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In this social media era, marketers and social media managers tend to chase after one thing: organic reach. This is the magical number that shows how many people saw your post without you paying a single cent. However, the million-dollar question that millions have been wondering about is, “If you hit that boost post button, is it still organic? Or did you just cross over to the land of paid reach?” This is what we will uncover in this guide, and we will delve into the layers of this topic to quench curiosities.
What Makes Reach “Organic”?
It is safe to compare organic reach with your birthday party. The connection? Having people show up just because they want to be there and not because you’re bribing them with free pizza and unlimited buckets of fries. Organic reach is your content’s ability to naturally appear in people’s feeds. That is thanks to relevance, engagement, and the blessings of abiding by the algorithm’s rules.
Enter the Boost Button
Would clicking the boost button mean that your reach is not organic anymore? Actually no. Boosting a post is basically as if you’re slipping a tip to the algorithm to let more people in on your post. You’re still using your original content, but now you’re paying for extra visibility. You know when you buy organic strawberries that got flown in from another continent? Still tasty, still strawberries, but they are not exactly homegrown. It is a hybrid way of exposing your content to people from your niche and broadening your circle.
Does Boosting “Kill” Organic Authenticity?
My answer would be a direct “not necessarily.” Let’s say you have a café and you posted a BTS video of your new seasonal drink. It’s doing well on its own and attracting lots of likes, shares, and comments. You then decide to boost it for a week in order to reach more coffee lovers. The engagement that your post got before you boosted it is 100% organic. Yes, anything after the boost is what we technically call paid reach. However, here’s the twist. If new people see it from your boost and then they share it, the new shares you receive can generate fresh organic reach. So yes, boosting can indirectly contribute to growing your organic reach.
When Boosting Makes Sense
A lot of people may perceive boosting as a betrayal for being authentic or kind of cheating. However, marketing-wise, it is a strategy. Think of it as giving your best-performing post the caffeine boost it needs to thrive. If your post is one that is already starting conversations, boosting it will help you break through the current market noise. Furthermore, it will help you reach out to audiences from your niche market. The key here is moderation. Avoid boosting too often in order not to fall under the risk of relying on paid reach to be the crutch you need to reach more people.
The Final Verdict
Boosting doesn’t necessarily erase your organic reach. It is the cherry you add on top of the icing, the paid layer on top. The trick here is to first create content that has the capability of standing on its own two feet. Only then can you boost strategically in order to maximize your social media presence and impact. To conclude this, organic is real, and boosting can be used as the secret marketing seasoning. However, you need to be careful not to dump in the whole jar.
