organic social media reach and engagement is important because it allows your content to be seen and engaged with by new audiences that will hopefully become active and engaged followers. When you accumulate this active and engaged audience, you’re able to monetize your content, promote your business, and make money from the platform.
Organic social media engagement is decreasing
It’s no surprise that when people are making money and building careers on free social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, the platform wants a cut. In an effort to encourage the purchase of paid advertisements, these platforms have been known to minimize the reach and exposure of these sponsored posts, stories, and reels. This can be seen through the #ad or #sponsored hashtag disclosure that indicates a post was sponsored that is required by the FTC dramatically reduces the amount of reach and engagement a post receives. The Instagram algorithm specifically has changed a lot in recent years and has received a lot of backlash from users. In the early days of Instagram, it was a lot easier to be distributed to larger audiences through the explore page or activity page (which no longer even exists.) Platforms like TikTok have a better system of promoting new accounts so everyone has a chance of gaining exposure to larger and larger audiences. In an effort to compete with TikTok and to win users over, Instagram stated that their focus was moving toward video content with the introduction of Instagram Reels. Now, Instagram is boosting Reels to larger audiences therefore gaining more reach and engagement for those that utilize the tool while.
How do you grow an organic audience on social media?
While organic social media engagement and reach is decreasing- don’t be discouraged! There are still plenty of ways to grow an organic audience through hard work, consistency, and these MOOD FOR THOUGHT approved tips and tricks.
Don’t take a one size fits all approach
Each social media platform is unique, and the content you create should be catered to the platform you’re posting on. If you think that posting the exact same content in the exact same way on different platforms will get you results- think again. The types of content that work on Instagram aren’t the same for LinkedIn, the captions you post on Facebook won’t work for Instagram, and the hashtags you use for Reels aren’t the same as TikTok. Once you gain an extensive knowledge on the best practices for posting on each individual platform, you’ll be able to successfully cater your content to these audiences and will boost your reach.
Post consistently to gain metrics
We recommend coming up with a consistent posting scheduling and mixing up the types of content you create. 1-3 posts per day, everyday for 30 days typically works to create valuable metrics and information that you can use to further build social media success in the future. The importance of creating unique content and switching locations, types of content, the time you post, shooting styles, etc. is that it helps you to gauge what your audience is most interested in after you study the metrics after an extended period of time. After you retain these metrics you’ll be able to see what time works best for posting, what content your audience likes the best, and many other factors that will drive success in the future. & Don’t worry, you won’t need to post 3 times a day everyday for the rest of your life (unless you want to!)
Focus on creating content your audience will benefit from
All of the content you create should either educate, entertain, engage, inspire, or all of the above. There’s no denying that good content will always create an active and engaged audience as soon as it’s shown to the right people. Content that educates, entertains, engages, and/or inspires an audience are more likely to be engaged with and shared, therefore consistently reaching new audiences and growing your following. Regardless of your current following, post as if you’re speaking to millions and the audience will come.
Utilize relevant hashtags and geotags
One of the best ways to reach new audiences is to utilize relevant hashtags and geotags on every post and story you make, yes, even hashtag your stories! MOOD FOR THOUGHT recommends putting 3-5 hashtags that best describe your content in the caption of your post. This will help to categorize your posts into a separate section where people that are looking for that type of content can easily find you. We also recommend sharing your location using geotags so larger local audiences are more likely to see your content and follow you. Tag relevant brands, locations, activities, etc. on your videos and images to reach those audiences as well. On Instagram stories, we recommend using the same amount of hashtags and hiding them under your images so the stories are less cluttered.
Engage with your similar audiences to yours
The easiest way to reach new audiences that are likely to enjoy your content is to research creators who create content that is similar to the content you produce, and then engage with the people that follow them. So as not to seem spammy, it’s important to genuinely engage with those followers by leaving thoughtful comments and liking the posts that you actually like- with this approach, these followers are likely to follow your account and engage with you. MOOD FOR THOUGHT recommends doing this with a few accounts every day.
Utilize every tool the platform provides
For optimal chance of social media success, MOOD FOR THOUGHT recommends using every tool the social media platform of your choice provides. For example, on Instagram you have the ability to create stories, feed posts, IGTV, Reels, and you have the ability to go live. In order to reach the biggest audience, it’s important to create content using all of these features that the platform has provided you. For your audience, some of these will perform better than others, after you’ve determined this, focus strongly on the content that your audience likes the best.
What is the best way to increase engagement on your social media content?
While having a large audience is important when it comes to online business success, the most important factor is actually engagement. It’s better to have a small audience with big engagement than the opposite. This is why there has been a rise in the success of micro-influencers that have a highly engaged audience, even though their follower base is smaller. These are MOOD FOR THOUGHT’S best tips for building a highly engaged audience.
Show your personality
While there’s millions of businesses and individuals on social media, no one is you, and that is your power. You’ll attract and engage an audience just by being yourself and having your audience relate to you. One of the best ways to do this is to show your face and vlog your day to day activities on Instagram stories or through TikTok. Creators who post this type of content everyday and show the behind-the-scenes of their life and/or business have more engaged audiences.
Utilize Instagram story stickers
Story stickers were quite literally created to boost engagement on stories. Not only do the stickers provide engagement when you post them, but it makes people more likely to check your story daily to see what type of content they can engage with on a daily basis. Story stickers that you should be using daily in your stories include polls, questions, quiz, and add yours, all of which will boost engagement.
Ask questions and create discussion in your captions
Give your audience content to engage with! While sharing pretty photos and videos is great, to create engagement, you need more than that. MOOD FOR THOUGHT recommends asking your audience questions and creating discussion in every piece of content you post. Utilize your captions and make sure that you keep the conversation going in your comments by asking follow up questions and reacting to the engagement your audience provides you with.
Engage with your audience
Engagement goes both ways. For optimal and long-lasting engagement, ensure that you’re thoughtfully responding to every comment you receive on social media. This creates a community and makes people feel like you’re not just there for the likes and comments. Community is key when it comes to building an engaged audience that further your business via social media. It’s also a good idea to engage with the content your audience creates, take a few minutes everyday to show love to people that are engaged within your community. A like and comment on their content goes a long way when it comes to longevity, trust, and building real relationships on social media. After all, the people who follow you and engage with your content are going to be the same people that purchase from your brand, or buy the products you recommend. An engaged following means more money in your pocket and more success for your business.
Build trust
Never take your community for granted. Always make sure that the content you post has a benefit to your audience, never promote products you wouldn’t use yourself if it wasn’t gifted or sponsored, and don’t try to sell your community products you’re not 100% proud of. Building trust within your community keeps your followers happy and engaged, and will keep them coming back for more of your content, products, services, and recommendations.
Create shareable content
Content is king! Create shareable content like infographics and memes that your followers would be likely to pass on to and share with their audiences. Everyone loves well thought out and free information that’s condensed into content that's easy to consume. Share information that’s relevant to your industry, product, trends, current news, etc. that makes it easy for your audience to consume and share with others. Another great tip is to create funny memes based off of current news and trends that relate to your business, niche, or industry. People love to laugh and this type of content always performs well on social media because it’s often reposted and shared.
At the end of the day, social media is what you make it. If you’re willing to put in the work, cater to your audience, post consistently and create high quality content, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming one of the most popular creators out there. After all, everyone starts somewhere. Contact MOOD FOR THOUGHT to learn more about our services and how we can help you get more social media organic reach and engagement.
