Resources
Organic Social SOP
There are countless social platforms available, and although some are primarily for fun and leisure, social media remains a valuable tool for businesses to reach their target audiences.
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According to Pew Research, YouTube leads U.S. adult social media usage at 83%, followed by Facebook at 68% and Instagram at 47%. Even among young adults, Instagram surpasses TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, and Twitter in popularity. Regardless of who your audience is, social media, with its roughly 239 million users, cannot be ignored as a marketing channel if you are brand seeking to connect with potential customers.
Though it may not be as easy as it was 10 years ago to grow a brand on social, it is still relevant and doable with commitment and a few best practices. During a recent case study in 2023, we were able to gain 3000 followers on Instagram (IG) over 10 months with a higher-than-average engagement rate (ER) of 7%. After one year of slow play, the ER remains at 3.3%, while industry averages on IG are 1% to 3%. (Facebook’s average ER is 2%.) In another case study in 2024, we attracted 1200 IG followers in 12 months with an ER 171% over the industry average and 88% over their #1 competitor. An easy-to-implement strategy and less than one hour per day is all it took for both. We will share our secrets to success and a standard operating procedure here.
First, lets talk about what organic social is — and is not.
By “organic,” we mean any content or engagement on social media platforms that occurs without paid promotion. This includes posts, comments, shares, and interactions that are not boosted or sponsored. The primary goal of organic social media is to build genuine relationships with an audience by sharing valuable and engaging content that resonates with them.
Organic social media is NOT simply another check box on a brand launch to-do list. It is NOT a platform that will perform well simply by posting countless and lifeless pictures of your product with no consistent interaction. It is NOT a silver bullet that will make one product or event post go "viral” and turn you into an instant millionaire or save your business.
Organic social IS both an extension of your brand's evolving story and a tool for customer relationship management.
An extension of your brand story. Consider your social pages to be mini-websites that promote your brand, your story, and all the things that make you unique. It should be personal, authentic, and provide content that makes followers feel they “know" you — both an echo of your main site, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at what your brand is all about.
A tool for customer relationship management. The other benefit of organic social is the opportunity for you to strengthen the relationships with your prospects or existing customers. Here, you can nurture those prospective buyers and convert them into sales, and turn existing customers into brand advocates who will spread the word about your brand to their friends, family, and followers.
IMPORTANT: Though you have options such as static images, videos, stories, reels, etc., the content itself is what will drive your success. Try out the different forms but keep a healthy balance of post forms and content types. One will not perform any better over the other if the content itself is not compelling to the viewer.
Don’t get hung up on trending topics or content that is too “salesy.” Make sure the content is authentic and shows your true self or the uniqueness of your product or service. Consumers want to feel they “know” a brand and if content moves you emotionally, it will likely be compelling to your audience as well. Don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable. It’s not always easy to tell your story, but it has to be done. Consumers respond to brands that express who they are, why they do what they do, and what’s in it for customers. According to the Harvard Business Review, 64% of consumers cite shared values as the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand, and research by Marketing Week indicate brands fare better with customers when they use emotive rather than rational messages.
To break it down: Business is a relationship. Telling stories builds emotional relationships. Emotion drives consumer buying decisions. So capitalize on this opportunity to build warm and authentic relationships with your audience in this channel. Other channels like paid social, search ads, automated emails, and your website — though each has it’s own value as revenue drivers) — don’t offer that same opportunity.
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RESOURCES AND SET UP
For the purposes of simplicity, I’ll refer to only Facebook and Instagram in this SOP, but for other social platforms, these same steps and tips can be applied.
SETTING UP
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Set up all social accounts on your phone and your desktop computer to have ultimate flexibility. It may be easier to copy and paste pre-written post copy from your desktop, but other times you may want the ability to post anywhere at any time from your phone.
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Set up your IG bio menu. You can create a menu of links via free services such as Linktr.ee. This is necessary because links are not clickable in IG posts or comments. A link will only be clickable if it is in the IG bio or bio menu.
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Follow your competitors’ hashtags and social pages to stay aware of how they are communicating with your audience.
