It’s a tough balance. We know you’re busy and want to save time by automating. But social media, at its core, is a social platform. Automate too much and you lose your humanity. And, people don’t like when you sound robotic!
Of course, automation is a valuable tool. We know you’re busy, so automating your posts helps you get there and be seen, without requiring you to stay on social media for hours and hours. However, real-time posts also have value, and it’s important to have a mix of the two for an exciting social page. So find a balance between curating content and automating it, and still responding and posting in real time.
Some automation do’s
Be willing to learn
It’s important to note that if your not posting at least, bare minimum, once a day on each platform you are on, you’re not going to have social media success. It’s a bad idea to set many social profiles up and post once a month. Instead, be willing to learn about the platforms that are available and find out which ones are valuable to your industry. Learn how you be human on it and add value to your followers. Choose the sites that will have the biggest impact. If you're short on time, it may be only two or three.
That’s ok, as long as you can dedicate time to those social media platforms.
Make content unique
Different platforms have different tones and rules. While hashtags are extremely valuable and important on Twitter, the same is not true for Facebook. If you’re planning out posts for the next week, write each platforms post a little differently. Facebook allows you more character space, so you can expand on posts. Just be sure to match the tone of the platform you are on.
Engage with your posts
Say you’ve scheduled posts to come out at 3 p.m., 5:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. Your job is not yet done! Once posts go out, you need to make sure you’re in a place where you can engage with followers and commenters. If you wait to respond till the next day, you’re already out of their thoughts and minds, and most importantly, out of their feed. Again, social media is a two-way street. Comment, reply, respond, and follow-up.
Some automation don’t’s
Auto direct messages
No matter how you do this, you’re going to sound like a robot. These include, “Thank you for following me, please check me out on Facebook.” No. Just no, don’t do this. It’s spammy.
Rely only on automated posts
Leave some wiggle room in your content automation. If something happens on the fly, you’ll want some space to post real-time content. If you have posts going out every four hours around the clock, while you engagement may be high because people are seeing those posts, you won’t get all the benefits. People will begin to catch on to you, and your pages won’t seem as genuine.
Quick tip -- Check out trending hashtags often and be careful that the meaning hasn’t changed.
Don’t rely on one app
There are a lot of apps out there to help with automation. Don’t just try one and stick with it. Always experiment with them, finding the ones that work best for your needs, and checking out new apps when they are available.
Some common apps include:
If you missed the conversation catch the replay here. Join us next week on Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST on #MagnetMarketers for our next session.
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