In the early days it was easy to gain social media followers but just posting a blog. But these days using some digital ads or paid social options are essential for aiming a message to the right audience and at the right time.
Traffic from social media is certainly a positive signal of building awareness of your business online. It is an indicator of people sharing your site and consequently your business.
However, building traffic solely from social media postings limits the exposure of the message. Using ads strategically can aim your message to the right audience and provide an immediate response to events that need an extra effort to attract attention.
First, organic reach - the metric that connotes how far a post is going - is valuable when people are engaged. And there is value in sharing. But relying solely on organic reach (sharing) haphazardly subjects the post to a platform algorithm. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms periodically change the signals that tell their algorithms what post is relevant to a given user. When a platform changes its algorithm to a factor that diminishes organic traffic, it can diminish how far the post is exposed.
Second, ads can be tailored to your ideal audience and where they are in the buyer’s journey. An ad that speaks to building awareness will highlight a product or service differently than that for buyers who are in a decision phase.
Moreover, social ads can be earmarked by location, gender, and customer interest, leading to visitor activity that reflects your desired audience for in-depth engagement at your site. This is a bit different from just liking a post and sharing it.
So while there is nothing wrong with encouraging shares on social media post as a part of a comprehensive plan, relying solely on social media posting is not a long term way to build customer interest and sales.
In short, do not ignore other marketing media for bringing your product, service, or site to everyone’s attention. Ensure that you understand how your social efforts influences your customer’s path to purchase. Knowing the role your social media has can help you decide how to best plan your budget. You can confirm how effective your campaigns are in a campaign report within an analytics solution.
