If you've been following social networks for years, you've probably noticed the trend of organic reach decreasing year after year on all social networks without exception

Gone are the days when social networks were community spaces for both individuals and brands. They still are for individuals, but for brands, you have to pay to be visible on them.

Facebook, for example, has started since 2018 a policy of decreasing the organic reach that was quite "violent" and drastic compared to what it allowed just a year before, and the trend is installed, and it is not ready to change.

Social Insider in its recent study on more than 22 Million posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and on 35 sectors of activity, tells us that the median rate of organic engagement (i.e. without sponsoring) that comes out on this network is barely 0.27%!...you read that right, barely 0.27%.

If you want to be visible on Facebook, you have to pay, and no matter how good your content is, how original it is, how much it touches hearts and minds, etc., you still have to pay to be visible on it: it's said, it's clear and you should not have any expectations on this side!

Instagram is what Facebook was 3 or 4 years ago in terms of engagement, with a median rate of 1.16% in 2020, which is much more interesting, but the trend is down on this network too, and we should expect less organic engagement on it probably from this year.

What to take away from all this for your digital communication strategies :

• Don't waste any more time investing in the creation of large communities, your natural and organic content will only reach a very small proportion of them: beyond a size that assures you credibility, the incremental investment to inflate your community becomes very questionable

• Stop publishing large volumes of content on these networks, you are shooting blanks most of the time, you trivialize your speech and bore the small portion of your audience that is reached by your organic contentConsider social networks as media in their own right and think about pressure, repetition, coverage, affinity, etc., as you would think about a classic media like TV

• Think about developing your own digital assets, it is long and laborious, but social networks are not the only lever to consider for your marketing and digital communication strategies