Does Organic Reach Work in Trinidad and Tobago?

It's been well known in the industry that organic reach has been in continual decline. Especially, as apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have amped up their pay to play strategies over the years. Due to this many local brands have preferred to invest their time, money and strategy into paid advertising rather than organic.

The problem with this type of thinking is that ad campaigns rely heavily on the foundation laid by organic posts. Having consistent and creative posts make your ad campaigns more impactful, they both rely on the other for success. Thus, the two must work in tandem for success.

Here are some key ways to create an effective organic reach:

What is organic reach?

Organic reach is measured by the number of unique visitors that have seen a post or story in their feeds or browsed your account without a paid campaign to support it. It is essentially your posts that have reached audiences without being boosted or promoted through a specific platform.

Why has organic reach been in decline?

Facebook claims that organic reach has been in decline due to how much content is being uploaded and promoted on to the platform daily. They stated that this has been an increasing issue due to the competition for content on their platforms and most importantly, the competition for users' attention.

Facebook also says that the update to their newsfeed is also a component, claiming that the “News Feed is designed to show each person on Facebook the content that’s most relevant to them.” Meaning that each person's News Feed is different and caters more to their interests and tastes on the platform versus a chronological feed.

How can I increase my organic reach?

1. Tailor Your Content to the Platform

Social media does not have a one size fits all approach. In terms of the format of the content and the content itself. It is important to learn about each program, its image and video formats and tailor your content to suit. What works as a Facebook post is not necessarily what will work on TikTok. It is better to incorporate small changes to ensure that your content meets the standards of each platform, especially, in terms of image and video sizing.

It is equally important to learn about each platform’s algorithm. You will soon realize what content organically does well and what does not. You want to research: times and days that posts perform well; does the use of tags increase organic reach etc. An example of this is on Instagram where many food brands find that they get higher traction on Friday’s at lunchtime.

2. Post Consistently

Many businesses have a regular posting schedule. The aim is not to post everyday and overwhelm your followers but rather to post regularly with valuable content. Your page will not get continual reach and engagement through lots of posts that are meaningless.

Posting regularly will help the algorithm push your content to the top of users' feeds. Especially, if they organically perform well with your followers. The recommended amount of posting is 2-3 times a week, especially for newsfeed posts. Stories should be posted more frequently, so you should aim for 4-5 times a week.

3. Show People and Aim for Engagement

If you have had any experience on the backend of a social media page you would have noticed that posts with people’s faces tend to perform better than those without. This is a general standard across social media platforms. However, showing people is a great way to get organic reach and engagement.

You can also use tactics that are known to increase your post’s general performance. This includes:

- Asking questions

- Asking for reactions on a post (this works especially well on Facebook and LinkedIn)

- Collaborative posts

- Use of more tags (geotags and customer or business tags)

- Memes

These are just some of the ways that you can boost your reach without investing your money into the post.

What are some ways that you have increased your reach organically? Or do you have a reason to believe that organic reach just isn’t worth pursuing? Be a guest contributor or respond to this article! Send us an email at info@connectivepros.com