Dom Burch, head of social at Asda, told delegates at Social Media World Forum earlier today that while Facebook has made it “hard” for organic reach, there’s still a gap in the market if you get the content right.

“I think Facebook was for us a massive turning point, and we were very pure up to that point,” he explained, noting that even though it was “galling” to create content for an audience for three years who now can’t see content, it’s Facebook’s ball and their rules. “Tough. Get on with it,” he added.

Yet Burch continued: “There’s still an opportunity to go organic though. You can still sneak through the gap that Facebook’s left.”

The issue of ‘pay to play’ is one of the hottest topics in the social space right now. Opinions are divided based on which side of the fence you sit: as a small business, Facebook strangling its organic reach may seem a trifle unfair; but on the other hand the company’s got to make money to report back to its shareholders.

Burch compares social favourably against traditional advertising solutions in terms of price – and rightly so. “Whilst it’s galling on one hand, if you get the content right and boost it to the right people, it’s very efficient.”

In other words – this should force brands to up their game instead of posting the same, tired content. “If something’s not working, delete it,” added Burch. “Take it off the Wall. You’ve got your content wrong, you’ve aimed it at the wrong people.”

Laila Takeh, the head of digital engagement at UNICEF UK, opined a similar view.

“For social media platforms, it’s in their interest to have very interesting content,” she argued, adding that brands have more power to create this content than individuals.

Burch’s advice was clear. “Get yourself a bit of budget that doesn’t require a return on investment, and say ‘I’m going to learn with this money.'”

“By playing around with £500 it can be very effective,” said Burch, “but you can’t scale that.”

It’s an interesting notion, although as Crimson Hexagon’s Tom Whitney pointed out in the next presentation: “We may all be evangelists here, but remember it’s a pragmatic world out there with budgets and bosses.”

The message continued to be hit home throughout the discussion; only the very best content will do. Karlijn Vogel-Meijer is social media manager at airline KLM – and she admitted the company targets the business audience of LinkedIn as a win win, with the two companies currently testing different paid content solutions.

“The very strict commercial things – that is not LinkedIn, people don’t like it,” she explained. “RIght now we’re focused on creating LinkedIn content that’s really interesting.”

Takeh added: “As pay to play dominates the more majority platforms, niche targeting and working with specific influencers is even more important, and has to go side by side with your customer planning.

“People really need to think about that now.”

Again, the message was an interesting one. Everyone knows you should use the social platforms that are right for you, but the panel also noted the increase in a ‘blended’ social approach featuring other, perhaps less popular platforms.

Burch noted the difference between the big players. “Facebook [are] people who love you who shop in there all the time,” he said. “If you want to talk to swing voters…some of the other social networks are very interesting.”

Another vital channel, which Burch admits Asda could be doing better, is YouTube. Why is his company not hitting the mark? The Asda head of social pointed towards the content creators as the future for brands.

“The brands that get it are going to start working with YouTube content creators in a really authentic and credible way,” he explained. “16 year olds, 17 year olds are not watching TV.”

MarketingTech is reminded of Trident Gum and Dunkin’ Donuts, two brands which were among the first to release adverts on Vine, back in September. Dunkin’ Donuts created a stopmotion advert with full storyboard, whilst Trident Gum went down the route Burch advocated; going for a clip using Vine superusers Nicholas Megalis and Rudy Mancuso.

Burch however had one warning for brands’ social strategy: there were too many who were now ‘relatively humorous’, and it went against the golden rule; be focused on who you are and what you do.

“It’s just social media bollocks,” he argued. But his wider point is a fascinating one: if you got rid of the brand name, would you still know who it was?