Everyone’s an entrepreneur nowadays. You won’t believe it, but I am a proud owner of multiple business ventures that you haven’t heard of.
Top 3 items on every start-up’s to-do list:
- Create a Facebook page
- Register an Instagram account
- Take nice pictures
Yea, these are great baby steps if you’re looking to establish digital presence. But no, it’s not going to magically generate profit. Just because everyone’s raving about “digital transformation” doesn’t mean checking these 3 items will bestow you the golden ticket to business growth online.
Go Beyond Organic Reach
Created a Facebook page? Good job! Now what? 0 fans, 0 followers, 0 traction – what exactly were you expecting when you created that Facebook page?
According to Brandastic, over 60 million businesses have a Facebook page as of 2020. In other words, you face extremely stiff global competition the moment you join Facebook. How does your brand stand out from your competitors? If your strategy is posting nice pictures, I have some bad news for you.
In the same report by Brandastic, less than 35% of page followers actually receive content organically from Facebook pages they follow. Regardless of how well your content creation is, organic reach is very limited. In another report by Hootsuite, the average engagement rate for Facebook posts is 0.18%.
It’s not surprising that businesses choose to register for an Instagram account alongside a Facebook page. It doesn’t hurt to have more than one social platform, or does it?
Are you insta-worthy?
Unlike Facebook, the uniqueness of Instagram is the ability for audiences to consume bite-size content quickly. In other words, content on Instagram moves fast and is highly dynamic. Got a trend today? You better be ready to hop on the bandwagon if you want to join the conversation. If you manage your Instagram account the same way you do for Facebook, you can expect outreach and engagement rates to be very low.
As a general rule of thumb, you should be prepared to have sufficient content to post at least once a day. According to Hootsuite, the average Instagram business account posts at least once per day. Depending on the industry, engagement is highest for photo posts (1.03%), followed by carousel posts (0.86%) and video posts (0.75%).
Given the limited efficiency of using social media platforms organically, your business needs to be clear of the objectives of going digital. If you’re looking to establish a digital presence with little priority for outreach and engagement with audiences, organic marketing is absolutely fine. However, if you’re looking to grow your business and stand out among competitors, paid social media tactics is definitely something you should be considering.
To sum it up, standing out from competitors on social media is a no small feat. Being on social platforms is competing in a global and saturated market. Organic marketing strategy, while it helps minimise costs, it can put your brand at risk of being “invisible” among market players.
