Social media reach has been a hot topic of conversation for digital marketers, and at the centre of this topic is the decline in social media organic reach in 2022. For small businesses, this has been quite a blow to the budget, as most of them don’t have massive amounts of money to spend on social media ad campaigns.
In this article, we will discuss what social media organic reach entails, why it’s declining and how you can increase your organic reach.
What is Organic Reach in Social Media
Organic reach can be described as a social media marketing indicator that indicates the number of individual accounts that have viewed your content on a social media network. Organic reach does not include the use of any paid promotional methods to increase the exposure of the content, like paid ads or boosted posts. Since the beginning of the coined phrase “organic reach,” not much has changed. The number of viewers that are reached without paid ads is still relatively low.Is Organic Reach Declining?
The first time we started to notice a serious decline in organic reach traffic was when Facebook introduced the infamous EdgeRank Algorithm. The purpose of this algorithm introduction was to make the platform more curated and user-friendly as opposed to commerce-focused content. However, for small businesses, this meant they had to completely re-evaluate the way they generate content. Over the years, social platforms have updated their algorithm countless times and businesses have been struggling to keep up.Why is Organic Reach Declining?
According to Facebook, the average amount of daily time spent on the platform is 38 minutes. With so much information and content pouring in, the feed space became increasingly more competitive among businesses. If it’s challenging for sponsored ad campaigns to reach awareness and customers, imagine how much more difficult it is for non-paid, organic content. This explains why there has been such a significant drop in organic content, your target audience’s feed is probably filled with sponsored ad campaigns leaving little room for organic content to make an impression.How to Increase Organic Reach
Although it is advisable for all businesses to invest in some sort of paid social media campaign, small businesses don’t necessarily have the budget to run paid campaigns. But don’t stress, there are several ways you can increase the traffic of your organic social media content.- Attention-Grabbing Videos and Images: Having eye-catching content is essential if you want to stand out from the sea of content on social media. Also, ensure that all images and videos are high-quality as this is a direct reflection of the quality of your brand.
- Post at the Correct Time: When you post your content, is just as important as the type of content you post. Use social media analytics to determine when your target audience is most active on their social media, and use these times within your strategy.
- Host a Contest: We’re all guilty of entering an online giveaway competition at least once. Who can resist free stuff? Running a contest that encourages people to comment on your post and share it with their followers can significantly increase your organic reach.