Automating Your Social Media Might Sounds Great, But We Have Some Bad News

5
Nov 2017

Automating Your Social Media Might Sounds Great, But We Have Some Bad NewsMost people don’t want to spend all day everyday on social media. No matter how integral it is to your business, you have to unplug at some point. However, as a business, you need to keep up a steady stream of content. It’s a difficult balance, and many people end up depending on automated tools to keep their social media platforms hopping. While it’s an understandable desire, more often than not, you’re going to harm your brand more than you’ll help it with automation. Taking the “social” out of “social media” a sure way to hurt yourself in the long run, but there is a happy medium that can keep you connected, and not hurt your reach.

Your audience knows!

The most damaging part of automation is that it encourages people to post it and leave it. Not having log in and post sounds great! The issue is that your audience is smarter than you might think. People notice automation. Repeated posts, content going out at the exact same time every day, and the dry language attached to it eventually wears on your audience. If they realize they are following a robot, they have no incentive to interact with you, and you’ve given them every reason to simply unfollow you.

You are removing “social” and just giving them “media!”

Social media is great for getting the word out, but if you aren’t actively interacting with your audience regularly and simply spit out content, they will bolt. Your automation won’t talk to your customers, and that is why you’re on social media channels in the first place!

Interacting is absolutely key for growing your audience, and forming a connection with them. Taking 15 minutes out of your day to respond to posts, find new people that might have an interest in your work, and showing that there is a real person behind your brand is what keeps people watching. Even if your posts are automated, you need to respond with humor, kindness, and specificity to any comment you get. Don’t let the audience feel like they are screaming into a vacuum.

You are killing your reach!

If you schedule a piece of content for 5 p.m. every day, you are sending a sure signal to Facebook that you are a robot, not a real person. The algorithms that place your content on someones newsfeed will start to punish you, and harshly. It’s not just the audience that will recognize your generic schedule, but the platforms that serve them.

You can find a better way!

Obviously, you can’t have someone posting to Twitter and Facebook at all hours of the day every day. Scheduling will happen, and it needs to. The key is to show your audience, and the platform, that you’re a person. While you might only have 15-20 minutes a day to interact, you can make your content look better without costing you hours of your time.

  • Make sure you aren’t on a set schedule. Post at different times. If you can’t post to Facebook live, schedule at a random time. Instead of 5 p.m., make it 5:26 p.m. If you are constantly varying the times, you will yield far better results.
  • Don’t neglect responding! With automation it’s easy to forget to go in and look at your page, but not only does it leave fans hanging for a response, you can’t address any issues or mistakes that may have occurred. Keep an eye on everything.
  • Make sure your content isn’t repeating. You want a lot of content to keep the page active, but repetition not only damages your reputation, but your reach as well. Keep everything spread out.

You can find the happy medium!

The main key to using automation effectively is to keep up on the “social” side. Use automation tools as a way to keep your content going, not as your social media manager. Taking away the need to post manually hour after hour means you can put your time into your audience. Your content will speak for itself, it’s up to you to speak for your brand!

If you have been scheduling and see a continual slide in your performance, don’t lose hope! Find out how to turn you social media strategy around!

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