Unpopular opinion by a CEO: No budget? No reach. No exceptions

Once upon a time, a clever post could go viral. A well-timed meme, a thoughtful caption, or a quirky product shot could generate thousands of likes and shares. That time has passed.

Today, the algorithm doesn’t care about your brilliant copy or carefully curated grid. It cares about ad spend. And yet, brands and marketers continue to invest hours into organic social strategies hoping for unpaid virality.

Here’s the cold truth: Organic social media is no longer a strategy – it’s a placeholder.

The pros of organic social (what’s left of them)

• It keeps you present: A maintained feed helps prove legitimacy, especially for new or small brands.

• Community building still matters: Organic content can nurture existing audiences – if you’ve already built them.

• Content testing: Posts can serve as soft tests for messaging before putting budget behind winners.

• Always-on storytelling: Brands can still reinforce positioning with a consistent, unpaid presence.

The downside of going organic-only

• Reach is abysmal: Average organic reach on Facebook is now under 2%. On Instagram, it’s barely better.

• Time-intensive, low ROI: Teams spend hours on content that never sees the light of day.

• No discovery engine: Platforms now favor paid, trending, or influencer-generated content.

• Illusion of engagement: A few likes from existing fans ≠ growth.

The controversy: Are we just feeding the algorithm for free?

Meta, TikTok, and even LinkedIn have openly deprioritised unpaid content. These platforms are built on monetisation. And yet, brand managers still brief agencies for 30 pieces of ‘organic’ content per month – without media budgets.

A 2025 Social Trends Report by Hootsuite shows that 84% of marketers agree organic content gets little to no traction without paid support, but 62% are still expected to deliver full organic calendars.

Why? Habit. Fear. Or worse – delusion.

The brand divide: Who’s leaning in – and who’s letting go?

• Nike: Focuses its energy on paid, influencer, and owned campaigns. Their organic posts exist for community – not scale.

• Legacy retailers: Still stuck in content churn, treating their Instagram like a product catalogue.

• Wendy’s: Uses organic only for real-time engagement and humor – not performance.

• Small brands without media budgets: Pouring energy into organic while wondering why nothing converts.

What social media is saying

• LinkedIn: Social strategists are tired. “We’re doing 90% of the work for 5% of the impact.”

• X: Marketers mock organic KPIs like ‘reach’ and ‘likes’ with memes: “Did your unpaid post get eight likes? Congrats, that’s lunch money ROI.”

• Instagram Threads: Creators are openly admitting that without boosted posts, they wouldn’t grow at all.

The future: Organic as a brand layer, not a growth channel

The smartest brands are treating organic content as: