Organic growth across all platforms still remains the most viable long-term strategy. It is not only relatively more sustainable than other growth methods, it is also a lot more rewarding.

There's nothing like watching your audience grow automatically with only minimal promotion on your part.  All good things, though, come at a price. And even though most people think organic growth is a given in any situation, they are mostly wrong.

Not everyone is guaranteed organic growth. Especially those who have no idea what they're doing. Below are five growth strategies that will ensure you never find yourself in that category.

1. Blog Frequency & Consistently

A common misconception about organic growth is the expectation by most people that it is completely passive. Since it is "organic", we tend to expect to just have a couple elements in place, perhaps go on a content barrage for a couple of weeks only, and then rest on our laurels thinking the hard part is done.

Sadly, things don't work this way. Not anymore, at least. Admittedly things used to be this easy back in the early days of the internet. Nowadays, however, consistency is key.

Why do you have to be consistent? Well, first of all the algorithm rewards it. And this fact cuts across all platforms, from websites and blogs down to social media platforms.

The algorithm rewards consistent users who make a habit of posting frequently. This sends a message that you're serious about what you do and you're in it for the long run.

Google, especially, rewards fresh content and tend to prefer these to old contents that haven't been updated in a long time.

And then secondly, it earns you the trust and respect of your existing audience. Once they see you posting frequently and consistently, you not only have yourself imprinted on their minds, but you become their trusted, go-to source. In short, you become an authority, which is something that should be every brand's end game.

2. Be Engaged In Your Community (such as Facebook groups)

Communities have been in existence on Facebook and other social platforms for a while now. In that time a lot of people have taken advantage of them to generate remarkable organic growth, and we can assure you, it’s not too late for you. In fact, it only makes sense that you do.

Take Facebook Groups, for example. This is a group of people all with shared interest in what you have to offer. Not just mild interest, mind you. They love it enough to join a group about it. 

This means they're either very curious, very knowledgeable, or highly attracted to it. Either way, they are highly interested. It's a practical goldmine, to be honest. A goldmine of both prospective customers, and an avalanche of information.

All you have to do is give your time to these communities. Make meaningful contributions, and most importantly, be consistent with it. Instinctively, people start to become more curious about you. They check you out and that is where growth begins.

Of course you must also be careful not to overdo it. 

As with all platforms, communities are not kind with spammers and people who join groups with obvious advertising intent.

If you play your cards right, you may not even have to do any direct advertising at all. 

3. Do Short Videos That Are Optimized For Social 

Video contents have seen more and more prominence over the years – for obvious reasons too. The ones who recognized this early were able to milk it for all it's got, and made big names for themselves in the process. Thankfully, video content isn't dead yet.

Only now, it needs some major tweaking. The first of this is going shorter. It may surprise you to know, but attention span has been in real shortage nowadays. 

People barely get through three minute videos. This is why emphasis, at the moment, is on short videos, and not just short videos, but those that have been specially optimized for social. 

These kinds of videos are a lot easier to share, mainly because they don't take much time to consume. 92% of mobile users share video content with friends, and even more so when it is a short-form content. 

How do you do this, you ask?

Well the very first aspect of social media video optimization is shredding your video to its most fascinating essence. Meaning filler cuts and boring parts all have to go. 

Then there's the question of format. For social optimization, you have the popular square and vertical options, which are great for a good range of platforms. You can do this via video creation platforms such as OFFEO.

Landscape videos, however, are becoming a real no no. For social growth, you're better off staying away from these in 2021.

4. Do Things That Don't Scale 

Life is all about the little things. This is a popular quote that I'm sure many would argue has no place in brand growth. You must always look to scale. After all, isn't that exactly what growth is?

Well, of course. But you see, life really is all about the little things. And sometimes the little things can go a long way. They can help you grow, and, at the same time, can ensure that your growth is sustained.

It's easy to have everything on warp speed and keep going without caring about customer retention, but this will almost always lead to you crashing down back to earth.

Doing little things that don't scale much, though, can help tackle the retention problem that most brands suffer at the moment.

What are some examples of these things? Well a good one is sending handwritten cards to customers. This is a little gesture that goes a long way in convincing your customer to come back. Chewys, the popular pet supply brand, is now a 5 billion dollar company thanks to unconventional marketing strategies such as this.

You'd be surprised how the difference in growth between most competitors isn't in the size or scale of their businesses, but in little things that don't scale, such as this.

5. Micro-Influencers Partnership

Last, and one of the most important points on the list, is micro-influencer partnerships. Striking micro-influencer partnerships involve reaching out to micro-influencers (users with, say, 10,000 followers instead of 100,000) in your niche and working together on some form of collaboration to increase visibility for your brand.

Micro-influencer partnerships are more preferable to the more popular “influencer marketing” due to the fact that they generally appear more genuine, relatable, and authentic, as can be seen in the higher engagements and clicks they generate.

Also with micro-influencers you're drilling deeper, and going with more niche, more targeted pages that may have less but much more loyal following than big influencers.

Guest Post by OFFEO
John leads the growth team at OFFEO and is highly passionate about everything digital. He has in-depth knowledge of SEO, Facebook advertising, and content marketing, and enjoys helping other marketers become successful.