Last Saturday, like most Saturdays during the football season, I found myself battling to be heard over constant chatter and giggling, all in the name of minis football. I moan about it every week, just ask the team in the office but the truth is I love it. I love football, I love sport in general but it is team sports that get me going the most. 

Anyway the scene is set, I’ve got six under 7s all out on the pitch, the wind is howling, the rain is driving down and what started with some resonance of structure soon turned into a bunch of 6-year-olds battling with each other to score a goal. The half time whistle goes and we huddle together. “Right lads… well played, but can anyone remember the position they were given at the start of the game?” Cue a lot of blank/muddy faces, it turns out that 6/6 decided that they were playing right wing, including the goalkeeper! Now I get it, scoring goals is fun, pretending you are Mo Salah or Yamal is even more fun. BUT, as I tried to explain to them, a successful team is made up of multiple parts all working together.  Each part is as important as each other, each member of the team has a role and each role requires a different set of skills. For example Messi is arguably the greatest forward in the history of football but he would be a useless goalkeeper.

So with this incredibly laboured analogy in mind, why does this relate to social media? Well, social is banded around as if it is one thing. 

“I want to work in social media marketing” or “We need more social media activity” etc. 

But like any good football team, social media is made up of different parts, each as important as the other. But most importantly, each with a different objective and performance indicator. The simplest way to look at social media marketing is to break it up into paid and organic. 

Organic social should be designed to connect, not to sell. Organic social is hard work and the reach of your activity is reliant on performance indicators that match networks’ algorithms. What is engaged with is dependent on the strength of your content and how well it is received by a small sample audience. Miss with your content early on and accept that its reach will fall well short of your own followers, let alone a wider audience. Organic social is difficult to get right, but its objectives should be clear from the start. It isn’t designed to deliver instant sales, it is rarely a channel that will deliver an immediate reaction. Instead it should be used for the following:

Building trust: It acts as your digital shop window. When people “vibe-check” your profile, a high-quality feed proves you are active, professional, and reliable. Consistent, engaging content validates your business whilst allowing you to show personality.  

Staying front-of-mind: Not everyone is ready to buy today. Consistent posting ensures that when a customer is ready, your brand is the first one they think of. With this in mind, it is vital that organic social media isn’t considered as an advert. Calls to action need to be used sparingly and need to be softer.

Showing the human side: People buy from people. Organic posts let you show the faces and the “why” behind your business, which builds a bond that an advert can’t.

Keeping customers happy: It is a space to talk to your existing fans. Engaging with them regularly turns one-time buyers into loyal supporters who recommend you to others.

If organic social is about building a relationship over time, paid social adverts are about taking a specific offer and putting it directly in front of the right person. As an agency we see social as a platform in which to run advertising – no different to more traditional platforms like TV, radio and print. The only difference is the level of targeting we have access to, and the data we can optimise using.

Paid social is a high-precision tool. It shouldn’t be used to “chat” or “build a vibe”, it should be used to drive a specific, measurable result. Much like organic social, it has its own distinct set of objectives:

Guaranteed reach: You no longer have to worry about the algorithm. When you pay, you ensure your message is seen by a massive audience, instantly.

Precision targeting: You can choose exactly who sees your advert based on age, location, and interests. This ensures you aren’t wasting money on people who will never buy from you.

Driving action: Unlike organic posts, adverts are designed for “the click.” Whether it is a sale, a sign-up, or a download, the goal is to get the user to act immediately.

Scaling success: Once you find a message that works, you can increase your budget to reach even more people. It is the fastest way to grow your business once you have a winning formula.

Retargeting prospects: You can show specific adverts to people who have already visited your website but didn’t buy. This “nudge” reminds them to come back and finish their purchase.

The most effective social media presence is one where organic and paid activity work in tandem rather than in isolation, much like my son’s football team. They work much better when they work as a team, when each player does their job. Goalkeepers shouldn’t be shooting from goalkicks, and strikers shouldn’t be trying to save penalties. However, if they work together and all do their jobs then they can be a successful team.

In the modern digital landscape, you don’t have to choose between brand-building and sales. When you master the balance between the two, you create a self-sustaining ecosystem that attracts new prospects and keeps existing customers coming back.