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Create 4 to 5 hashtag groups (no more than 5 to 7 hashtags per group). These groups will be useful because you will want to vary your hashtags per post. DO NOT use the same hashtags repeatedly or a specific hashtag in each post. This can negatively affect your post impressions. The hashtags should be specific to your content, your audience, or your industry, and can be added to posts as needed along with any relevant product or seasonal hashtag for that post. They can be copied and pasted into a post from your master list. For other tips on hashtags, see the Tips on Using Hashtags section below.
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CREATE AN IMAGE DATABASE
Original and authentic photos from your site or brand/product development initiatives are best to use. But for other lifestyle options, photos can be obtained for a small fee through stock photography sites. We recommend filtering out any AI-generated images.
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OUTLINE YOUR CONTENT FOR THE MONTH
Generally, a monthly organic social platform timeline includes a variety of the categories listed below. We suggest no more than 4 posts per week. As you increase the number of posts, your overall interaction per post may decrease. You can use data such as interactions per post in the algorithms to determine what people see on the platform. Conversely, “over-posting” can cause fewer of your organic posts to be shown to your fans.
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Post Types Include:
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Blog Posts (new or relevant)
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Product/Service Posts (new or relevant)
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UGC Posts (User Generated Content about products from fans or customers)
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Vendor or B2B Spotlights
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Relevant Seasonal or Industry Events
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Brand Posts (typically involving "behind-the-scenes” peeks or announcements)
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How-to Content that speaks to your target audiences
1. Blog Posts
If you have a blog, posting a notice in social each time you publish a new blog is a great way to let your audience know about content they may find useful or interesting and drive traffic to your site. Make sure to include a link to your blog content in the post if you’re posting on Facebook and a link in your bio menu if you’re posting on IG. Use the corresponding blog image sized appropriately for the social platform so that it is consistent with what the viewer will see once they land on the blog page.
2. Product/Service Posts
If you have a new product, a product update, or a product that is relevant to the season, posting about the product will help boost conversion and awareness.
3. UGC (User Generated Content) Posts
When one of your clients or customers posts something about your brand that is positive and impactful, give that person credit (and yourself credit) by reposting their image or caption. **Be sure to tag the user (the account responsible for the initial post) across all platforms.**
4. Vendor or B2B Spotlights
These types of post might include featuring a vendor’s or manufacturer’s product you use in your business. If you sell your products and services to other businesses, this type of post is a great way to spotlight how your products or services benefit one of those businesses or what solution you’ve provided them. There is always going to be others that are in the same situation, and this is a great way to expose them to answers to their own business needs or products they may be interested in as well.
5. Brand Posts
These include your voice and identity as a company and should reach out to your target audience with consistent design and language. This can be a video or message from you directly or a message about those aspects (such as a proprietary process) that make your brand unique.
6. Relevant Events/Seasonal Posts
If you participate in events to create brand awareness of your products or services, these posts are a perfect way to let people know about the event before hand. Also, you can post a recap of the event to show your appreciation or include feedback. It may also be helpful to do some research on other social or industry events that may apply to your brand. If you post simply for a holiday or the season, do it in a way that is authentic to your brand.
7. How To Content
If you know your audience well, you can add content they will find interesting to read/watch/learn about. Even if it doesn’t directly relate to your brand, you want to be a trusted source of helpful and interesting information. This can include your own images or videos that convey quick tips, recommendations, or a quick Q&A session. If you have long-form how to content, such as on a resource page or blog, make sure to keep your post short and sweet, giving a quick synopsis of what the content will provide and including a link to that content for more details.
EXAMPLE
The IG account of Professional Artist, Kim Knoll is an example of several of these types of posts. instagram.com/kimknoll/
✓ She offers fans a behind the scenes look at her studio (Brand Posts)…
✓ She announces an event her work will be a part of (Event Posts)…
✓ She posts offers or special deals (Product Posts) when applicable…
✓ She uses How To Posts to offer tips…
Kim has even opened up about emotional moments in her life…
Especially if you are a sole proprietor of the business such as an independent artist, entrepreneur, or local small business, it is important to make authentic connection with your audience to build consumers' trust. Audiences like to feel they are making a connection and getting something more that they cannot gain from just browsing a website. Varying your content and post types not only keeps your social presence interesting and your audiences engaged, but it also helps you express multiple aspects of your brand that will build those lasting relationships and turn viewers into customers. The varied content will also allow you to see, over time, which posts your audience engages with most, allowing you to curate content and post types accordingly.
