Social media marketing changes constantly. It is a perpetual fact that maintaining the interest of your social followers requires time and hard work.
At this point, the majority of advertisers realize that organizing social posts is a critical part of a sensible plan. You may not be aware of the most efficient manner to automate your social media promotion. There could be individuals who are opposing your strategy due to their doubt of it being incorrect for numerous causes.
No matter what circumstances you’re in right now, this article will put you on the right course.
Social media automation myths (that won’t go away)
Some people still maintain that it is a mistake to automate your posts.
People either have been misinformed or have a philosophical preference against this which is not usually backed up by the facts.
It doesn’t mean they have nefarious motives. They just might not be totally informed.
Below are some commonly believed ideas that don’t necessarily hold true (and why they don’t).
Myth 1: “Social automation tools decrease post performance”
A lot of things can reduce organic post reach. Strengthening network procedures, higher rivalry for individuals’ consideration, or basically inadequately carried out substance. However, employing a program to plan out posts is not mentioned on that list.
Myth 2: “Social automation is impersonal”
Social media marketing does not have to be cold and distant if you put effort into it. With that in mind, this common misconception might hold true if:
Buffer did an intensive study that showed that having tools to constantly keep your social media accounts with new content will not damage their performance.
- You only share automated posts. Generally, you should be augmenting your social schedule with timely posts too.
- You never bother to tag any other accounts in any posts. This is a missed opportunity to influence shares and get more reach for your posts.
- You don’t respond to comments or messages. Neglecting comments and messages is literally leaving money on the table. In fact, according to Sprinklr, customers who get a response from a brand on Twitter spend up to 20% more.
Be sure to adhere to certain rules when varying your social media posts, taking time to communicate with your followers, and there will be no need to be concerned over this aspect.
Myth 3: “Social media automation is 100% set it and forget it”
This one gets it partially right. One of the advantages of planning when to post your content is that it gives you more time to focus on other activities.
However, it shouldn’t be totally mindless. You should be proactively mindful to make sure what you’re posting is:
- Still relevant. It can be easy to share and reshare content for so long that it eventually goes out of date. Make sure the content you share is either evergreen or up to date.
- Actually driving engagement. Measure performance and adjust accordingly.
- Appropriate given what’s in the current news cycle. If there’s a major catastrophe dominating social media, your pre-scheduled posts might come off rude or insensitive. In case of an emergency, be prepared to shut down your social channels temporarily.
Even autonomous cars need a driver to keep a watchful eye on what is happening around them. Think about social media automation the same way.
What are the benefits of automating social media?
We’ve eliminated some misunderstandings, so here’s why automation is an absolute must if you’re serious about promoting yourself on social media.
You’ll save tons of time
Think about what it would require to keep all of your social media accounts up to date without using a specific application. All your content must be put in a spreadsheet. After that, you must store all your visual elements that correlate in another location.
Setting up alerts in Google Calendar to prompt you to go into every network and make a post. Networks that let you to organize your posts can’t help you with needing to constantly move between several windows to make certain that each network is updated.
Going through all of it is really inconvenient, and long, drawn-out procedures usually don’t remain for very long. Using a specialized application to take care of posting and managing will take care of all these difficulties (and more).
Extend the life of your content
Content on social media usually doesn’t stay relevant for very long. People’s attention spans are short. Posts must be extraordinary to make people cease scrolling and actually select them.
Your posts should be shared numerous times if you want to maximize the effort you put in making them. That’s especially true on a high-volume network like Twitter.
You’ll keep your audience engaged
To maintain the attention of listeners, a continuous supply of material is necessary. Having sustainable practices that keep a consistent level of postings requires the aid of mechanisms that simplify the process. You can see how the two are connected.
Take another look at the graphic above. The reaction to that tweet stayed consistent each time it was shared again and remarkably reached a high point after it had been reposted four or five times.
Take the results of one tweet (or post on another network) and estimate how it would do if repeated on multiple platforms.
It is not assured that everyone will be able to view the content the first time it is posted. Reposting content that has been successful increases the chances of it being seen by a large audience and having a positive outcome.
Choose your networks
You don’t need to be on every social network. You need to make sure that you are participating in the platforms where your target audience is present.
So, choose the networks where you’ll automate posts accordingly.
Kevan Lee from Buffer has crafted a superb set of instructions (most recently revised in December 2018) so as to understand accurately what those networks are.
Some things to think about when choosing networks include:
- Size of active user base: Some networks have dramatically more total users than others.
- Demographic alignment: Are your target customers active on a given platform?
- Alignment with business goals: Is a particular network better suited toward achieving your business goals than another?
Establish a basic posting schedule
One of the main inquiries marketers and enterprise proprietors pose concerning social media marketing is “What frequency should we post?”. It’s tough to provide a one-size-fits-all
When you have nothing to go off of (or you post but don’t have any sort of pattern or schedule), having a few ideas to begin with can be beneficial.
Understanding the actual best times to post
You should plan out when to post so that your followers will be likely to view your content. That’s simple advice, right?
Determining when the best times are to reach your audience necessitates experimentation and perseverance in order to gain understanding of who they are. It is challenging to give general guidelines due to this situation.
