A couple of weeks ago, Ned & I celebrated our 4th Business Birthday. As with any business milestone, you tend to reflect on your journey so far and all the changes that you’ve witnessed, navigated and survived. One thing I always think about is how much organic social media has changed over the past 4 years. What worked back in 2019 – has 100% changed and evolved too. 

So what exactly IS working in organic social media right now? 

In this episode of the How I Do Content Podcast, I chatted to Maddison Danforth who is an organic digital marketing specialist and founder of Boho Social.

Let me officially introduce you to Maddison Danforth

Maddison has a background spanning over 10 years in communications and marketing, and is well and truly experienced in helping small business owners achieve their marketing goals. She’s a Dumbledore-level Wizard when it comes to helping you show up confidently & grow your business with social media. We actually share the same biz birthday, so I’ve witnessed her showcase this expertise for 4 years.

In this episode, we chat about all things social media – what’s working right now and how you can effectively use social media to connect with your community and magnetise dream clients.

So let’s dive in.

Things You’ll Learn in This Episode of How I Do Content

• How the landscape of organic digital marketing has evolved over the past decade
• The essential components of organic marketing that perform well AND result in clients or customers 
• What’s actually working on social media right now 
• Maddison’s recommendations for what you should focus on when creating content for social media

TL;DL version:

The Key Elements of a Successful Organic Social Media Strategy in 2023

Social media has changed a lot over the past 10 years – especially if you’re from the Tumblr/Myspace generation like us. The biggest shift we’ve seen in the landscape has been the transition from purely a social platform to an impactful business marketing platform.  

Compared to the more ‘traditional’ marketing channels like print and media, social media is a cost-effective and accessible marketing tool. Traditional channels are capital-heavy without being able to measure return on investment (ROI). Social media is virtually free but can still have a huge marketing reach. It not only allows businesses to affordably get the word out, but it also means businesses can be more targeted in their content strategy with defined ROI and results data available.

Variety is the key for organic social media content

Different kinds of content will tap into different business goals. Your social media posts don’t always have to be purely about making sales. Reach and audience-building posts play an important role in good content strategy, too.

Examples of social media post types:

1. Engagement posts

Engagement posts build an audience and brand awareness. Memes work really well for this – memes are our love language! And they are great for increasing reach and engagement. 

2. Promotional posts

Remember, it’s totally OKAY to sell on social media. Make sure you’re including posts talking about your product or service, and letting your audience know how you can help them.

What ratio of promo vs. engagement posts should I have on my feed?

There’s no perfect formula for how many promotional posts vs. engagement posts you should publish on your feed. It’s a common misconception by small business owners that they’ll somehow ‘annoy’ their followers by promoting their products or services all the time. For perspective, think about any program you watch on free-to-air TV. How often will you see the same ad played throughout one show or movie? They know repetition is key in marketing. Your audience won’t see every single sales post on their feed and even if they did – often your potential customers will need multiple nudges reminding them to purchase. 

Organic vs. Paid social media marketing: Which is better?

In a nutshell, both! Organic and paid social media marketing are besties.  They work best when implemented well, together.

A common myth is that organic social media marketing is dead. Organic posting strategy is always evolving and changing but never dead. 

In fact, having a good organic social media strategy will boost your paid marketing efforts and get you more bang for your business bucks. Think about if you’ve ever clicked on an ad on socials. If you head over to the business’s profile only to see irrelevant or old content, it affects the action you’ll take on that ad. Whereas if their profile shows regularly updated, relevant content – it will increase your likelihood of making a purchase decision.  

Think of a content strategy like a roadmap. It helps you get to where you want to go (i.e. your business goals). If you haven’t identified a content strategy with goals for your social media, it makes it hard to know not only what to post but whether your posting is working.   

Good social media strategy starts with business goals

Remember, every business will have different goals. Goals are something personal and unique to every person and brand. If you’re not sure what yours are, spend time brainstorming and identifying your goals instead of copying and pasting those of another business. 

It’s totally normal for your goals and strategy to change and evolve through your business journey. For example, a business may be focusing on 1:1 services in the early stages of its business journey. As they grow, they may scale to a one-to-many model, and so their content strategy will change along with this.

How to show up online when you hate being on camera

There is no one way to ‘show up’ online. You can always create content that feels aligned for you and your business, introvert or not. This especially applies to video content. You don’t have to dance in TikToks or Instagram Reels if you don’t want to!

Maddison recommends investing in quality professional photography for your business. It will make posting on social media a hundred times easier for business owners who feel more introverted or shy. Having a stash of high-quality photos gives you a stream of content to confidently use in your posts and elevate your brand to new heights.

When we lean into what we love and our personality, the content feels more fun and easier to create. And when content feels easier to create, it means we’ll be more consistent. And if there’s something we know about content strategy, it’s that consistency is key to seeing meaningful results.    

Ask your audience what content they enjoy consuming

Work smarter, not harder when it comes to your social media content. Reaching out to your followers to find out what they most enjoy seeing from you helps you to create more targeted, engaging posts and stories. Sometimes our followers enjoy our simple, no-frills content, which means you can save time creating a technically perfect piece of content that receives minimal reach.

4 tips for nailing your organic social media strategy in 2023

1. Stop ‘fluff posting’

When creating your social media posts, there are two questions you should ask yourself:

• Will this help me reach my goals?
• Is this valuable to my audience?

Every piece of content you publish into the world should provide value and be able to stand alone. Stop posting only to match your aesthetically-pleasing Instagram grid or because it looks a certain way (a.k.a fluff posting). You don’t need to do this anymore! This is why having a strategy is so important – you want the time you spend on creating posts to have an impact.

2. Know your audience

There’s a saying, ‘If you market to everyone, you’re marketing to no one’.

When starting out with your social media marketing, it’s so important to know who you’re *actually* marketing to. A mind map is a helpful tool for eliciting information about your target market. Put your ideal customer in the centre and write down all the things about them in the surrounding space. 

Your analytics are helpful here too. For example, Maddison noticed in her analytics that her posts featuring the colour blue were the most popular. She stopped posting cream-coloured graphics on her feed and noticed an instant increase in engagement!

3. Double down on content that works

Look at your analytics to see what your audience loves, and then go all in and do more of it. Don’t be afraid to speak about the same topics/subjects. Many small business owners feel they are being repetitive but in fact, speaking about the same topics makes you a go-to person in your niche.  

4. Be authentic and have fun with your content

Don’t be afraid to go full wizard. If you’re not having fun with your content, there’s a good chance you’re not injecting enough of what you love and what makes you unique into it. Traditionally businesses had to be professional and polished. These days, we can let our unique personalities and interests shine through. For example, Maddi’s boho and retro branding and Tahryn’s love of all things Harry Potter are the things that are unique and make their brands memorable.

Tip: If your mum/dad/brother/partner/friend isn’t your ideal client, don’t take their opinions as fact. 

Mindset is crucial in a successful content strategy

It’s all well and good to have a solid content strategy, but if you don’t believe you are capable of reaching your goals, it will only get you so far. Telling yourself ‘No one wants to see this/hear this/read this…’ will massively hold you back in achieving your business goals. The potential reach on social media is vast – which means there’s a very good chance you’ll find your people, you just have to be confident to put yourself out there so you can find them!

Connect with Maddison Danforth

• Join the Nail the ‘Gram waitlist https://www.bohosocial.com.au/nail-the-gram-waitlist
• Follow Maddison on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/boho.social/ 
  
• Find out more at https://www.bohosocial.com.au/ 

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