84% of B2B executives and 75% of overall B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions, showing just how important these platforms are. For B2B companies, social media is more than just an outlet to share product updates, it’s where you can grow relationships and show that you are a thought leader in the industry. But, we all know that not all social media strategies work the same. Knowing the difference between organic and paid social media, and when to use each, can make all the difference in how you reach your audience and achieve your goals.
What is Organic Social Media?
Organic social media refers to the use of unpaid efforts to promote content and engage with your audience on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. This type of social media marketing involves posting regular updates, sharing articles, engaging in conversations, and improving relationships with followers without paying for exposure. Organic social media relies on the platform algorithm to show content to followers and their extended network. For example, on LinkedIn, organic posts from your company page are shown to followers based on the platform’s engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and shares.
Pros of Organic Social Media
- Cost-Effective: One of the biggest advantages of organic social media is that it’s free. Since you’re not paying to promote content, you can allocate resources to other parts of your business, such as creating high-quality content or improving your website.
- Long-Term Strategy: Organic social media helps build credibility and trust over time. Consistent posting and engagement can foster a loyal community, which translates into long-term brand awareness and customer relationships.
- Enhanced Engagement: When done right, organic social media allows for authentic interactions with your audience. Responding to comments, answering questions, and sharing helpful content can create stronger relationships with potential clients.
- Brand Authority: By sharing your industry expertise, thought leadership, and valuable resources, your brand can establish authority in your niche. This builds trust with your audience, making them more likely to consider your services or products when they’re ready to buy.
Cons of Organic Social Media
- Slower Growth: Unlike paid social, organic efforts take time to gain traction. It can be months before you see a significant increase in your reach or engagement.
- Limited Reach: Many social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Instagram, have adjusted their algorithms in favor of paid content. This can reduce the organic reach of your posts, especially if your audience isn’t highly engaged.
- Requires Consistency: Organic social media requires frequent posting and consistent interaction to maintain visibility and engagement. Without an ongoing effort, your reach can quickly diminish.
What is Paid Social Media?
On the other hand, paid social media refers to paying for advertisements or sponsored posts on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. With paid social, you can target specific audience segments based on location, job title, industry, and interests, ensuring your content reaches the right people. Paid social campaigns allow you to amplify your content’s reach, ensuring it gets in front of decision-makers and potential clients who may not already be following your page.
Pros of Paid Social Media
- Immediate Results: Unlike organic social, paid social media can generate quick results. Your content is immediately visible to a targeted audience, which helps increase brand awareness, traffic, and conversions quickly.
- Precise Targeting: Paid social allows for incredibly detailed targeting. You can segment your audience based on specific demographics, behaviors, interests, and more, ensuring that your message reaches the most relevant prospects.
- Scalability: Paid social is scalable depending on your budget. Whether you have a small budget or a large one, you can control how much you want to spend and adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Analytics and Optimization: Paid social platforms provide detailed analytics, allowing you to track the performance of your campaigns in real time. This data helps you optimize campaigns to improve ROI and conversion rates.
Cons of Paid Social Media
- Costs: The biggest downside of paid social media is the financial investment required. Depending on the platform and your audience targeting, costs can quickly add up, especially if you’re competing in a competitive industry.
- Ad Fatigue: If you run the same ads too often, your target audience may become bored or annoyed with them, leading to diminishing returns over time. Regularly refreshing your ad creatives is crucial to maintaining engagement.
- No Long-Term Value: Unlike organic content, which builds trust and credibility over time, paid social efforts only provide short-term visibility. Once you stop paying for ads, your reach and exposure disappear.
Organic vs Paid Social: How to Use Each Strategy Effectively for B2B
Both organic and paid social strategies are integral to an effective social media plan for B2B marketers. While organic social media focuses on building long-term relationships and establishing brand authority, paid social can provide immediate visibility and targeted lead generation.
When to Use Organic Social Media
Ideally, your company should always be posting organically on social media. But, here are a few things to consider.
Building Relationships Over Time
Organic social media is particularly effective when your goal is to build and nurture long-term relationships with your audience. This strategy is ideal for companies looking to engage with their audience on a deeper level over time. Over time, this helps to create a community around your brand, making it easier to turn followers into customers when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision. Since organic engagement is based on fostering real interactions, this strategy is great for brands that want to cultivate authentic relationships.
Establishing Brand Authority
In addition to relationship-building, organic social media is essential for establishing and enhancing your brand’s authority in your industry. Regularly posting valuable insights, industry news, and thought leadership content helps position your brand as an expert in your field. It’s important to remember that organic social media is more about providing value than selling your products or services.
Staying Top of Mind
It takes an average of 8 touchpoints to get an initial meeting with a new prospect. Because of this, it’s important to leverage organic social media to stay top of mind and ensure your followers stay engaged. Since organic posts are typically seen by followers who already have some level of interest in your brand, they serve as a reminder of what your company has to offer and keep your audience connected with your messaging.
When to Use Paid Social Media
Paid social media should be done after your company has built an online presence, optimized profiles, and consistently posted for a period of time. Here are a few ways that paid social media can help your company.
Lead Generation
With precise targeting options available on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, paid social allows you to deliver your message directly to your ideal audience. This is particularly valuable for B2B marketers aiming to connect with decision-makers such as CEOs, managers, or other key professionals within specific industries. Paid campaigns can feature offers like downloadable whitepapers, webinar invitations, or free consultations, which help to capture high-quality leads that align with your business goals. eBooks, whitepapers, and exclusive offers are a few great examples of paid social media campaigns you could create that will drive leads.
Amplifying Brand Awareness
If you’re launching a new product, service, or campaign, paid social media can provide the visibility you need to reach a larger audience in a short amount of time. By promoting your content through ads or sponsored posts, you can extend your reach far beyond your current followers. This is especially useful for building awareness in competitive industries where standing out is critical.
Retargeting Warm Leads
One of the most powerful aspects of paid social media is its ability to retarget individuals who have already interacted with your company. Retargeting allows you to reconnect with people who have visited your website, engaged with your content, or shown interest in your services. These warm leads are more likely to convert because they are already familiar with your brand. Paid social campaigns can serve as gentle reminders, offering relevant content or promotions that encourage these prospects to take the next step in their buyer journey. For example, if you retarget visitors who have visited a service page, you can advertise a complimentary eBook that serves content that is farther down your funnel.
Optimizing Campaign Performance with Data
Paid social media also provides detailed performance analytics that allows you to optimize your campaigns in real-time. Metrics such as click-through rates, impressions, and conversions help you understand what resonates with your audience. This data-driven approach ensures that your marketing efforts are continuously refined for maximum return on investment. For B2B companies focused on measurable results, the ability to track and improve paid campaigns makes this strategy indispensable.
Wrap Up
Both organic and paid social media should be a part of a complete marketing plan. While one helps with awareness, the other can generate leads. But, remember that you should not be advertising on social media without posting organically first. If you need some inspiration of what to post on social media, take a look at our article 10 Social Media Post Ideas for B2B Companies.
