Using Your Own Community to Increase Organic Reach by 250%

We could go on for days about the importance of quality content.

You could create all the world-class content on the planet, but if nobody sees it, does it matter?

On the other hand, social media reach is just getting more frustrating by the day.

The algorithms give us anxiety and often our only choice is paid social distribution. But wait – what about your own network?

While a lot of SaaS startups focus on their current network of peers, they too often overlook their other community: current customers.

Today, I chat with Kevin Markowski, CEO of Spitche. We talk about:

✅ How using your own customers can increase organic social media reach by 250%

✅ Why you should use loyalty programs to replace advertising

✅ How engagement is a holistic phenomenon that’s more than likes and shares

✅ What tools to use to overcome the Facebook algorithm

Let’s dive in.

Paid social media ads are getting more expensive and diminishing in return

Social media is meant to be social. 

But posts on platforms like Facebook and Instagram are increasingly held ransom by the algorithms – not letting us even reach our own audience.

We’re forced to pay for reach. Very few platforms still have good organic reach. TikTok is still reigning the organic reach world. LinkedIn still has decent (but diminishing) organic reach, despite having launched sponsored content in 2013. But the algorithm is changing, and it’s getting increasingly challenging to reach your people. 

Does it have to be that way?

We know that the Facebook algorithm takes several things into consideration. One of them, the ‘P’ in this graphic, is the post performance.

So if your post performs well enough organically, you technically will still get your content in front of eyes you’re looking for.

Performance means engagement – likes, comments, shares, and whatever else people can do to demonstrate that they liked your post.

What if you could build a community that shares and engages with your posts for you? What if this was your way to escape the hostage paid social situation we’re all forced into as marketers?

Let’s break down what this would look like.

Content needs to be good

This is oddly still something we need to repeat, over and over again.

It’s not clicking for everyone.

More content won’t mean more engagement. In fact, if your content isn’t original, well-thought-out, and serving somebody, you’ll never get organic engagement.

By “good”, we mean:

• You have researched your target and you aren’t working on a marketers hunch
• You have a crystal clear definition of your target, not just one sentence about their demographics and job position
• Your content is more useful to them than it is promotional
• It provides a good user experience

So before we try to beat the algorithm, your system for creating great content needs to be in place.

So how do we get this content out, organically?

Let’s talk a little bit about influence. Particularly, influencers.

People don’t trust major influencers and celebrities as much

Macro influencers and celebrities are super expensive.

Plus, they don’t actually have that much engagement.

The bigger they get, the lower their trust and engagement rate are. In fact, according to a media agency UM study, only 4% of people trust what influencers have to say.

These celebrities are just recommending anything because they get paid literal millions for one post makes. That makes it hard to believe.

Who do you believe? 

Your peers, your family, your friends, and your close circles.

This is what Kevin calls nano-influencers, and the people who can have a real impact on your brand.

Recommendations and word-of-mouth marketing are still very strong

That 4% looks pretty unconvincing compared to the 92% of consumers who trust recommendations from friends and family (and colleagues and thought leaders if you’re B2B).

This is where brands fail to leverage their own community.

Reaching out to large influencers may be a way around using paid Facebook. But it may just break the bank without enough return. It might not build trust and loyalty in your brand.

Building trust and loyalty within your own community is the way. When you can tap into your richest resource – your community – you’ll see your reach and engagement go up. 

This goes beyond just creating good content.

Yes, your content needs to be good.

But you also need to engage with your community and reward them for helping raise awareness about your brand. Forget the influencers.

So how do you do this?

Using tech to increase loyalty, reach and community engagement

Kevin’s company, Spitche, is a platform made for automating community engagement.

Step 1: you create content

Step 2: reward your community for sharing this content with discounts & gifts

This helps build a loyal community because:

1. They start building points that they will use to purchase later
2. They like your brand because you reward them
3. They can get points without needing to make a purchase

Additionally, they will share and encourage their friends to share your content. So not only do you not have to pay for ads (your customers increase the reach for you), but you actually generate leads and build loyalty.

Using Spitche, his clients have seen 250% increase in organic reach. That’s not to mention increased loyalty and sales.

But what about going beyond social media engagement? How do you dive even deeper into building trust?

Engaging your community with events

Before COVID-19, Kevin and his team organized bi-annual events for startups, called MeltinLab. Kevin comes from a background of event marketing and event management, so he already knew the benefits of bringing prospects under a single roof.

It’s true – I’ve landed a client for Flying Cat Marketing through an event I spoke at. Whether you speak, organize, or simply attend the event, there’s no better place to build a personal relationship.

As a part of a multi-channel strategy (and when events are allowed again), building loyalty can go beyond social media. Building relationships IRL leads to the strongest kind of loyalty you can create.

How loyal is your community?

With a loyal community, algorithms and competition becomes irrelevant. But you don’t need to wait for this to happen. You can encourage and intentionally build a loyal community.

This helps spread your brand message and generate better leads. Not because they heard it from a celebrity they don’t know or clicked on a sponsored post, but because their trusted friend told them to.

We created a guide to understanding your customer and creating content that’s made for THEM