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SET UP A MONTHLY CALENDAR
​Once you decide on the content you would like to post within the month, it is worth putting the plan to paper. This is especially helpful if you are a visual person or collaborating with others. The calendar is a great way for your Brand Manager or Business Owner to efficiently review and approve the month’s posts ahead of time.
It’s also an effective way to plan ahead and keep track of your posts. This helps you ensure a variety of post types throughout the weeks, allows you to plug in copy and hashtags, and is a good reminder of when to post. Your monthly timeline can be outlined on a spreadsheet program (through any sheet app such as Excel, Numbers, or Google)
Include:
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Date each post will be posted
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Category (product post, blog post, etc)
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Copy curated for each platform (use a separate cell or row per each platform)
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Link associated with the post
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Image or a reference to the creative associated with each post
It is also useful to have a notes column to remind yourself to tag someone or include anything else you might forget.
WRITING COPY FOR POSTS
IG posts often need to contain different copy than Facebook posts, as links are not permissible in IG. Therefore, do not simply post identical copy across all platforms.
For IG posts, make sure the text is “link free.” The link in the text will not be clickable, so you can use the phrase “link in bio” to bring viewers to your website or to the appropriate landing page.
If you are giving another person credit for an image or quote, make sure to tag them in the photo. In the caption say, “Photo [or quote] by @username.”
The length of the copy is less important than the content itself, but remember social is not a place for long-form content. Use your website or email marketing if you need lengthy explanations. Be sincere in your messages. Remember that you are building relationships. Talk to your audience as if they're a group of friends you care about and who care about you, too.
USING LINKS IN POSTS
Links can be placed into the body copy of Facebook posts just like other text. They are “live,” or clickable, in the body copy. Links within the comments of a Facebook post are also live. This is not the case for Instagram.
For Instagram posts, if a link is required for the viewer to find out more information about the content in the post, you must indicate to the reader to visit the link is in your IG bio. Don’t forget to set up the link in your IG bio (or a link organizer such as linktr.ee) before the post is live.
“Link in bio” tools such as Linktree create a link to house all the other links and content you’re driving your readers to. There are several free “link in bio” tool options on the market. Use your own favorite.
EXAMPLE
Add that link to your Instagram bio and customers will be able to click from Instagram to a blog page, a product page, or any other content you choose.
If a link is included in your Facebook post text, you can use bitly.com to shorten long URLs, but this is not required.
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ENGAGING WITH FOLLOWERS
Spend a minimum of 30 minutes each morning and 15 minutes each afternoon performing the following four best practice tasks to make a significant impact in your brand awareness, customer relationship management, and your revenue with your social media channels. You can break up the tasks as you like, but be sure to accomplish some of each once a day to build that habit and system.
1. EVALUATE YOUR FOLLOWERS
Not all followers are legitimate people or potential customers, and following too many fake accounts or influencers can hurt your channel. Take a quick look at the account to qualify each follower request, and follow only legitimate social accounts that are reputable industry voices or potential customers within your geographic shipping region (I.E. Don’t follow people from other countries if you are not doing international shipping).
Spotting Fake Accounts and Followers. Accounts with no images, no posts, or very few posts are generally not legitimate accounts that will bring you sales. Gaining followers from these accounts can actually hurt your brand an marketing investment. Also, accounts that have very few posts, limited profile information, or a significantly unbalanced ratio between the number of followers and the number of accounts followed should be avoided (I.E. If the number of accounts they follow vastly outweighs their own followers, the profile probably isn’t genuine.)
FB/IG Suggestions Are Rarely Good. Often Meta will suggest accounts for you to follow. They will typically be commercial accounts with a large volume of followers already and those may not be in your best interest if you want engagement in return.
