Social media is much more than entertainment. In fact, for many, it’s a source of passive income.
Content creators leverage social media to earn from followers. At the same time, brands leverage it to earn via customers.
But there’s a common link that drives both purposes– social media traffic.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to increase organic traffic on social media.
What Is Organic Social Media Traffic?
Organic social media traffic means the total number of people who see your post and content without any paid distribution. These people reach your content via organic searches on different platforms. It’s the same way Google organic traffic works.
Why Has Organic Social Media Traffic Fallen Drastically Over the Years?
The average reach of an organic Facebook post is around 5%, and it’s been that way for a long time.
Not only Facebook but also other social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn have been experiencing a plummet in organic traffic.
So, if it’s happening everywhere, there must be some reason behind it.
Well, there are several reasons why there’s a drastic decline in organic traffic on social media:
- Pay-to-Play Model: Social media platforms have increasingly moved towards a pay-to-play model, where businesses must pay to promote content and reach their audience.
- Algorithm Changes: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have changed their algorithms to prioritize engaging content and drop everything else.
- Increased Competition: As more businesses have joined social media, the competition for attention has increased, making it harder for individuals to stand out and gain organic traffic.
- SEO Changes: Social media platforms have adopted several changes, including new SEO practices. It works by putting your content to a handful of your followers, and the post is only promoted further if it gets proper attention from them.
Down the lane, we have curated a list of 10 proven ways to increase organic traffic on social media.
1. Create Valuable and Shareable Content
There’s a pool of content out there. And so, to attract your audience, you need to ensure that your content adds ‘value’ to its consumers.
Your organic reach and traffic will shoot up as you produce content that resonates with your audience, and they prefer sharing it with their network rather than just dropping a like.
Having said that, it’s also important to focus on relevant platforms to promote your social media posts. For instance, what works on LinkedIn may be of little value to the Instagram audience.
That’s why defining a strategy as which platform to target depending on your audience and industry helps a great deal to ramp up your organic traffic.
2. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
Optimizing your social media profiles for algorithms can help increase your organic social media traffic. The process involves:
- Including relevant keywords in your profile bio
- Adding Description
- Deciding on a brand colour palette
Doing so makes your profile appealing and more likely to appear in search results when users search for those keywords.
Moreover, keeping your posts in line with these encourages more engagement from your followers.
3. Post Engaging Content
Social media algorithms reward highly engaging content. And more engagement is likelier to bring more organic traffic on social media.
So, post evergreen content which provides true value to your audience, solves their problem or entertains them. The bottom line is to do anything but not be boring or negative.
Best of all, respond to comments and messages from your followers, ask questions, and create polls to encourage interaction.
You’ll see the change slowly, for good.
4. Don’t Post Daily, But Be Consistent
Sure, don’t publish every day. You can feel undue pressure to provide new content every day.
It’s exhausting and a bad decision indeed.
Choose quality over quantity as an alternative.
Maintain a regular posting schedule. Some experts suggest you post twice daily, but that varies with platforms and your experimental will.
Maintaining audience engagement through regular and strategic posting also helps to increase your organic visibility on social media networks.
5. Focus on the Target Audience
You can improve your visibility and grow your organic presence by including pertinent and targeted hashtags in your postings.
Adapting your posts for your intended audience is the plan. If not, you risk being lost in the social media abyss that goes nowhere.
By tailoring your pieces to a particular audience, you enhance readers’ chances to interact with them and reward them with more organic potential.
6. Post More Video Content
Social media users are increasingly consuming video material, which can boost interaction and sharing. They are more interesting and effective at grabbing consumers’ attention than text or images alone.
As a result, think about producing brief videos that highlight your goods or services or lengthier videos that offer exciting or instructional content.
Videos are more likely to turn up in search results since search engines prefer video material.
Also,
- Inserting pertinent keywords in the title
- Description
- Tags of your videos
These will help optimize your SEO content and increase the natural traffic to your social media posts.
7. Connect With People
According to a study, people are 38% more likely to engage with posts that have photos with faces.
Yes, that’s the secret hack to connect with people.
Use selfies and photos in your posts, as users trust people more than products and services. This sparks higher engagement, eventually bringing more organic traffic to your social media posts.
8. Cross-Platform Promotion
Cross-platform promotions are a great way to reach a wider audience.
As a result, your account may receive more likes, shares, and followers, which may improve your overall organic social media traffic.
Also, it enhances the authority and credibility of your account.
9. Posting User Generated Content
User-generated content is more engaging than branded content because customers create it from their experiences and opinions and as a part of their loyalty.
When you share UGC on your social media profiles, it encourages others to create and share their content about your posts.
Another positive impact of creating user-generated content is it helps to build trust and credibility with your audience.
And as a result, it leads to a higher ROI and better organic traffic over time.
10. Posting At The Right Time
Everyone says to post when everyone is online. It’s rather a misconception, and you should avoid that.
When you post with everyone else, there’s a low chance of reaching your audience as it might get lost in the tornado of social media posts people are seeing.
Instead, be strategic about your posting time.
Post during non-peak hours. You’re less likely to get drowned in the content noise.
Research when your target audience is active, and when others are posting so you can avoid the trap.
That’s how you can boost your organic attendance on social media just by posting at the right time.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, increasing organic traffic on social media calls for a systematic approach that combines methods like:
- Producing high-quality content
- Utilizing pertinent hashtags
- Interacting with your audience
- Cross-platform promotions
- Leveraging User-generated content
These strategies will help you become more visible on social media, establish credibility with your audience, and eventually increase traffic to your profiles.
However, do remember that social media algorithms are continuously evolving, so it’s critical to keep up with the most recent trends and best practices to continue seeing successful outcomes.
