Social Reach Optimization (SRO)

Social media channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn are making it increasingly more difficult for company pages to reach their audience with the posts they share. On one hand, they want you to spend your advertising budget with them. And on the other, they want ‘peers’ to continue to communicate and that your timeline is not filled with company content. Nowadays, if you want to increase your online reach, the organic route is the most effective. The solution: Social Reach Optimization (SRO). 

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What is Social Reach Optimization?

Social Reach Optimization, SRO, is the optimization of organic reach on social media by activating brand ambassadors. This is a new category in marketing next to social advertising. To understand what Social Reach Optimization is, we first have to go back to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Advertising (SEA), and Social Media Optimization (SMO), perhaps more familiar terms. With SEO you increase the organic findability within search engines such as Google. A long-term strategy where companies are found by (potential) customers through their desired search terms. SEA is what marketers use to buy reach through advertisements in Google Adwords. A quick yet expensive way to reach your desired target audience. Finally, with SMO you optimize the content on your social media channels so that users share this content.

Apostle believes in Social Reach Optimization. By Social Reach Optimization we mean the optimization of your organic reach on social media. You communicate with your network in a personal manner via social media. It is important for your organization to put real people at the center of your social media strategy, in order to be found and be visible online in an organic way. By using brand ambassadors, you can therefore optimize your social media reach in an organic way. Optimize using the networks of stakeholders, such as employees, dealers, or franchisees on social media and increase the online visibility of your organization or brand.

Why use Social Reach Optimization?

First, optimizing your organic online reach is a cheap solution. The other option is buying advertising budgets from social media channels. These costs can quickly add up. For example, LinkedIn quickly charges between €25 and €90, based on algorithms, to show an advertisement 1000 times in the desired target group. Invest time in activating brand ambassadors for your organization instead. They can share personal stories in their own network. Meaning there are no costs involved. That is why it is important that you put people at the heart of your social media strategy.

Secondly, optimizing your online reach ensures greater visibility and findability on social media. By utilizing the large network of your brand ambassadors, you reach many more potential customers, employees, and other prospects than with company pages on social media alone. A brand ambassador has an average of 750 connections on social media. When you share a post, 20% to 50% of your connections will see this post. Sharing 1 post is therefore equal to 150 - 375 views on social media. Just calculate how much online reach you have with multiple brand ambassadors and multiple posts per month!

In the following years, companies will invest billions of euros and dollars in SRO because of the changing algorithms of social media platforms and increasing advertising costs. With Social Reach Optimization (SRO) you increase the organic reach by including personal social media profiles in the marketing mix.

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Are you optimizing with us?

Apostle has been actively optimizing organic reach on social media for years, in short, Social Reach Optimization. Curious about what Social Reach Optimization can do for your organization? Contact one of our experts and we will take a look together at how we can optimize your social media strategy.