2. WHO TO FOLLOW
Follow accounts that “like” your competitors posts and your followers’ posts. Again, don’t blindly follow everyone, but if you visit their accounts and determine they are legitimate (and potential customers), like a few of their recent posts and follow them. Most owners of authentic or smaller accounts check notifications often and view their new followers, and this can expose your brand to new potential buyers. It is possible to max out your daily follow allowance, but just start again the next day with this step if you get a notification that no more follows are allowed that day.
3. LIKE AND COMMENT ON your followers’ posts
Staying engaged with followers will strengthen those relationships and expose you to others who are following them.
4. CHECK AND RESPOND DAILY
Check your interactions, comments, and direct messages every business day, and answer questions or like/reply to comments as needed. This is an important basic customer service step that will identify any product, pricing, or availability questions that could lead to a sale.
HASHTAGS DOS AND DONTS
Hashtags can help increase brand awareness by making content discoverable to anyone who has previously followed or is searching for a relevant hashtag. Hashtags are best used for adding to a larger conversation. Place the hashtags at the end of your post body copy. You can also use them within the paragraph copy, but do so sparingly, as they can make for a more cumbersome reading. Make sure to ONLY use hashtags that are relevant to your content.
DO NOT use the same hashtags repeatedly.
This may cause FB/IG to restrict your content/posts. Though multiple hashtags are allowed, general best practice is to use around 7 to 10 per post. But again, do NOT use the same ones over and over.
Create a master document with at least 5 hashtag groups (7 to 10 hashtags each) that are specific to your content types that can be added to posts as needed along with any relevant hashtags for that post. They can be copied and pasted into a post and used depending on the type of content.
Your hashtags should not be too specific.
The hashtags will be more useful if they are already interests people search for or follow. Within IG, you can check the search for the volume of posts on each new hashtag you’re considering and make sure it's relevant to other posts that have a decent amount of volume.
For example, if you’re selling a painting of fallen trees in the forest, the hashtag #fallentreepainting may be a bit too specific and not reach a significantly large audience. However, #naturepainting is a broader topic and therefore it’s more likely a hashtag many would follow. Search to indicate the volume of other posts with that hashtag, thus indicating a more popular topic.
Beyond keywords that identify a potential audience interest that relates to your product, you can use manufacturer or product names that apply per post or other broad but popular hashtags as they relate to your content, such as #summerfun, #artistsofinstagram, or #healthyliving.
Explore which hashtags your followers and competitors use to get other ideas on relevant hashtags.
REMEMBER: DO NOT use the same hashtags repeatedly. Keep track of your most recently used hashtag set on your hashtag master document.
TRACKING RESULTS
Review your Facebook and IG Insights monthly to keep track of your engagement rates. You can export monthly reports that give you useful data.
Or, you can use a basic formula to see how you’re doing. Each month, document the engagement you’ve gotten on each of the month’s posts. This includes likes, shares, saves, and comments. Note that count for each post and then compute the average. Then figure the engagement rate for that month by dividing that average by the number of followers at the end of the month and multiply times 100 (to calculate the percentage).
Formula:
Monthly Average Engagement Rate = Average of All Posts’ Engagements ÷ Total Follower Count x 100
In the example above, the monthly engagement rate is 2.04%. Though averages vary by industry, a general best practice is to consider 1% to 3% a good engagement rate. After you have given your account time to establish itself, if your engagement rate is higher than 3%, it means that your audience is very engaged and reacts often to your content. If it's below 1%, vary your content or revisit the best practices to achieve success:
TO RECAP:
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Plan ahead.
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Make your content personal and unique.
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Vary your content with several best practice post types.
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Introduce your brand to your audience.
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Qualify your follower requests.
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Engage with your followers often.
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Use links and hashtags properly.
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Track your results monthly and adjust as needed.
Remember that as your follower count grows, your engagement rate will likely fall a bit. This is a natural progression. However, staying consistent with the time and effort you put into your social accounts will continue to expose your brand to new audience members and prospects, bringing in new leads along the way. When you make a long-term commitment, success is likely. Spending 30 to 45 minutes each day your business is open should result in a successful social presence that builds mutually beneficial relationships and drives revenue for your brand.