I never thought I’d be saying this, but one of the most frequently asked questions we still receive in 2024—nearly 17 years since we opened our doors as the first social media agency in the United States—is: ‘How can we achieve organic social media growth beyond just gaining followers?’

In response, I propose alternate methods of looking at organic growth. But first, let me unpack a little background.

Follower Growth Strategies Date Back 10 Years…

I clearly remember around 2012-2013, a large client of ours kept asking how their brand could get to 1M followers on Facebook. This particular goal of 1M surprisingly wasn’t fueled by looking at their competitive set and trying to exceed a rival (which is often the case), but trying to exceed a business unit within the same organization – no matter the cost or the fact we advised against this strategy.

Given the huge interest (and brand budgets), social networks responded to this follower craze by releasing “Like Ads” on Facebook in 2012, followed by “Follower Ads” on Instagram in 2015 – giving brands the direct media buying tools to increase followers at a relatively low cost.

The upside? Gaining followers was an actual objective you could buy against (spoiler: very few direct opportunities exist like this today). The downside? These followers were relatively low quality compared to those organically grown and they worsened the organic reach declines we were already seeing make a noticeable impact on how many followers a brand could even reach.

Our analytics team was one of the first to notice and measure the organic reach declines impacting these major networks. We began informing clients that these organic reach declines would mean that a brand would commonly have to pay twice. Once to generate a follower. Then again to ensure the follower was seeing the brand message.

Is Follower Growth the Right Objective?

From this point forward, the path to gaining followers became increasingly de-prioritized by social networks like META as the network became more mature.

The “Like” or “Follow” calls to action, follower-based ad objectives, and even the display of a brand’s total followers were diminished greatly in priority. Organically it was harder to find the “Like” or “Follow” buttons. Straightforward ad objectives on Instagram and Facebook to grow followers were completely removed and replaced in favor of media buying based on engagement signals and targeting that could reach new audiences outside of those following the brand already. Media objectives became much more performance-based, with pixels and retargeting driving off-channel actions like website visits and even website conversions.

Over the years, these changes have caused many organic growth strategies to reconsider what success looks like in the first place. The natural question after considering this is:

Is follower growth the right objective in the first place?

Considering Organic Growth in 2025 and Beyond

Clearly, follower growth is not the metric it once was. Organic reach has continued to decline on META while TikTok has a new model of discovery based on what you engage with. Therefore, increasing the number of followers does not correlate to an increase of organic brand awareness or engagement.

Once we demonstrate that follower growth is challenging to impact and indirect (at best) in its ability to drive marketing results, the next natural question is:

What is the role of organic social as part of my marketing mix? What should organic growth look like, and what should our organic KPIs be?

Alternate KPIs to Measure Organic Social Efforts that Aren’t Follower Growth

There are many ways to tie organic back to your overarching marketing objectives that don’t include achieving an arbitrary follower increase.

The following are common KPIs for organic social that can and should be considered in lieu of follower growth:

• • Increase in Reach: X% Increase in Total Organic Impressions
  • Increase in Engagements: X% Increase in Total Organic Engagements
  • Estimated Value of Organic Impressions + Engagements: How much would the brand have spent if they purchased these via paid social (applying CPMs and CPEs accordingly)?

Additional data to monitor may also include:

• • Increase in Organic Reach/Post: Is your organic content mix optimized to drive an average reach/post comparable to or greater than your historical performance or competitive set averages by channel?
  • Increase in Organic Engagements/Post Is your organic content mix optimized to drive an average engagement/post that is comparable or exceeds that of your historical performance or competitive set averages by channel?
  • Engagement Rate Improvement: How does your brand’s engagement rate compare to your historical averages and competitive set?
  • Retention Rate Improvement: How does your brand’s follower retention compare to your competitive set? Is it improving?

How Can Organic Social Play a Role in Overall Business Objectives?

A brand’s presence in social media has become a critical part of the customer journey. The widespread use of social media means that a brand’s social media presence is now equivalent in importance to that of a brand website or organic search.

Understanding the following stats can help a brand make this connection even stronger.

Organic Social’s Influential Role in Driving Brand Discovery + Reach

As social media has become more prevalent, a brand’s organic social media presence is now of equal or more importance than a brand’s website and organic search strategy.

According to Global Web Index data, over half of Gen Z audiences now prefer looking up brands via social media over search engines.

This consumer preference shift should encourage brands to prioritize organic social accordingly – ensuring that social platforms are optimized and updated to reflect the brand accurately. This requires brands to optimize organic social content for maximum discovery within social platforms.

Organic Social’s Role in Driving Brand Engagement + Customer Retention

While many brand marketers are accustomed to tracking engagement rate and/or engagement increases, it’s easy to forget the reason and role of engagement in driving marketing objectives in the first place.

Instinctively we know that more engaged customers are likely to be better customers. But the following stats help make this connection even further:

• • Engaged social media users are 3 times more likely to convert than those who don’t interact with a brand, as consistent engagement builds familiarity and boosts conversion rates (Hootsuite).
  • Studies indicate that 64% of consumers who engage with brands on social media are more likely to purchase from those brands than from competitors, building brand trust and loyalty (Sprout Social).
  • About 40% of social media users say engaging with brands makes them more likely to continue supporting the brand long-term, strengthening customer loyalty (Gartner).

While there is certainly not a one-size-fits-all approach to establishing an organic strategy, hopefully this post will help brands consider alternate KPIs and approaches rather than just follower growth.