Social media has become such a huge part of everyday life. For a business or website, it’s important to be active on all the different networks if you want to reach a wide audience. Many people are now turning to services like Hootsuite, Buffer, and SocialFlow in order to automate their posts so they don’t have to spend hours each day posting updates on Facebook, Twitter, or other networks.
The idea behind social media automation is that you post Facebook, Twitter, and other updates for your site through a service so it automatically posts at different times during the day. This can save you hours each week if you have a large website or business.
The only problem is that many people are against this kind of thing because they feel it’s going against the whole purpose of social media. More than this, people are possibly going to report your account on these networks as spam (which happens more often than you think). The idea of having a social media page is to get people engaged with your business and the actual social network, not to use automation.
It is true that automation can take away from the human feel of a social media account. People want to connect with real, live people, not robots with pre-written posts. However, if done correctly, automation is a good thing since you can reach an even bigger audience and still focus on other parts of your business. And when used effectively, automation can work for you and help generate more traffic and engagement than you would have gotten had you done it all manually.
In the end it really comes down to how you choose to use social media automation. If you have a large audience of people who are already participating on your social media channels, then maybe you don’t need automation. Most likely, you are already reaching a large amount of people and they are already seeing or engaging with your posts.
Or maybe you need to reach out to new audiences in ways other than your website or posts. Even if these new visitors aren’t necessarily interested in what you’re selling or what kind of services you offer, it is possible that they would be interested in what else is going on with your business. With automation, it’s possible that even some of them may become customers as the result of seeing something from their friends who have used a similar service.
Uses for automation
There are tons of different ways that you can use social media automation. These include:
– Posting updates and photos at specific times during the day. This is probably the most common method used by people who use automation. You can schedule your status updates to come out at certain times each day in order to reach a larger audience than you would with just a single post.
For example, you may choose to send out an update first thing in the morning when people are checking Facebook on their way into work or 5 minutes before lunch so users have something to check when they get a break from work or school. The same goes for photos as well.
Whether you’re posting your own photos, reposting other people’s photos (with permission), or using a photo and adding your own comment to it, it’s best to post it at the peak times of the day when most people will be on that particular network.
– Scheduling updates for certain locations. You can also choose to schedule updates based on what time zone you’re in. For example, if you live in New York and want to reach out to people in Europe, then schedule the posts around their peak times of the day according to Eastern Time. Then if you know that your followers are friends of yours living in different parts of Europe, they will see that your post is relevant to them as well.
– Posting updates for particular times of the week. Another possible time schedule you can use is based on the days of the week. For example, if you want to get your post out on Monday mornings then choose that time to post it automatically for all your followers. This can help you reach a new group of people who are interested in posts related to Mondays or any other day of that week.
Using a service like Hootsuite, Buffer, or SocialFlow to automatically schedule your posts for certain dates or events. These tools allow you to create a schedule about when you want your post posted each month or even every month so it’s not just random.
When to use social media automation
There are many situations in which you might want to automate your social media posting. The most common reason is because you don’t have the time it takes to make posts manually every single day (which could be up to 5-15 per platform).
For example, if you’re trying to submit content multiple times per day then automation can help save lots of time. You might also want to automate your posts when you’re on vacation or out of town because it will be easier for new people to notice that you are online.
People use social media automation to help promote their business and make themselves more visible online.
Popular reasons for using social media automation, and the tactics used, include:
- Reaching out to new audiences or following individuals who may become customers as a result of seeing something from their friends who have used a similar service.
- Posting highly targeted content based on demographics, interests, or locations in order to target your audience with the right kind information at the right time.
- Using automation tools to help increase brand exposure. This includes things like reposting other people’s posts, replying to their posts, and favoriting their work. If you use these tools and then post links to your product or service within those posts, it could lead people to discover your business.
- Automatically sending out a welcome message once someone follows you. This can help you get their attention by letting them know that you are interested in connecting with them.
- Commenintg on other people posts and then reposting them with your own commentary. This is a great way to add value to other people’s work by posting about it. You can also use this tactic to promote your product or service.
- Automatically liking and commenting on other people’s posts as a way to interact with them and build a relationship. If you do this consistently, then people might start to comment back and engage with you.
- Reaching out to people who are likely to convert based on hashtags in your niche or interests that they have mentioned, such as shared interests or topics, and then sharing their content on your account with a link back.
Final thoughts:
Social media automation is a big topic in social media marketing, and there are many different opinions on its effectiveness. Some people feel that it has helped them to grow their business, while others say that it’s a waste of time or doesn’t work at all. There is some truth to both of these statements. The effectiveness of any specific social media automation tool depends on its interface, functionality, and usage. You might find that you like one platform more than the others if you try them out yourself. Or you might find that an automation tool that you use doesn’t work for your business at all.
The fact is, the benefits of social media automation are not clear-cut, and there isn’t one strategy that will work for everyone. That being said, if you want to use social media automations to boost your business or to help you grow more followers, then make sure to do some research first.
Social media automations are extremely beneficial in the short term because they can help you connect with people who might be interested in your products or services. But it may take a while before those people start to engage with you.
Remember that even if you do get a bunch of new followers, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll buy from you. They might follow you because you interacted with them, but many people simply don’t want to buy anything from someone they’ve never heard of before.
The most important thing for social media automation is to create content that people actually want to see. You can have the best social media automation in the world, but if your posts are not interesting and useful enough, then no one will care about following you or sharing them with their friends.
