Boosting Organic Content: Should You Do It?

The average number of people who see an organic post on any platform is low. It’s estimated that only around one in twenty fans, or 5.2%, will see the average organic post on a Facebook page that’s not promoted. 

Despite its relatively low reach, creating organic social content is still essential for brands’ social media and broader advertising strategies. 

Posting organic content helps maintain a brand’s presence and helps build relationships and trust with customers and followers. But the competition for organic reach is growing, and brands are increasingly looking for different ways to increase the reach of their organic posts and content. 

A popular way of increasing the reach of organic content is to ‘boost’ social media posts. In this article, taking advice from an expert social media marketing agency, we’ll look at whether boosting social posts is worth it and the impact it can have.

What does ‘boosting’ a post mean?

Boosting a post on social media means paying the social media platform you’re posting to, e.g. Facebook, to amplify one of your posts to reach more of your followers and increase the posts reach to more of the targeted audience outside of your immediate followers. 

Boost posts are different from traditional social media ads as they tend to be more limited in certain customised settings such as ad placement and audience targeting. 

Any post that is ‘boosted’ will show up as a ‘sponsored’ post on your audience’s feed to indicate that you’ve paid to promote the post. 

What posts should you boost?

While you can boost any post on social media, it’s recommended to boost a post that has already performed well as an organic post. If a post has performed well organically, there’s a strong likelihood that it will also perform well as a boosted post, and the posts reach will be increased. Boosted posts that do well tend to contain an eye-catching image with little to no text or a video.

When you’re thinking of promoting a post, make sure you consider the following: 

What do you want to reach? – Make sure you spend some time thinking about your target audience and who you want the post to reach. 

What is your budget? – Pick how much you want to invest in boosting a post. If you’re just getting started or boosting a post for the first time, start with a smaller budget. Measure your results and increase your allocated budget if you start to see success.

How long do you want to boost the post for? – When you’re boosting a post, you’ll need to think about the length of time you want to boost it for. Typically the length of time a post will boost depends on the budget you allocate to the post. 

Pros of boosting posts

You can reach more of your target audience and boost brand awareness – Boosting a post will help you reach more of your followers, but your posts reach will also be expanded beyond those who’ve immediately liked your page. 

Most social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, have built-in targeting options that you can select and configure to ensure the post you’re promoting reaches people who are most likely to be interested in what you’re offering.

Boosting posts are inexpensive – The amount you spend on boosting a social media post doesn’t need to be a lot. It’s easy to get started with a budget of $5 – $10 per day. This allows you to get the hang of boosting posts and allows you to see whether you see results without spending a large chunk of your budget. 

Easy access to analytics – Each major social media platform will give you access to easy to ready analytics so you can monitor how your boosted post is performing. These analytics will typically show you how many engagements your post has received, the reach of your post, the amount you’ve spent and how much time your campaign has left to run based on your current spend. 

Cons of boosting posts

Not an ideal long-term strategy – While boosting posts can be an effective short-term strategy, it’s not always the best long term strategy. Boosting posts all over the place without a strategy can be a waste of money and resources. To avoid this happening, have your social boost posts planned as part of your broader marketing strategy. 

Limited targeting and analytics –  Most social media platforms don’t give you access to their full advertising platforms when you boost a post. This can limit your reach, particularly if you have a small target market or want to gain a deeper understanding of advertising analytics. 

Your audience will know you’ve paid to promote your posts – When you boost a post, our audience will know that you’ve paid to boost the post. On most social media platforms, this indicates through a ‘sponsored’ notification next to your post. While this may not be a huge deal, it can lead to boosted posts not looking as authentic as posts that have performed well organically. 

Should you boost your posts?

Boosting your social media posts is an inexpensive way to improve your brand awareness and increase your follower count and engagement on social media. While you’re unlikely to see dramatic business growth by boosting posts alone, it’s a good tactic to use as part of a broader advertising strategy or as a way to get more familiar with social media advertising platforms before launching other paid advertising campaigns. 

If you’re looking for further guidance on whether social media post boosting is a tactic that your business can benefit from, then don’t hesitate to contact a professional social media marketing agency. 

A reputable agency will be able to examine your existing social media activity, recommend any ‘boostworthy’ posts and discuss, plan and execute your wider social media marketing strategy.