What’s the Strategic Difference Between Paid and Organic Social Content?

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Cecily Moore AUTHOR: Cecily Moore
Apr 09, 2024
14 Min Read
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Have you ever sat down to create content and wondered, can this be used for paid ads? Or, what’s the difference between organic and paid content, anyway? Well, we’ve got the deets and worthwhile inspiration to set the record straight on how, when, and why you might create different content for your paid and organic content strategies. 

And no matter whether you’re a social media manager or a marketing director (or both—we know arts marketers wear a lot of hats!), content is essential to your marketing strategy. Organic content is still important, but its reach has been on the decline for years—did you know only .07% of Facebook fans interact with a page’s organic content, despite Facebook being the most-used social platform? Or that only 40% of social media managers believe paid campaigns yield a more effective ROI than organic? It’s time to level up your digital strategy.

What we’ll cover:

Paid Content

An Overview of Paid Content

Stellar Paid Content Examples

Identifying Your Audience for Paid Content

Ideas for Creating Paid Content that Converts

Organic Content

An Overview of Organic Content

Ideas for creating organic content that delights, with examples

Ideas for creating organic content that sells

Getting Started

4 Questions to Connect with Audiences

Paid vs. Organic: Both Matter, But When?

The largest distinction between creating organic and paid content is who you’re talking to and what your key performance indicators (KPIs) are. Whether your content is organic or paid informs the types of messaging and storytelling you include because you’re looking to achieve different results.