To answer the question straight away; no, organic reach is not dead, but it is no longer the main source of success for generating sales on social media for many businesses. And marketing strategists are now wondering whether they should invest valuable time and resources on new social media tactics. This article will explain why and how organic social media has been overtaken in recent years, and what businesses can do to combat this and shape their social media strategies for the future.

The facts

Firstly, the current truths of the social media domain are that businesses are investing more time and money on targeted social media ads, and as a consequence there is a reduction in engagement from organic content. Both Facebook and Instagram have reported that the percentage of users seeing a particular post has reduced significantly in recent years, and at the same time, social media ad spending has increased, with projections suggesting an 18.9% increase in 2025, with that annual growth expected to continue.

What is organic social media content?

Organic social media content is, as you might expect, any posts that occur naturally. For a business, this would be free social media content they post themselves, such as blog articles, videos, infographics, humorous clips, news items or how-to guides. This kind of content is ideal for businesses with a small or non-existent social media budget, but it gives them total control, increases brand awareness and enables them to shape content to appeal to a target audience that is out there somewhere.

However, it is not easy to achieve organic reach with organic content. It requires skills, time and effort to hit the sweet spot of an engaging post that is seen by the right people, and there could be lots of fails before you meet success.

What is paid-for social media content?

This is content that a business pays to be published on a platform, and is essentially adverts that are posted on social media channels in a crafted and targeted way to achieve maximum exposure. A business will pay money to target a precise demographic and blend an ad to appeal to their social media behaviour. These ads can promote brands, products and services and are great for promotions and events. Paid content will attract new followers who otherwise wouldn’t have seen your organic content. It will drive website traffic in the same way and will therefore generate leads and sales. Importantly, it will also boost any organic content that people come across on their journey through discovering your brand.

Why is organic reach reducing?

One word; algorithms. A word that makes many people shudder, but which has shaped the current social media realm. This was triggered when Facebook decided to change people’s personal feed from posts made by their friends and their ‘liked’ pages, to a news feed of assorted content purely based on your previous interactions, i.e. things you had commented on, read, zoomed in on, liked or shared. From there your feed was shaped seemingly forever, and Facebook prioritised what was relevant to you, rather than a chronological feed of posts you expected or what was popular organically.

This seismic move made brands compete harder for your attention, and algorithms were tweaked and tweaked until there were so many digital variables being assessed that platforms were effectively predicting what you wanted to see. Instagram and several other platforms now order their feeds by relevancy rather than chronological order, and algorithms now position promotional content higher than organic content. Unfortunately, social media is big business and user satisfaction is no longer high priority.

How to manage a social media strategy for the future

It is therefore wrong to say organic reach is dead, but it is heading that way. Although it is important to note that strong, insightful and valuable content will always find a way to appeal to the right people, and enough people still want it. Businesses just have to balance the time and effort of producing it with the potential rewards. Increasingly, organic reach will be limited to the leaders in their field, those who already have the brand exposure, and it will become increasingly hard for start-ups and those looking to grow their brand to compete, at least organically.

On a more positive note, different social media platforms offer different user experiences, which in turn will suit different target audiences, and therefore this can shape your social media content strategy. You need to find the platform that suits your business/audience/brand the best and at the same time consider the benefits of paid-for social media, as these are likely to exceed what can be achieved through organic reach alone, purely because of how the major social media platforms are now modelled.

A social media marketing strategy for the future should therefore consider these principles:

• Paid-for content should become a central part of your social media strategy, not just something you consider now and again.
• But if organic reach still works for you, take a more targeted approach.
• This means, work on target audiences, find the right platform and leverage its benefits, focus on quality content and how to create something valuable.

In conclusion, organic reach is still a viable social media marketing concept, but more than ever you need to know what you are doing, and to properly feel the benefits, organic social media should be balanced with paid-for content.

If you want to learn more about social media management and how to create a social media strategy, contact our team at Bee Social Marketing.