James
Social media automation tools are a phenomenal digital marketing asset. As social media platforms evolved over the years and grew in popularity, marketers jumped onboard to take advantage of their immense reach. Automation tools soon followed to help enhance social media marketing potential.
Some of you may attribute automation with manufacturing and you would be right, but automating tasks don’t stop there. Your social media marketing can be so much more with a well implemented automation approach.
Most businesses utilize social media marketing to promote themselves but fail to elevate their digital marketing efforts through automation. Think of automation as a performance enhancing drug for your social media – you’re taking your digital marketing strategy to a whole new level.
Perhaps you weren’t aware that social media automation was even a thing. Maybe you were considering automating your social media but weren’t sure about the benefits it offers. Let’s dive right in and see what you can expect by implementing automation in conjunction with your social media.
Convenience
Convenience is an appealing trait that a lot of us wish there was more of. Good news for you – when it comes to social media automation, convenience shines through. Automating your social media profiles paves a way to a more streamlined marketing strategy.
Most of us tend to utilize more than one social media platform, businesses typically do the same. Staying active on multiple platforms allows you to effectively reach your target audience while incorporating variety of content. Automation tools aggregate social media accounts to create synergy as you develop and publish content.
Let’s face it, it can be a pain to stay active and be effective on multiple channels. This is especially true for the small business owners who may not have a dedicated social media marketer in their ranks. Automation can alleviate some of the pressure off your shoulders when it comes to online promotion.
Life can be unpredictable and issues may arise that may make it impossible to stay engaged on social media. Automation software can still roll out the content on your behalf giving your audience what they crave without while you tend to more pressing matters.
Save Yourself Some Time
Time is of the essence and it’s in your best interest to make every second count. One of the biggest advantages that social media automation offers is time savings.
Utilize tools to identify what content engages your audience the most. Rather than spending hours trying to come up with quality content through brainstorming, analytic tools can pinpoint ideal content topics. Jumping on board trending issues that coincide with your branding can garner additional exposure from your followers.
The hands-free capability that automation offers is immense. Most social media automation software offers dashboards that compile all your accounts on a single platform. This way you can actively participate on all your social media channels and automate posts for your convenience.
Thing to Consider
Some people take automation too far. Losing sight of what social media is all about and automating all interaction can quickly backfire. Social media platforms are there to engage the audience and to be social while building new relationships and bolstering old friendships. Automation, if taken too far can dilute these efforts.
Automation is there to supplement your social media interaction, not replace your input entirely. Followers will start noticing relentless automation.
Keep track of your brand mentions across the web. Tools such as ‘Mention‘ or ‘Google Alerts‘ can help track your brand name being used in conversations online. Take time to respond to any comments and concerns that people post.
While you take on personal user interaction, automation can take care of the rest.
Staying Consistent
When it comes to social media marketing – or any marketing for that matter – being consistent is essential. Being able to deliver content effectively and predictably helps instill a routine and the brand message in your follower base. Your audience should have an idea of when new content will flood their feed – you should however surprise them with what content will be posted.
Consistency Across Social Media Platforms
This consistency should transcend across the platforms you utilize for promotion and user engagement.
Think about the brands you follow on social media. Did you ever encounter inconsistencies across the different channels that they use? In these cases the brand message the company is trying to cultivate loses substance and becomes vague. Don’t do that.
Automating your social media can help create more consistency for you and your brand development. Not only do you have the option of creating publishing schedules for your content, you can do so across multiple platforms.
Increased Visibility
Making sure your content is visible to the audience is essential. Manual content uploads on social media platforms won’t always reach your audience in time. This may not always be the case but a lot of the time, when you’re active and available to publish, your audience isn’t there.
Your availability and the chance to engage the audience may not always coincide with the availability of your followers. Whether it’s varying schedules or time zones, the prime time to reach your audience may already have passed when you log in. Unless of course you have automated your content.
Social media automation allows you to stay in touch with your followers whenever they are most active. You have the ability to schedule any content you create to be posted at the time of your choosing – create a schedule and let the software do the rest.
Through automation you’re able to captivate attention of your audience day or night.
Timing is Crucial for Optimal Visibility
Evaluate the optimal times when your audience is active and ready to engage with content. It can be demoralizing when you spend time creating and publishing quality posts but no one is there to see it. This happens when you’re unable to deliver posts in a timely manner when the audience is logged onto their social media accounts.
Different demographics interact on social media at varying moments of the day. You will need to have a solid understanding of the audience you’re attempting to reach. Take note that time zones will also play a significant role in content awareness. May be wise to refrain from engaging your audience in London if it’s the middle of the day in Los Angeles.
Social Media Automation Results
Social media automation offers some pretty big and obvious advantages. What about measurable and positive results that were had after implementing automation software?
Inefficiency in a business can potentially reduce revenue by 20-30%. Automation is used to mitigate workplace inefficiency. Less overlap between tasks while at the same time, freeing you up to tackle more pressing matters.
An average of 32% of businesses see an increase in revenue after 12 months after implementing marketing automation tools. You could very well be part of that statistic once you take advantage of marketing automation.
Marketing automation increased sales productivity by 14% and reduced the marketing overhead by 12.5%. Operating expenses are lowered and sales increased thanks to automation.
These are just a few statistics that quantify the positive effects social media automation has had in the business environment.
Automation Faux Pas
Though automating social media does come with perks, there are some things you need to be weary of. Not taking these things into consideration may actually offset the benefit social media automation endows you with.
Losing Personal Touch
Social media platforms have immense marketing potential your business can take advantage of. While automating your social media does have its benefits, don’t let it replace the entire social media interaction.
“Set it and forget it” mentality that may come with automation can become a bit overpowering. Don’t abuse the power. Your social media accounts still need to be monitored and user engagement needs to be analyzed.
Automating Troubleshooting Efforts
Occasionally your customers may encounter issues that will need your direct attention. Whatever you do, don’t automate the personal one-on-one interaction with your customers. It’s very obvious and from their perspective it looks like you’re deflecting the problem.
In this scenario, listen to the people you’re talking to. If you’re unable to directly communicate with the consumer and address their issues, delegate this task to someone you trust. Customer retention is of vital importance and your business needs to handle obstacles such as these with grace.
You can create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) to help with customer service and issue resolution. Having access to a FAQ, users are able to analyze their problem and find a potential solution themselves rather than contacting you personally.
It’s All In Your Hands Now
The world is moving towards automation at an ever increasing pace. Marketers are relying on automation tools to enhance their promotional approach. One thing you can be sure of is that the automation trends will only continue to expand.
Amplifying your social media marketing efforts through automation is a no-brainer. Things only tend to get out of control when the software replaces all interaction. The camaraderie that has developed organically will crumble if you take things too far.
Use automation as an accessory to your digital marketing efforts, don’t substitute your input entirely. As time goes on, you will notice just how effective your social media will become in building new, quality relationships, and maintaining old ones.
Irakli
