Social Media Automation: 7 Reasons Why It’s a Must Have in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
A traditional social media marketer might cringe at the mere mention of social media automation, while a few others are on the fence, unable to pick a side. But once you realize the full potential of what social media automation can help you achieve, you might decide to leap over the fence.
Content marketers usually like to stick to a content calendar. It helps them plan blog posts and other content months ahead of posting them. Similarly, with social media automation you can plan ahead, and schedule your content to go out at the desired time without having to worry about making time to do it post by post. There is a wide array of perfectly good reasons to incorporate social media automation in your strategy. Here are a few reasons that might help change your mind if you are unsure about automation, or they might just strengthen your opinion about automation being a necessity.
Reason #1 – Social media automation helps save time
“Here’s the rub… we all KNOW we should be active in social media, but who has time? Social media automation makes it possible to manage amidst the whirlwind with options like scheduled posting, auto posting, and engagement responses.” – JP Maroney, Founder and CEO of Harbor City Capital Management
“From my perspective, the two biggest reasons why you can’t do without social media automation are time and timing. Time is pretty self-explanatory: social media automation saves a lot of time that could be better spent elsewhere running your business, engaging with clients, and investigating opportunities for growth. Social media automation allows businesses to do more, better. Timing refers to the way automation makes it so much easier to stick to a content calendar and maintain a cohesive brand identity on social platforms. It might seem small, but ensuring posts are being sent out at optimal times of day maximizes your chances for exposure and engagement. There is simply no way that a manual social media strategy can compete with automation in terms of these two essential factors.” – Brock Murray, Director of Web Marketing at SEO Plus+
Reason #2 – Social media automation allows more time for engagement
“Automation gives you more bandwidth to be interactive. Being able to plan social promotions for events ahead of time gives you more time to be interactive with followers in the moment. For example, if you’re at a conference, you can schedule posts to coincide with certain events in the conference schedule. You can also research others’ Twitter handles and hashtags being used at the event. This way, on the day of the conference, all you have to do is engage with your audience as they respond to your posts.” – Carrie Murphy, Marketing Content Manager at Revinate
“Some argue that SM automation deflects from personalization, but if you have your posts scheduled and thought out in advance to meet a goal or strategy that gives you more time for ad hoc posts, such as random events, a flash sale or timely photos.” – Lysa from Ladybugz.com
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Reason #3 – Social media automation boosts your online presence
“Social media automation is critical for maximizing your social media presence. You have to plan social media calendars around special dates that content is being released, company news, etc. You also want to stagger your posts around optimized times for engagement. You can’t be sitting by your computer waiting to send tweets/posts at particular times- social media automation is just so much more effective.” – Olivia Allen, Inbound Marketing Consultant at BlueLeadz
Reason #4 – Social media automation reduces effort
“Social media automation managers, save me time and effort continuously. It allows me to schedule weekly posts in one or two sittings per week, rather than spending a little amount of time daily posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Especially when I am working on multiple clients’ campaigns, automation becomes a necessity to get the job done efficiently.” – Cheryl Friedenberg, High Key Impact
“Although I am a firm believer in the power of “in the moment” promotion and engagement, automation definitely has its place! Scheduling tweets and event promotion allows me to serve my clients, no matter what time zone they are in. While I’m eating dinner on the east coast, tweets and social links are going out during the work day on the west coast.” – Carrie G. Koens, Book Launch Director at Weaving Influence
Reason #5 – Social media automation helps maintain consistency
“Automation keeps you consistent. Consistency on social media is key to building an audience and attracting prospects. Too often companies are eager at the beginning but then the excitement fizzles off and they no longer post as often as they used to. Consistency is a key factor for people when following brands or even personal accounts.” – Beverley Jackman, Social Media Strategist at Top Draw
Reason #6 – Social media automation keeps you organized
“Social Media Automation is extremely important, as it’s a means for organization. When you are managing multiple outlets, items can get lost in translation. Automation gathers and lays out the project in one place, which makes it easier for everyone involved.” – Rebekah Colby, Marketing Coordinator at USA Interactive Media
Reason #7 – Social media automation widens your reach
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“Automation also helps you reach your customers outside of business hours. Most people use social media at night and on weekends. Most social media marketers work weekdays. Automation lets the marketer do her job without spending her free time posting on social media.” – Rachael Nichol, Online Marketing Specialist at The American Board
“Social media automation is critical to grow and manage your following. Yes, I do think a large part of social media should be personalized. For example, it should be you utilizing your Twitter account and not some robot. But we do use social media automation to automatically follow people who are relevant in our space, as well as Tweet our posts and posts of other Blogs. 2 reasons why it is absolutely necessary is because it allows you to scale effectively and engage your audience more often.” – