Having something shared organically on social is the pinnacle of marketing for a brand, and yet, David Higgins, social media marketing manager for Foxtel, questions the value of a marketing strategy that relies purely on organic.
“I think of organic as the bonus that you get on top proper advertising campaigns,” he told B&T after speaking at Forrester’s Summit on Tuesday.
“If organic is a large part of your strategy and you’re not Beyonce or Jarryd Hayne then I wouldn’t post it up.”
The issue of paid and earned media is leaning more and more towards the paid section of the diagram when it comes to advertising.
During a content marketing breakfast recently it was brought up how marketers aren’t just competing with other brands for viewers, but also the likes of Miley Cyrus and her well documented nipples and twerks. However, the content has to be relevant.
At the time, Adam Carroll, head of sales and business development at content disruption company Outbrain said: “There’s so much content out there… that unless it’s really meaningful and unless it’s impactful for your target audience, it’s going to be invisible, regardless of how much paid amplification was behind that.”
For Higgins, sometimes organic can work, but it’s not something to rely on.
“I don’t think it’s healthy generally for marketers to think of organic marketing as a core part of a strategy,” he said. “It can work sometimes, and certainly we have properties like Wentworth or A Place To Call Home, which have incredibly loyal and passionate fans on social, and organic does do it’s job there.
“But by and large it’s an uncontrolled type of advertisement. It’s very hard to target with it. It’s something that to me is more of a bit of a play-thing than a really serious marketing strategy.
“The job of social marketers is to get social advertising in social channels up, alongside other channels like digital and radio and print. And to talk about social advertising rather than organic marketing.”
