Since last year, the “big player” in the social media marketing atmosphere, otherwise known as Facebook, has prompted us about the decline in organic reach, telling marketers that they will have to “pay-to-play.” In general, marketers were (and still may be) opposed to the change, but nothing could be done to prevent it. Fast-forward to today, we are still here utilizing Facebook whether we like it or not. So how do we increase our organic reach on social media, with ever-changing algorithms and increased paid advertising?

It would be wise to expand your networks. Rather than invest all of your time in one social media outlet, have a choice between two or three. Choose your other social media sites based on who your target audience is. Furthermore, it is increasingly important to know how your audience utilizes the outlet. Do they communicate with brands like yours? Or do they use it socially? Take the time to get to know your audience in the social sphere. Your goal should be to interact with them, while maintaining a flow of content that reaches out to other people who share interests with your target audience. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different outlets, like Pinterest and Twitter if you find that people interested in your industry are active on those sites.

The most important factor in any social media campaign is your content. What you create and curate should be relevant to people in your target audience, but differentiate yourself to others related in your industry.

For example, on Pinterest, you can share photos by “pinning” them to boards, or categories that you create. After pinning a photo, Pinterest directs you to other boards with similar photos that you can interact with.

On Twitter, you can modify retweets by adding your own comments. With your own tweets, be sure to add images and utilize their hashtag system in order to reach out to more people interested in the content you curate. You should also be engaging in conversations with followers and express thought leadership in your tweets.

There is no one social outlet that can be considered as a solution for social media marketing, it’s an evolving field that follows technology’s rapid pace. High organic reach is not easily obtained, but adds authenticity to your brand or company. Facebook is still a very popular outlet that should not be ignored, but relies heavily on promoting every post in order to achieve acceptable levels of reach. By expanding your social media marketing campaign to other outlets that don’t require you to “boost” every post, your overall marketing efforts are more distributed to your target audience.