The Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid with Your Organic Content

Organic content: perhaps one of the more slippery topics in social media marketing. An old adage in marketing is that “half your budget is wasted every year - you just don’t know which half.” Organic content falls into that “mysterious” half – sort of. Sure, it’s harder to draw a direct line between organic content and sales, but if done well, your organic content is hardly a waste. You have the opportunity to use organic content to really engage with your audience, give them content they want to consume, and ultimately, keep your brand top-of-mind where it matters.

The companies we work with make the most out of organic content by avoiding a few common pitfalls:

1. Expecting organic content to do it all. Organic content alone is not going to lead to immediate sales - the goal of your organic content should be to engage your community and nurture your audience over time. The best, most successful organic content is executed alongside paid marketing campaigns that work to get those immediate results.

2. Focusing too much on vanity metrics. Follower count matters, but it’s not the be-all, end-all. (And you’d be surprised how many brands are just being followed by bots!) Focus on engagement rate. How many people are liking/commenting/sharing/saving your content when they’re exposed to it? This is a great indicator of building community: exactly what your organic content should be doing.

3. Creating content no one wants. Your content should be educational, entertaining, or both. If it’s not helpful or fun to watch, then don’t make it. No one wants to see a bunch of product photography content- just because it’s interesting to you doesn’t mean your audience cares.

4. Focusing on the wrong channels. Not every brand needs to have a TikTok channel. Before venturing onto a platform, ask yourself: how will my brand use this platform? How will we use it to communicate and connect with our audience and community? If you can’t answer that question, or your answer is “because everyone is doing it,” then it’s probably not a good platform fit. (That’s OK!)

5. Making it too hard. Organic content is important, but it’s not something you should spend all of your time brainstorming against. If you’re stuck on ideating, try to put your content topics into different “buckets” or categories. Some potential categories include:

   • Educational/Helpful

   • Entertaining/Trending

   • Product in the Wild

   • Seasonal Content

   • UGC (see Kredd for help here!)
     

Think you need help with organic content? Get in touch with us here.