Article Written by Katina Jaye Beveridge, ASBAS Advisor, Western Sydney Business Centre.
Need to save time in your business? Try automating your social media marketing. The process of optimising social interactions by using automated tools is known as social media automation. This can include things like pre-planning social media posts or republishing popular articles. The hours spent on maintaining and growing social accounts are reduced by automating social media publication, engagement, and management. As a result, time and resources could be diverted to other areas of the marketing budget and meeting strategic objectives.
Here are some of the benefits of automating your social media:
- Spend less time updating brand pages manually.
- Increase your reach and impressions.
- Continue to be active on social media after regular business hours.
- Real-time social data analysis
- Communicate with your followers in a consistent and intelligent manner.
Automating your social media can help you develop a content strategy so that you’re always prepared.
It is important to note, however, that social media automation tools should not be used in any dishonest or unethical manner. Automation tools, for example, should not be used to write your social media posts; instead, they should be used for scheduling, reporting, and content ideas.
Here are some tips to follow when using automation for your social media:
- Posts should be published during peak audience hours. Post when your target audience is most active on social media to maximise your reach.
- Maintain a steady content queue, keep content publishing on a regular basis.
- Analyse social media data. Automated tools analyse data in real time and report key metrics such as engagement, impressions, and reach. Some tools will also send customised reports to your inbox on a predetermined schedule.
- Configure customer responses automatically. Improve customer service by using automated software that suggests responses to messages or chatbots that respond to questions or comments from customers.
Some examples of how social media automation could be used are:
- Chatbots can be used to respond to user messages.
- Schedule Facebook posts for campaigns several weeks in advance.
- Send out tweets when your audience is at its peak.
- Receive notifications about social conversations.
Social Media Automation Tools
- HubSpot
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
- Sprout Social
- Sked Social (my go to tool and Australian)
Social media automation allows you to spend more time interacting with your audience by eliminating day-to-day tasks of content creation.
