Nowadays, social media might feel like a cutthroat atmosphere with little room for newbies. And, if not appropriately handled, gaining organic reach might be difficult.

The continuous adjustments to social media algorithms have made getting good results from organic marketing much more difficult. Organic campaigns on Facebook reach just 5.5 percent, which means that most of a brand’s followers will never see an organic post. While this is discouraging, it does not rule out the possibility of significant growth through organic social media techniques.

Here are three simple steps to help grow your social media following and community organically — at low or even no cost at all!

Step 1: Interactive and Unique Content Brand Posts

One of the fundamental laws of social media marketing — or any digital marketing — is to produce material that adds value to the lives of your target audience. The contents could be in the form of:

• Educational content (e-books, blog posts, how-to videos)
• Entertaining content (trendy memes or GIFs, video stories or clips, behind the scenes)
• Shareable content (emotional videos, social or community awareness)

For audiences to notice and interact with a piece of content on social media, it must be significant in some manner. This step has a cascading effect that can lead to organic growth of 71% of customers with great social media experience who are inclined to refer the business to relatives and friends.

Begin by monitoring consumer interactions on social media in the appropriate niche and rival social media accounts. What types of material piques the interest of the target audience? What can it do to help consumers with their problems? Of course, it’s not simple to create value-added content that distinguishes a business as an expert or a friend. Still, it’s critical for gaining the shares and interactions that lead to organic growth.

Step 2: Use the Right Hashtags

Hashtags are the most effective strategy for increasing organic reach. They allow customers to find and identify exciting or relevant items. In addition, by establishing positive associations or developing momentum around an event, hashtags may help enhance a brand’s image and promote social sharing.

A great recent example of this is the infamous #AdultSwim trend that blew up on TikTok. As a result, many content creators jump to the bandwagon, resulting in higher views, likes, and comments. With trending hashtags, your brand can quickly get the awareness you aim to reach.

Of course, various social media analytics tools are available to assist marketers, some even free. Because social media is so dynamic, trends on hashtags should be tracked and regularly evaluated so that companies can stay on top of things and remain relevant.

Some other recommended third-party hashtag research tools include:

• Ingram
• HashTagsForLikes
• Kicksta

Step 3: Identify the best times to post

It’s tough to determine the best times to publish on social media. They’re constantly evolving, and they’re entirely dependent on your target audience. Existing data, on the other hand, might be an excellent place to start. Here are the optimal times to post on each network, according to Sprout Social’s data:

• LinkedIn:
  • Best times: Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m.–noon
  • Best days: Tuesday and Wednesday
  • Worst day: Sunday
• Facebook:
  • Best times: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
  • Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
  • Worst day: Saturday
• Twitter:
  • Best times: Wednesday 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 9–11 a.m.
  • Best day: Wednesday
  • Worst day: Saturday
• Instagram:
  • Best times: Tuesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday through Friday 11 a.m.
  • Best day: Tuesday
  • Worst day: Sunday

It is also good to research the active times of your target audiences (in case you are an industry-specific brand). For this, you can use social media tools that provide traffic analytics from your social media engagements to pinpoint a particular time.

What You Can Further Do

1.   Run Live Events

Events have always been an essential part of marketing. Live events, according to 80 percent of marketers, are crucial to their company’s success. Moreover, running live events on social media is a powerful method to enhance organic reach and engagement in a more digital world. Especially during COVID-19, when live events are more challenging, if not impossible.

Live streaming is a popular way to interact with followers on social media in real-time. Almost 80% of Facebook users prefer live video to sponsored video on the social media platform. When customers want greater authenticity from companies, live streaming on social media is a low-cost method to provide them with an unedited, genuine, authentic experience.

2.   Create contests and incentives

People enjoy playing games, competing, and, above all, winning – especially if there is a prize involved. This marketing approach may be used in a variety of ways by both B2C and B2B businesses. Photo, video, user-generated content, and caption competitions are all fantastic methods to get your audience to compete. Prizes might be huge (free long-term membership to your services or a free product) or small (discounts and offers – 72% of consumers seek discounts or sales on social media).

Make sure your competitions and incentives match your company’s goals and give value to your audience, regardless of how you come up with them. People will naturally draw toward your business if your content — and contests — relate to what they desire.

Start Effectively Growing Your Social Media Community

It might feel like you’re yelling into a dark, bottomless hole when it comes to discovering, connecting, and building an organic following on social media. Don’t get disheartened if your first effort isn’t a total slam dunk; success might come from a mix of strategies.

Strategic planning and clever suggestions are necessary to connect more people with the brand since this leads to exponential growth. Whether dealing with influencers or hosting a contest, the goal should always be to engage your users honestly. The more relevant your material is, the more people will see it, resulting in organic growth for your social media presence.

Brands with a firm grasp of their target audience are more likely to form meaningful partnerships that set them apart from the competition. You may now effectively cultivate your brand area and community on social media by following the simple steps we gave.