How do you feel about marketing automation? For some, this is a polarizing topic, especially when it comes to social media. While many feel strongly that social posts should be sent with in-the-moment authenticity, others believe that automation ensures consistent posting and is worth considering. Companies against automation tend to be focused on human-to-human connection and conversation, and they consider pre-scheduling to be a breach of their core values. While that sentiment makes sense, we would argue that the best social media strategies employ a mixture of automation and real-time interaction. That way, authenticity still shines through the content, while marketers enjoy some breathing room to tend to other day-to-day responsibilities.
Adopting a social media practice that includes both approaches requires some planning and dedication, but when done correctly, it’s highly effective. Below, we’ve listed four guidelines for successful execution.
Marketing automation has the potential to be a marketer’s best friend. Marketing teams are pulled in many different directions, social media being one of them. Scheduling daily posts ahead of time helps make sure that your company’s content goes up even if unplanned meetings or crises arise. If you ask us, that’s a safety net worth having around.
One formula for social media success that we find to work well is to do the bulk of content production up front. Spend a few hours developing the next month’s content ahead of time and schedule it to post on the appropriate dates. Then, devote fifteen minutes per day to in-the-moment content and conversations. It makes it easy to pop in and out and develop a human brand voice without losing your entire day to social platforms.
At this point, nearly everyone agrees that auto-replies and direct messages (i.e. Thanks for following!) come across as overly generalized and insincere. Avoid anything that could be considered impersonal or spammy in your marketing automation strategy.
In your fifteen minutes of daily social time, be sure to make the most of interactions. This is your moment to connect personally with leads, customers and industry influencers. To optimize your time, be sure to have targeted lists developed ahead of time for each category that specifically meet your company’s needs. That way, you never have to search for people to engage in the moment, and you can use every bit of free time to focus on high-value interactions.
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