Automating Your Social Media
by Greta Perry

Being efficient with our limited time is what we all strive to do.

When it comes to managing our social media platforms such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, LinkedIn and others, we're all looking for ways to save time through automation where possible. Third party applications like: Hootsuite, Hubspot, Sprout Social, Buffer and Rignite can help you plan out and streamline your social media messages. However, it's important to remember that it's worth putting some protective measures in place to make sure you're automating your feeds correctly. We work so hard to establish and build our brands that we want to do what we can to prevent potentially damaging them.  One simple lesson to keep in mind is to treat each social media platform  a little bit differently when planning out and streamlining your social media messages. Another is to look at all the pros and cons and do the cost benefit analysis to determine if automating you platforms will work for you and to what extent.

Pros:

• Saves you time.
• Allows you to plan out your messages.
• Allows a team to collaborate and check for accuracy.
• Helps control the message you put out.
• You can schedule for the time that best fits your audience even if it's not the time that fits you best.

Cons:

• Can feel robotic and impersonal.
• Can go live at the wrong time (during a natural disaster or tragedy).
• Can be easy to schedule and forget.

The "cons" should be taken very seriously as these are the things that can truly hurt your brand. Remember, automating your feeds doesn't mean you can just schedule and walk away.  You should be monitoring your social media and respond to your customers in real time.

For example, I schedule information about my upcoming fabulous business event I'm throwing for Tuesday at 9 AM. I'm going to be busy driving to the event at that time, so I schedule a third party application to get the message out for me. People start commenting on social media that they need directions and asking questions about cost, but I'm driving and as soon I get there, I have to work on the event, so no one is monitoring the feed and they're not getting the answers they're looking for. This is an example of how you can potentially damage your brand by automating your feed to send out information without following up and having anyone monitor the platform to respond to questions and comments.

Another con is using automated social media during a time of a natural disaster or tragedy and forgetting about scheduled messages and not going back to delete content that might be inappropriate and/or ill timed due to recent events. This happens all the time, even with major brands. Don't be "that person" that sends out the great planned tweet about rainbows and sunshine, while a natural disaster has just stuck a neighboring community. This is the time to either halt your social media or send out a "thinking of all those impacted by," message.

Understanding the potential downsides of automating your social media feeds will help you thoughtfully craft your process moving forward. Managed correctly, third party tools can help you automate your platforms and save you time and energy. 

Remember that whatever method you choose to use to help you maintain your online voice/brand efficiently, you should have some type of measure in place to evaluate your efficiency. Also, remember that the secret to good social media automation management, is to make your audience forget you are doing it.  Send out your messages, but be there to engage and be social with your audience! 

Greta Perry, owner of Kickify, "Pumping Up Your Web Presence," has branded herself both on and off-line with her positive energy, intuitive use of technology, and  networking successes. She is available for consulting or speaking for businesses and brands of all sizes. Greta is never far from the internet and can be contacted at [email protected], Facebook, Twitter @kissmygumbo @kickify @freetweetadvice, LinkedIn, Google + or www.kickify.com.

 

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