If managing social media sometimes feels like shouting into the void, you’re not alone.
You spend time writing a post, finding the right image, getting it approved and finally publishing it. Then you check back a few days later and wonder: Did anyone actually see this?
It’s a common frustration, especially for marketing leaders already juggling product promotions, website updates, emails, events and a dozen other priorities. And it often leads to a bigger question: Should we keep focusing on social media posting, or would our time and budget be better spent on social media advertising?
The answer isn’t necessarily one or the other. Posting and advertising do different jobs, and understanding those differences can help you get much more from both.
What Organic Social Media Posting Does Best
Think of your organic social presence as the ongoing conversation your organization has with its community.
That might mean celebrating a longtime employee, sharing photos from a local event, offering a quick educational tip or highlighting a customer success story.
Consistent organic social media helps people get to know your organization. It gives your brand a personality, keeps you visible and creates opportunities to strengthen relationships with the people who already know you. The purpose of every post is not necessarily to generate a lead.
Posting is especially valuable for:
- Building trust and credibility
- Staying top of mind
- Sharing your organization’s story
- Engaging current customers, members, patients, students, etc.
- Highlighting community involvement and company culture
But organic posting has a limitation: Just because you have 5,000 followers doesn’t mean all 5,000 people will see your latest post. And if you want to reach people who aren’t already connected to your organization, posting alone can only take you so far.
That’s where advertising enters the picture.
When Social Media Advertising Makes Sense
Social media advertising is less about maintaining the conversation and more about putting a specific message in front of a specific audience.
Suppose your business is offering an impressive promotion. You could create an organic Facebook post about it, and you probably should. But your audience would largely consist of people who already follow your page.
With a paid campaign, you can expand beyond that existing audience and put the promotion in front of more potential customers in your market.
The same principle applies regardless of the specific products and services offered by your business. When there’s a defined audience and a measurable action you want people to take, paid social media advertising can extend your reach.
Boosting a Post vs. Running a Paid Ad Campaign
One common point of confusion is the “Boost Post” button. Boosting puts money behind an existing organic post, so yes, it is paid promotion. But it is a simplified option launched from your page or post, not the same as building a campaign in Meta Ads Manager.
That difference matters. Ads Manager gives marketers much more control over campaign objectives, audience targeting, placements, creative variations, budgets and optimization.
A boost can be useful when your main goal is simply to extend the reach or engagement of a strong organic post. But if you’re trying to generate applications, leads, website conversions or another measurable business result, a strategically built ad campaign is usually the better tool.
Put simply: boosting helps more people see a post. Paid advertising gives you a campaign built around a goal.
In particular, advertising is useful for goals like:
- Promoting compelling offers or products
- Reaching prospects
- Driving website traffic
- Generating leads, applications or appointments
- Expanding into new markets or audiences
And unlike an organic post, paid campaigns give you more control over whom you reach, how much you spend and what results you can measure.
Posting or Advertising? Start With the Goal.
This is where organizations sometimes get stuck.
The question shouldn’t really be, “Should we post or advertise?”
A better question is, “What are we trying to accomplish?”
If you want your organization to feel active, familiar and connected to its community, consistent posting matters. If you need to put a specific promotion in front of new prospects in your service area, advertising probably deserves a role.
And sometimes the best answer is both.
Imagine a business preparing to open a new physical location. Organic posts could introduce the team, show construction progress and share behind-the-scenes photos leading up to opening day. Paid social ads could simultaneously target prospective customers around the new location.
Same campaign. Two different jobs.
Make Social Media Work Harder, Not Just Take More Time
Of course, knowing what you should be doing and finding the time to do it are two different things.
A strong social media strategy requires planning, writing, designing, targeting, monitoring and optimizing. For a marketing team that already has a full plate, it’s easy for social media to become something you squeeze in whenever there’s time.
That usually isn’t a recipe for great results.
Instead, take a closer look at what your organization is currently doing. Are you posting consistently? Are those posts aligned with your brand and goals? Are you using paid campaigns when you need to reach beyond your existing audience? Most importantly, is your social strategy actually supporting your larger marketing objectives?
If you’re not sure, image.works can help. Our free Digital Marketing Assessment takes a closer look at your current digital efforts, identifies opportunities and helps uncover where your marketing could be working harder.
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all it takes to figure out your next move.