One of the greatest benefits of social media marketing is the ability to extend your marketing reach to others outside your company’s existing database list. Through social media you can communicate with customers, fans (potential customers), interest groups, industry associates and affiliates, friends and family (and friends of friends…), and other businesses alike.

However, in the fast-paced world of social media, with millions of users vying for attention across multiple platforms, the sad truth is that a majority of your social media posts are going to be missed by your target audience.

There are several things at play here: each platform’s unique algorithms, your follower/fan base and their reach, the dates and times you post, how you post, paid promotions, hashtags used, images verses links verses videos, and so much more.

Add to all that the fact that each platform is continually refining the way they display (and monetize) social media feeds – especially from brands instead of individuals – it’s no wonder so many businesses get frustrated with their social media marketing efforts.

The best way to get value out of your organic social media marketing efforts is to understand how each platform’s unique feed and search display works, to ensure your posts will garner as much reach as possible. Similar to Google’s search engine “PageRank”, “EdgeRank” algorithms are used by social media sites to determine relevancy of posts for display in consumer feeds. Here’s a great article by SmartInsights about EdgeRank and social network algorithms.

Sadly, it’s also becoming almost a requirement to at least budget for some sort of paid advertising in order to extend your reach on most social media sites.

If you have better things to do than trying to learn and keep up with all the various social media algorithms and protocols for ranking in social media feeds, perhaps it’s time to consider hiring a marketing firm to manage your social media marketing for you. Here’s an article from our archives about the pros and cons of Outsourcing Your Social Media Postings.

Please contact us if you’d like to discuss how BRANDgfx can assist your social media marketing efforts.

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