<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/68fa124956048da817228b13_651d3d5ce56bf79310df0874_643b38a2599bb80e4fe4fa6e_Event%252520Headers%252520%252520(1).png" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Growth</span> <h1 class="gn-title">Round-up: Organic vs. Paid Social Media - The Case for a Hybrid Approach</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>19 May 2023</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>6 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <p class="gn-lede gn-reveal">For the sake of <strong>maximising conversions while keeping your budget in check</strong>, a hybrid approach to <strong>your</strong> social strategy can help initiate the best outcomes.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">In our latest workshop, 'Investing in Social – Building your Integrated Paid and Organic Strategy', our experts discuss the different <strong>opportunities</strong> and <strong>challenges</strong> both paid and organic social media marketing present in 2023, including the case for a hybrid approach <strong>to help initiate the best outcomes</strong>, along with practical guidance for <strong>effectively integrating</strong> the two.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Our experts:</strong></p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenfarrington/" target="_blank"><strong>Owen Farrington</strong></a>, Managing Partner, <a href="https://hellokrow.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Krow Group</strong></a><br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAADn4QxsBmdIbR0vikr39fAk8iq5OZWN8ioA" target="_blank"><strong>Ines Casas</strong></a>, Social Director, <a href="https://www.eightandfour.com/" target="_blank"><strong>eight&amp;four</strong></a><br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-e-kelly/" target="_blank"><strong>Charlotte Boerescu-Kelly</strong></a>, Head of Marketing, <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/" target="_blank"><strong>The GO Network</strong></a> (<strong>moderator</strong>)</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/events" target="_blank"><strong><em>View our upcoming events calendar</em></strong></a></p> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">01</span>The case for a hybrid social strategy</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">With deprived marketing budgets and limited resources, the use of <strong>organic social media has somewhat shifted in recent years</strong>, as what is now a cost-efficient way for brands to engage audiences and convert new customers.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">However, this standalone approach often takes much longer for businesses to achieve their intended goals as <strong>audience reach is limited</strong>, for instance, an organic post on <strong>Facebook</strong> reaches around <a href="https://hootsuite.com/pages/digital-in-2019#accordion-148291" target="_blank"><strong>5.5% of page followers</strong></a> on average. On the other hand, a paid social strategy offers advertisement to a much larger pool of people, yet it requires a <strong>larger budget</strong> along with a certain degree of expertise.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Therefore, with a heightened pressure to <strong>demonstrate tangible business results and prove ROI</strong>, integrating your social strategy can help get the most out of your investment by using organic to <strong>strengthen relationships</strong> with existing customers and paid social to <strong>attract</strong> new ones.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Below our experts discuss the differences in way organic and paid social strategies are perceived, and <strong>how they support each other for better outcomes</strong>:</p> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"> <figure class="w-richtext-figure-type-video w-richtext-align-fullwidth" style="padding-bottom:56.33802816901409%" data-rt-type="video" data-rt-align="fullwidth" data-rt-max-width="" data-rt-max-height="56.33802816901409%" data-rt-dimensions="426:240" data-page-url="https://vimeo.com/829151349"><div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/829151349" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div></figure> </div> <figcaption>Workshop clip: experts discuss how organic and paid social strategies support each other for better outcomes.</figcaption> </figure> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/resources/playback-investing-in-social-building-your-integrated-paid-and-organic-strategy" target="_blank"><strong><em>WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP PLAYBACK</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal"><strong>Common misconceptions surrounding paid social marketing</strong></h3> <p class="gn-reveal">Organic and Paid social Media strategies <strong>serve vastly different purposes</strong>, with the former predominately used to establish brand presence and nurture relationships with existing customers, and the latter primarily aimed to <strong>target new audiences</strong> and drive conversions.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"You often hear those typical misconceptions – '<strong>paid social only works with big budgets</strong>', or 'paid social eliminates the need for organic' and is 'something that you can set up and forget about'. It's important for us to challenge those misconceptions and understand that paid social is <strong>effective for businesses of different sizes</strong> and can be complemented by organic activity – depending on what you want your wider social strategy to achieve. Whether that goal is <strong>brand awareness or lower funnel activity</strong>, you should aim to work towards that and decide what sort of tactics will get you there – more organic or paid efforts."<cite>Ines Casas · Social Director, eight&amp;four</cite></blockquote> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">02</span>Standout examples of an integrated social strategy</h2> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"You put content out across your own channels and expect it to work yet that reach ends up being quite limited organically and you then require <strong>additional support from a paid perspective</strong>. This sort of challenge was brought to us by one of our charity clients who weren't sure that their content is reaching the right audiences. We carried out an audit and found that <strong>out of the 32 posts</strong>, that they were seeding a month, <strong>it was reaching less than 2%</strong> of their own audiences, which is a huge <strong>waste of resource, time and budget</strong> that is put behind creating all this content. In turn, the posts that were supported with paid activity were the top performers in terms of engagement rates and an increase in followers of the back of it, this is a perfect example of how these <strong>two strategies are now inherently intertwined</strong>."<cite>Ines Casas · Social Director, eight&amp;four</cite></blockquote> <div class="gn-stats gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-stat"><span class="gn-stat__num">5.5<em>%</em></span><span class="gn-stat__label">Average reach of an organic Facebook post among page followers.</span></div> <div class="gn-stat"><span class="gn-stat__num">&lt;2<em>%</em></span><span class="gn-stat__label">Audience reached by a charity client's 32 organic posts per month before paid support.</span></div> </div> <h3 class="gn-reveal"><strong>Geo targeted audiences</strong></h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"I worked with a pharmacy direct who struggled with reaching their intended target audience through paid social. After a thorough analysis and understanding of who they wanted to target, we found <strong>the most value came from people over the age of 60</strong>. So, we looked at creating a strategy around that by specifically targeting retirement communities across the UK and <strong>geo locating in areas where there's a high propensity for those age groups</strong>, from this they're paid activity skyrocketed and they begin creating organic content that was based on the community challenges."<cite>Owen Farrington · Managing Partner, Krow Group</cite></blockquote> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/68fa124956048da817228a9d_64682084421de37f67092fad_ines.png" alt="Ines Casas, Social Director of eight&amp;four on challenging Paid Social misconceptions."></div> <figcaption>Ines Casas, Social Director of eight&amp;four on challenging Paid Social misconceptions.</figcaption> </figure> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">03</span>Challenges of implementing a hybrid approach to your social strategy</h2> <aside class="gn-quote gn-reveal"><q>That for me is the number one blocker for in-house teams and something that kills an integrated strategy.</q><cite>Owen Farrington · Managing Partner, Krow Group</cite></aside> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Owen</strong> says, "we've worked with lot of businesses where the ownership of paid social is kept separate to organic and there is no communication between those teams. This sometimes leads to a focus on <strong>achieving your paid strategy goals</strong> over your organic goals. That's when you need to make the case of bringing those things together by asking yourself:</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>What are we doing in terms of organic activity?</strong><br> <strong>How do we bring those efforts together?</strong><br> <strong>How are we managing reputation?</strong><br> <strong>How are we reinforcing brand measures versus consideration and conversion?</strong><br> <strong>And how are we making a piece of strategy come together?</strong></p> <p class="gn-reveal">Often, we see the challenge of brining that story together so all stakeholders are on the same page, that for me is the number one blocker for in-house teams and something that kills an integrated strategy."</p> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">04</span>Defining your approach – proving ROI and external support</h2> <h3 class="gn-reveal"><strong>Proving ROI of 'nuture' activity through organic social</strong></h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Your measurements must be <strong>meaningful to your business, and customers</strong>, or consumers at large. For organic you typically look at reach or impressions, but that out of context doesn't really mean much. You must aim to <strong>contextualise</strong> the funnel, and all the measurement components surrounding that, so you get a better understanding of your performance month on month <strong>in correspondence to that whole picture</strong>. For example, you begin to understand whether the impressions you're achieving is <strong>having an impact</strong> on what's happening lower end of the funnel. Again, if you just look at things individually, you can tell whatever story you want, it's your <strong>context of everything that matters</strong>."<cite>Owen Farrington · Managing Partner, Krow Group</cite></blockquote> <h3 class="gn-reveal"><strong>What to keep front-of-mind before investing in external support</strong></h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"I think it's highly valuable for in house teams to commission consultancy and training programmes. Thinking about an integrated strategy can feel super daunting, so seeking the assistance of an external party to <strong>carry out an audit</strong> and communicate what is it that needs to change to achieve your social strategy's end goal, that is something that we have seen <strong>works particularly well for clients that have limited budgets</strong>."<cite>Ines Casas · Social Director, eight&amp;four</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"I think one of the big things that's overlooked is an <strong>understanding of where your social strategy sits amongst other marketing efforts</strong>. Integrating as a business also matters, in terms of the role social plays in customer experience and other dependencies in the business. All these need to make sense for your full marketing and business objectives."<cite>Owen Farrington · Managing Partner, Krow Group</cite></blockquote> <aside class="gn-callout gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-callout__label">What this means for you</div> <h4>Key takeaways: building your hybrid social strategy</h4> <ul> <li><strong>Use organic to strengthen, paid to attract.</strong> Integrating your social strategy can help get the most out of your investment by using organic to <strong>strengthen relationships</strong> with existing customers and paid social to <strong>attract</strong> new ones.</li> <li><strong>Challenge the misconceptions.</strong> Paid social is <strong>effective for businesses of different sizes</strong> and can be complemented by organic activity, depending on what you want your wider social strategy to achieve.</li> <li><strong>Break down internal silos.</strong> Where ownership of paid social is kept separate to organic and there is no communication between those teams, this sometimes leads to a focus on <strong>achieving your paid strategy goals</strong> over your organic goals.</li> <li><strong>Contextualise your measurements.</strong> You must aim to <strong>contextualise</strong> the funnel, and all the measurement components surrounding that, so you get a better understanding of your performance month on month <strong>in correspondence to that whole picture</strong>.</li> <li><strong>Consider external support.</strong> Seeking the assistance of an external party to <strong>carry out an audit</strong> and communicate what is it that needs to change to achieve your social strategy's end goal <strong>works particularly well for clients that have limited budgets</strong>.</li> </ul> </aside> <p class="gn-reveal"><em>If you're investing in your social strategy this year, make sure you're getting the most from your time. The GO Network offer cost-free agency recommendations, pitch management, and more,</em> <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/get-in-touch" target="_blank"><strong><em>get in touch</em></strong></a> <em>to get started.</em></p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/investing-in-social-building-your-integrated-paid-and-organic-strategy" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Investing in Social - Building your Integrated Paid and Organic Strategy</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Balance awareness with lead generation using a hybrid social approach. 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