Sourced from Forbes
While social media still matters, it no longer guarantees the visibility or engagement many brands once relied on. As algorithms continue to prioritize different signals and organic reach becomes harder to earn, marketers are looking beyond the traditional playbook to create stronger relationships with the people they want to reach. The objective today isn’t simply to get attention but to give audiences a reason to seek out a brand via various avenues, participate and stay connected over time.
This shift means creating value that extends well beyond the feed by looking past the platforms themselves toward the relationships, habits and trust that keep people coming back on their own. Here, members of Forbes Agency Council share approaches that can help brands connect with audiences and build real communities, without relying on an algorithm to do the work.
1. Build A Content Pillar Plan
If you plan to spend any time at all on driving organic social media growth and awareness, you need to have a plan of attack built around your brands content pillars. How do posts turn into leads that turn into conversions, and how do we replicate this funnel week after week? These are questions you need to ask yourself to ensure the time you’re putting into social media marketing is actually yielding material results for your business; frequent posting isn’t enough anymore. – Tyler Dykstra, SFL E-commerce
2. Show Up For Your Community
I’ve been a Sideshow Collectibles customer for years, and here’s what I still remember: One of their community managers once donated to a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser I organized. It was a small thing, but it stuck with me. Be a brand that actually shows up for their people, not one that just talks at them. When you build real relationships with folks who care about your brand, you create advocates who stick around—no matter what the algorithm does. – Mike Demopoulos, hosting.com
3. Take UGC To The Next Level
Brands should take user-generated content to the next level. In a world flooded with AI-generated content, authentic customer voices stand out. Invest in product gifting, influencer seeding and community-building through email and loyalty programs. Turn customers into creators and advocates; their content often drives more trust and engagement than traditional social media tactics. – Bernard May, National Positions
4. Create A Ritual Worth Returning To
Create a repeatable ritual your audience would miss if it disappeared. A weekly challenge, member briefing or insider tool gives people a reason to return on purpose, not by accident. That shifts the brand from posting for reactions to becoming part of a habit. The result is deeper retention, stronger memory and community built on usefulness rather than visibility. – Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions
5. Build Value-First Community Groups
We’ve seen stronger results by building value-first WhatsApp and Facebook communities for brands. For a baby products client, we shared parenting advice, nutrition guidance, baby care tips and live workshops for new moms before promoting products naturally. As trust grew, members began sharing reviews and recommendations within the group itself, creating organic buzz, stronger loyalty and higher sales. – Vin Sonpal, CS Web Solutions
6. Move Engagement Into Private Channels
Don’t confuse fewer likes with less relevance or visibility. SEO stopped being “hot” the day it became mandatory, but it still drives demand. Social’s going through the same shift: The real engagement is moving from on the feed to in the DMs: less public applause, more private conversion plus real connection. So accessibility and authenticity matter because people trust receipts, not reach. – Monica Alvarez-Mitchell, Pulse Creative, LLC
7. Own A Single-Interest Niche
Diverse organic reach is getting smaller. A follower almost means nothing today. However, platforms are optimizing by interest—so singular topic “themed” pages are outperforming pages talking about diverse topics. A recent example: A page with zero followers posting about the same topic, using the same angle, got 7 million in organic reach in 30 days. As Gary Vaynerchuk put it, algorithms optimize for interest, so singular interest pages and channels will win. – Dean Seddon, Maverrik
8. Design Experiences That Make People Want To Belong
Community is built by creating experiences that give people a reason to participate and belong. Whether that’s through events, partnerships, shared causes or customer involvement, the strongest communities grow because people see themselves in the brand; not because they clicked “like.” – Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding
9. Post Useful, Not Promotional, Content
Many brands in the B2B sector—my area of expertise—could deliver much better engagement by thinking about how they can help their customers, rather than simply promoting their products and services. Your audience isn’t going to LinkedIn or other social networks to see thinly-disguised advertisements. Content that is genuinely useful, particularly if it’s also fun to read, will always drive engagement, whatever happens with the social media algorithms. – Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited
