Yoda dropped this truth bomb in 1980. Turns out he was talking about social media.
The Salty Marketer is an opinion column by Todd Morris, VP Brand + Creative at MPP.
A Socialinsider study of 872,075 brand posts found average organic reach of 3.2% on Instagram and 1.25% on Facebook, and small accounts reach a bigger share of their followers than big ones. Stop copying big brands. Answer real customer questions in your own voice, then move followers somewhere you own.
Our friends over at Socialinsider did some serious number crunching recently. 872,000 brand posts to be exact. The terrible news? Average reach is way way down.
Hey Meta! How about for the your next "On this day" post in my feed you give me back the organic reach from a few years ago? Fat chance.
With those sorts of awful numbers, you'd think that having a huge following would be the move. Spoiler alert: It isn't.
Feeds are chock full of stock photos and brand voices that read like a press release. (ick). Gotta have those Reels because some dude somewhere said that Reels are the move and the algorithm likes video.
Carousels actually outperformed Reels on reach. Plain images were right behind Reels by .1%.
Flavor Flav said it and I'm inclined to agree - "don't believe the hype!"
Small isn't the problem. Trying to copy the big guys because they're big? That's the problem.
Post about stuff customers are actually asking about. That question you get 5 times a week. Answer it. Not in some convoluted pile of slop buzzwords, but how you answer it when someone asks. That stuff you think is boring nobody wants to hear? Post it. Show them behind the scenes, laugh at yourself, but above all be yourself.
Talk like a human. The people following you know you. That's the advantage you have.
Social reach is garbage that's on its way to a black hole. Use it to start conversations then get people to somewhere you own. Maybe that's an email list, your website, or your front door. Point is, stop relying on these self-serving tech platforms that keep squeezing you. Use them, then own the audience.
Full transparency. I've done it wrong too and I'm a work in progress. I followed all the "social experts". I've discovered it's better to be you, than to try to be something you're not.
Be small on purpose.
