First of all, what is Social Media Automation?
Simply, it is using software to reduce time spent on social media tasks(certain, not all).
For example, Acme, Inc, might use Social Management Software to post on Social Media platforms. However, it is going to be time-consuming to manually post updates(i.e new products, updates, etc.) on any platform through the day, week, or month.
Marketers, social media managers, business owners, and customers benefit from social media automation. How? It saves marketers time and allows social media managers to focus other important tasks. Meanwhile, business owners will feel confident that customer service, scheduling of campaigns, and analytics are being collected automatically.
What are the benefits of Social Media Automation?
- The ability to schedule multiple posts ahead of time for various social media platforms(ensure consistency).
- Reduce customer service response time.
- Grow analytics collections on social media platforms.
- It enables you to build relationships.
Well, lets breakdown the above benefits and what they mean for any business.
Scheduling multiple posts. To be clear, social media marketers or the digital marketing team are charge of staying up to date with anything social media related. Business owners will provide their input or direction when necessary. With that out the way, scheduling posts ahead of time is clearly time saving.
Take for example a business which is integrated with five or more social media platforms. A team of four people posting on each platform throughout the day or week might seem feasible. However, that is not the case at all. Meetings might arise, someone might be sick, and their messages might not align leading to inconsistency.
Ultimately, the advantage of scheduling posts in advance is they can review and refined at any given time. Plus, once they are set to post, the team can be confident major marketing days will not be overlooked. More importantly, customers will get anticipate news, updates, or promos on certain days. Excitement will abound and possibly lead to sales.
Reduce Customer Service Response time. There are common questions can be answered chat bots. Here is a list that comes to my mind.
- Are you open on a specific holiday?
- What are your hours?
- Do have any coupons?
- Inquiries about refunds.
- Questions related to tracking.
Coveo is an excellent app which can be deployed to answers simple questions such the theses. Anyway, it might worth the investment.
Grow analytics collection on social media. Sure, you or your team can spend time manually collecting data from various platforms. However, this is tedious. Also, you might miss out on key metrics by manually collecting data. Of course, it is time-consuming to say the least. Automating the process is a wise decision no matter how small or big the business is.
It enables you to build relationships. Building reports and posting manually are time-consuming, no question. These tasks are important to any digital business, but leave little time to interact with customers. Again, use the tools that at your disposal to automate processes as much as possible. The free time will enable your team to connect with customers via posts, direct messaging or other methods.
Social Media Automation: Don’ts
Don’t Schedule Your Engagement
Don’t schedule your engagement (automate) it via a third-party app. Aim to reply to customers within a reasonable time, personally(your team). Social media from a customer or business perspective is meant for communicating via posts among other things.
Take the time to write a response to a question, concern, critique, or opportunity to improve personally. Doing so, will help you build relationships with customers.
Don’t Use Spammy bots
When bots are used to respond to comments or like them, then that lead to negative interaction. Also, social media platforms are not too fond of bots commenting on posts.
Don’t post the same message on each network.
It might be tempting to post the same message on different platforms. However, don’t do it. Each social media platform has its own image display ratios and word count allowances. So, the end result might be poor quality images/photos displaying on Facebook. This might send the impression that the company is disorganized, careless, or not interested in posting professional content.
Also, audiences on different platforms have different demographics, expectations, and word preferences. One post cannot possibly suit the needs of customers on other platforms.
Don’t leave posts on autopilot
Scheduling posts in bulk ahead of time is a great way be more efficient. However, make updates to posts every so often because things change all time. For example, there might be a forecast hurricane which might prompt people to buy canned food, toilet paper, shovels, boards, sand bags, and other products.
If you had a promotion for canned food but did not adjust it at all, you’d likely lose some business. Plus, ensuring posts are not out of touch with current events is important.
Don’t nurse Ads
Advertisements can boost returns if they resonate with your audience. But, there’s no need to be too involved or hands-on. Find features which can automatically( via automation) promote top performing ads. Utilize A/B testing to test which ads are engaging or are
Conclusion
Social Media Automation is powerful feature of Social Media Management apps. The main reason to utilize this feature is to save time and minimize effort spent on repetitive tasks. Additionally, you can schedule multiple posts to appears on different social media platforms. Reducing customer service response time important, automation, can do so. Plus, it much easier to track analytics by specifying which KPIs to focus on. And last but least, automation will enable you or your team to spend more time building relationships. Overall, there are a lot advantages of using social media automation, however, avoid the pitfalls mentioned.
Sources
“What Is Social Media Automation?[FAQs & Time- Savings Tools].” , Hootsuite, What Is Social Media Automation? [FAQs & Time-Saving Tools] (hootsuite.com)
“Social Media Automation: What Is It, Why You Need It, +4 Tools.”, WebFX, Social Media Automation: What Is It, Why You Need It, +4 Tools – WebFX
I like this article. It defines what marketers should and shouldn’t do when it comes to posting on social media accounts, plus it takes into consideration to not post the same thing on multiple accounts.
I learned this through a platform I used to use called Tactycs. It was an automation managing software that really helped me out in my marketing career. Unfortunately for me it became too costly, and I wasn’t prepared with the upkeep.
That said, I modified my scenario and now I don’t use it as much. But for bigger companies, this is a scenario that should be utilized in my opinion.
Jeremy,
Thanks for taking the time to read the article. Indeed, there are pitfalls to avoid when using automation, such as using the same replies on different platforms. Leaving posts on autopilot is not a good idea either, think about natural disasters or one-time events.
Hmm, I’ve never heard Tactycs until now. Though, the app appears to have been quite useful until it became cost prohibitive.
Anyway, there are many apps for automation and other purposes. Sometimes it is only by trial and error that we discover which ones work best.
Best,
G