10. Turn Employees Into Brand Advocates
Your most powerful influencers are already in-house. When employees share authentic content about their work, wins and expertise, they consistently outperform branded channels, earning greater trust, broader reach and real community. Empowering your team to post as themselves is the highest-ROI social strategy most brands still overlook. – Katie Meyer, MoonLab Productions
11. Earn Trust Before The Search With AEO
Working on a client’s answer engine optimization strategy these past few months, our ops team kept hitting the same insight: People don’t join communities to decide anymore; they lurk everywhere and buy after AI has already vouched for them. Reach matters less than being the name AI recommends before the customer even searches. Trust today gets built by algorithms you don’t own. – Nital Shah, Mavlers
12. Empower Authentic UGC
Traditional social media audiences remain enormous despite the numbers seeming to reflect a decline, so they cannot be abandoned. Part of the challenge today is around authenticity. Influencers too often lack authenticity for the brands they promote because they signed up as an ad spokesperson under the guise of influencer. Throw in an AI, and any notion of organic is lost at sea. There’s nothing new about UGC, but when it’s empowered, it can foster engagement and further UGC. – Dean Trevelino, Trevelino/Keller
13. Build Utility People Actually Use
Build utility, not just content. The strongest communities form when brands create something people return to because it helps them do a better job—things like a tool, system, experience or insight they actually use. When you become not just visible but useful, engagement becomes a genuine by-product of the value you offer rather than a fight against shrinking reach. – Firdosh Tangri, Fantasy
14. Invest In Real-World Relationships
Invest in real-world relationship building. Events, workshops, networking groups and educational experiences create direct connections instead of relying on algorithms. Pair that with strategic partnerships with complementary businesses to build referral networks that generate trust, strengthen the community and support long-term growth beyond social engagement metrics. – Brock Murray, seoplus+
15. Own The Audience You Can Reach Directly
Take advantage of environments where trust compounds: niche communities, owned newsletters and the forums real buyers actually read. A genuine presence in a relevant subreddit or Discord beats chasing reach on a feed that throttles you. These are also the sources AI models pull from when assessing authority. Own the audience you can reach directly instead of renting attention from an algorithm. – Lior Eldan, Moburst
16. Build A Brand Around People, Not Products
One approach that consistently outperforms traditional engagement tactics is building a brand around people rather than products. Audiences connect with authentic founder stories, real team members and behind-the-scenes content. Giving people access to the journey and daily reality of a business creates trust and fosters deeper engagement. – Leon Gitterle, MyMedia Marketing
17. Lean Into Experiential Marketing
Brands should invest more in experiential marketing. As AI generates more content and organic reach declines, people increasingly value real experiences and human connection. Creating memorable, immersive moments that put brands directly in front of their target audience fosters authentic community, emotional loyalty and word-of-mouth advocacy that can outperform traditional social engagement tactics. – Marilyn Cowley, PREM – PR & Social
18. Curate Groups Around Your Niche
A private newsletter, podcast or membership group gives you direct access to your audience without being at the mercy of algorithm changes or pay-to-play reach. For a niche business like homebuilding, a curated email list or private Facebook or Slack group of past clients and prospects consistently outperforms chasing likes because the audience is self-selected, trust is higher, and every touchpoint compounds over time. – Nicholas Cormier, Home Builder Marketers
20. Start Investing In GEO
When you search for a solution, you will likely turn to AI at some point. Your clients do the same. Start investing in generative engine optimization, so high-intent users who are already in search or decision mode can find your brand. Being consistently surfaced in AI answers builds familiarity and strengthens perceived authority over time, which makes clients more willing to join your community. – Nataliya Andreychuk, Viseven
Feature image credit: Getty
ByExpert Panel® COUNCIL POST | Membership (fee-based)
Successful PR, media strategy, creative and advertising executives from Forbes Agency Council share trends and tips. Visit Expert’s website.