Social media is alluring to journalists, everyday people and companies for a reason. The lure of posting content, getting “likes,” shares and comments from viewers is an exciting prospect. It provides a free forum for anyone to speak to their audience.

But what if I told you this “organic following” of growing an audience simply because of quality content is increasingly out of reach?

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have made it harder for users to grow an organic audience based on content. Instead, businesses need to spend money on advertisements to grow their platform. Being successful on social media is now at the peril of the changes the companies make to their system. This is often referred to as the algorithm of the social platform, which companies use to leverage influencers and other users with larger audiences.

What is one to do? That’s where social media marketing comes in. 

While the algorithm is constantly changing, there are ways users can navigate it to make their posts seen by the accounts that matter. The algorithm is how each social media platform sorts posts in user feeds based on relevancy instead of the date published. From a marketing perspective for journalists and other users who want their content to reach their target audience, knowing each platform is key.

For example, Facebook offers marketers the most specific and targeted advertisements. You can reach your target audience based on detailed criteria like geographical location, searching habits and more to get your content in their feed. This is beneficial to journalists because the more relevant the content is to the people they’re reaching, the more they will care and potentially engage with it.