Understand the fundamentals of organic social growth
Social media is an excellent source of new website traffic. In fact, according to Sprout Social, there are approximately 5.42 billion social media users, and of those users, the average person uses about 7 different social networks monthly.
Don’t leave money on the table. Invest your time and energy into building an effective social media strategy. To help build your foundation, learn about the benefits of organic social and a few tips to get started from Zac Fromson, Co-Founder & COO of Lilo Social.
Identify the core components of an organic social strategy
So, what exactly makes up your brand identity on social media? Let’s discuss best practices for creating an effective profile, sharing organic posts and stories, and incentivizing user-generated content (UGC), all while keeping your main goal in mind: spreading awareness and interest in your brand. In doing so, we can feature a real example: Klaviyo's own Instagram account!
Profile
Your profile outlines your brand identity across social media sites. This is a hub where prospects can find more information about your brand, scroll through posts, and even build a relationship with your team.
A good social media profile will include:
- A short 1-sentence bio that accurately describes your brand.
- A link to your website where someone can easily shop or sign up for marketing messages.
- A profile picture that adequately represents your brand identity (usually your logo against a main brand color).
- Optionally: Add contact information like your brick-and-mortar address or a reply-to email address.
Posts
Your brand’s social media posts keep followers engaged and add to its personality. They remain indefinitely on your profile for new browsers to look through. They are great levers for acquiring customers, as each like, comment, and share has the potential to surface your content to new audiences.
Good social media posts will include:
- A high-quality image or video, often spotlighting your product.
- An engaging caption.
- A link or call-to-action (CTA) to the promoted offer, event, item, etc.
- Relevant hashtags for your brand on platforms like TikTok (similar to keywords, these can help you show up on social media explore pages).
- A location or tagged businesses of individuals.
Stories
Stories are temporary posts shared by your brand that can often only be visible for 24 hours. That said, they often get a high amount of traffic, can be shared by others, and are great for dispersing timely deals and updates to hook new and existing customers.
Good social media stories will include:
- A variety of high-quality images or short, attention-grabbing videos.
- A link to purchase or sign up for text messages or emails.
- A through-line, or narrative, that weaves your posts together, as they will appear back-to-back as someone clicks through your story.
UGC
UGC on social is exactly what it sounds like: posts and stories that your followers create that feature your brand.
These posts can then be re-shared (with the owner’s permission) to your own brand profile, helping to spread the word and highlight the value of your products or services.
Great user-generated content, that you can and should share on social to raise awareness of your brand, includes:
- Valuable information about your product or brand (e.g., size recommendations, tips and tricks for using the item, their favorite item in your collection, etc.).
- Content that evokes an emotion another audience member may connect with (e.g., humorous, inspirational, surprising, etc.).
- Content that spurs an action from your audience (placing an order, joining a community, reading a blog post, etc.).
Build an organic social community
Now that you understand the power of organic social and can identify what often performs well on social media, let’s dive into how to build your own strategy. Follow these steps to build a social media foundation that spreads the word about your brand without having to invest in paid solutions.
Create content for your ideal social audience
Your organic social strategy can only be effective if you target the right people with content that appeals to their specific interests. As such, your first step should be to identify who you are speaking to via social media.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What is the average age and gender of my social media followers thus far?
- Where are the majority of my customers located?
- What content appeals to my audience?
- Are there patterns in my followers' lifestyle, interests, values, occupations, or hobbies?
- What social platforms are my audience members most and least engaged on?
Based on the answers to these questions, create content that specifically appeals to this prospective customer base.
As a best practice, create a wide variety of content types. People consume content in different ways, so try out: short video-based stories, quick image-heavy posts, brand-specific memes, longer blog or how-to-style captions, etc., to see what your audience prefers most.
Note: It is possible to research your target audience and monitor other brands' content within your industry, all for free, say on other social media accounts dedicated to sharing insights, trends, and changes in the platform. That said, if you need help staying on top of the ever-changing social media landscape, there are many social media listening tools out there (like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, or Sprout Social) that can help you monitor trending topics in your industry and customer demographic.
Encourage sharing and community growth
You should strongly encourage your social community to share your content. As a best practice, always include links in every post and story so that those who come across shared content can have direct access to your site.
Here are 3 ways to encourage social sharing:
- Create content that your audience wants to share
This may seem obvious, but nonetheless, it is the biggest factor in whether or not people share your content. Create a wide variety of content that is bound to resonate with specific audience members. This may include engaging videos, informative blog posts, creative graphics, or funny social stories. The more entertaining or useful your content is, the more likely someone will share it, and the more likely someone in their larger network will also engage with that shared content. - Structure your content for sharing
Social media platforms often favor visually rich content in their “discover” or “explore” pages, so incorporating compelling images or videos can significantly boost shareability. In addition, add relevant hashtags to increase discoverability if/when they share it. You should also make your content accessible on mobile, using content that someone can easily engage with on their phones. Also, make sure to add closed captions to your video content. - Actively encourage sharing
Be direct. If you want community members to share your posts, then ask them to. This can involve:- Encouraging users to tag someone who might find it relevant.
- Running a social media challenge or contest in which a select number of people who share the content will win a reward.
Measure the success of organic social
As with all core digital marketing strategies, your social media programming should not be a “set-it-and-forget-it” model. You must constantly test out new ideas and learn from your audience to provide what resonates best.
Keep track of the following metrics:
- Impressions:
The number of times your content is seen by users, regardless of whether they clicked on it. This helps you understand how easy it is for a new customer to discover your content. - Likes:
The number of people who have clicked “like” on your content, indicating that it resonated with them in some way. This is a good feedback-centric indicator of what is or is not performing well among audience members. - Comments:
The number of people who commented on a post, often sharing specific thoughts on the topic or asking your brand a question about the subject of your content, is another great indicator of engagement. It is also an opportunity to speak directly to potential customers, enabling you to encourage them to buy or learn more about your brand. - Shares:
The number of users who share your content across their own social media networks. Not only does this show that they are engaged with the content, but it also increases your reach, as their followers will now become aware of your brand.
Unsure of what “good” looks like for these metrics? Read a breakdown of Social Media Benchmarks for 2025 from AgencyAnalytics.
Continue to grow
As with any project, prioritize the strategies and specific social platforms that see high engagement. Focus on where your personas spend their time online, such as engaging with Instagram stories or browsing on Pinterest. Your customer base and the wider net of potential customers are unique, so track behavioral patterns over time and use that as a guide for future decisions.
That said, you may reach a point in your organic social strategy when you think, What’s next? How can I attract even more prospective customers on social media?
If so, you may be ready to implement your next social strategy: investing in paid social media ads.