Spending money to make money – sponsored social media

We all know the expression that you have to spend money to make money. A great example of this is in fact sponsored social media. Targeted campaigns can be an efficient and cost-effective way of achieving results.

Organic vs paid.

Let’s clear up some terms quickly, organic simply means for free. It is your bread and butter, everyday post. You login, type what you want, add a picture and post. However, with anything organic, you are left at the mercy of the algorithm. Even the most well thought out and creative post can fall flat on occasion due to the ups and downs of social media.  .

Paid is also quite simple to understand, you pay for your post. However, this process needs a bit more thought to make sure you maximise your result.

You must define your audience, who do you want to see your post? Where are they located? When should they see it, for how long and how many times? These are all the things you need to consider and plan for when looking at paid social media.

This level of detail and targeting is what makes paid for content so impactful when used effectively.

The results

This is where paid content really comes into it own and why you and your brand shouldn’t be afraid of targeted spending when it comes to social media.

Due to the incredibly focused nature of social media, the results you get back at the end of it can hold much more value. If you’ve selected your audience correctly and properly identified your customer targets, you’ll see much better returns on engagement with your posts. You’re likely to see increased link clicks and hopefully a spike in followers, as well as increases in engagement and impressions across your organic content.

Having said this, organic content is great, I should make that very clear. Organic campaigns and posts are the lifeblood of social media and as cheesy as it sounds, they put the social in social media. But if we are talking about getting results then we would always recommend looking towards an element of paid.

Being able to target your audience is key, for example you can start to filter out the groups who are interested in your brand and company but have no interest in buying. You can also target your audience geographically and select by their interests, tailoring your content to their specific interests. In addition, you can filter out certain job roles, making sure you’re only seen by the decision makers and experts in your field.

All of this means every link click is 10x more valuable than an organic click, you’re paying to ensure your product or service is in front of the person who can make a decision.

The best approach

As we have already suggested, the best approach for social media is a joined up one that combines both paid and organic posts. Follow this, with a realistic and targeted budget as part of your social media plan and you will get the results you are looking for.

So, to help in maximising results, here are some tips to help you balance your social channels:

• Post frequently. You shouldn’t shy away from talking about yourself and the work you do. Make yourself loud and give your followers regular content that will interest them.
• Use your content and express your company’s personality. Share your insight and integrate with your wider PR and marketing, sharing the news, insight and information that exists across your business.
• Plan your paid campaigns carefully. Choose the product/service carefully and work on your target audience. Don’t worry about getting too specific. Use targeting to your advantage
• Make sure your organic and paid campaigns work in tandem. Your organic content should reflect your brands and your interests. Make it personal and make sure customers can see who you are. Then you can go for the hard sell with your paid for campaigns.

And of course if you’d like to chat more about how we can help you manage your social media and achieve results, get in touch here or read more about our previous work.