Social media automation tools enable seamless management of social accounts across a range of different platforms. These automation tools let you dedicate more time to building an audience and implementing social media campaign strategies that work.
To start off, we’ll discuss the following in this article:
- what social media marketing automation is
- tips on how to automate social media posts
- top social media automation tools
After reading this article, you’ll have learned more ways to leverage social media automation to improve your content strategy.
What Is Social Media Automation?
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Social media automation involves using tools to bolster your social presence. It lets a social team schedule posts ahead of time, engage with prospects, and streamline results all in one place.
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Scheduling content isn’t about losing control
Having social media automation doesn’t mean letting AI, chatbots, and automation tools take over your social media accounts.
Social media automation tools are meant to help you manage your social accounts efficiently. They can uncover ways to widen your social networks, monitor brand mentions, and offer content ideas. However, you’ll still need the human touch when it comes to writing posts, communicating with your audience, and interpreting results from analytical tools.
Tips for Social Media Automation
Social media automation enables brands to save time and build an active online presence on social media networks. To maximize its potential, let’s take a look at some of the best practices you should follow.
When you’re starting out, you don’t have to purchase multiple automation tools in an instant and automate everything.
Start by identifying your social media goals. What do you want to achieve? And what should you automate in the process?
Here are some goals to consider:
- posting social content consistently
- responding immediately to customer support requests
- speeding up content curation
- improving the efficiency of social media marketers
You can set any goal you want. However, your objective will determine the type of social media automation tools you get first.
For example, if you want to improve customer service, then integrate chatbots into your social media pages. Alternatively, teams that want to focus on consistency may find that a social media scheduler is an absolute game changer.
Social media lets brands engage with consumers from across the globe.
So, where are your consumers located? What time zones are they in? Knowing the best time to post based on your target audience’s location will help you get more eyeballs for your content.
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The social media algorithm favors posts that rack up a lot of engagement immediately after they’ve posted. Because they get more likes and shares, they’re perceived to be relevant content. Thus, this increases the likelihood that more people will see your post on their feed.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for posting times. Results may vary depending on your industry and the social media habits of consumers in a specific location or country. As an experiment, try to post at different times and see which times generate the most impressions, before committing to a specific pattern.
Posting frequency matters a lot in social media. If you don’t post often, followers will easily forget your brand. But if you post too frequently, followers may be bombarded with too many marketing messages on their feed. So, how do you find the sweet spot?
For most social media platforms, it’s best to consistently maintain the rate of your posts. As long as your engagement rate is consistent, you’ll be able to grow your audience.
A good tip is to build a social media calendar with a posting schedule for every piece of content you plan to publish. The calendar serves as a visual representation of your posting frequency. That way, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are consistent for every platform.
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There’s no need to create a social media calendar from scratch. Social media automation tools let marketers schedule posts at a specific time. This can save you from the tedious process of posting content across different platforms, especially for ambitious social media marketing campaigns.
Social listening lets marketers know what people say about their brand on social platforms.
A social listening tool lets marketers monitor brand mentions from multiple sources all in one place. On top of that, you can follow a specific topic, hashtag, or keyword to uncover valuable insights about your small business or your competitors. What’s new in your industry? Why are your competitors getting more social media engagement?
Using social listening tools will help uncover gaps in your strategy and even spark content ideas for your upcoming campaigns.
Continue reading How to Get Started with Social Media Automation on SitePoint.
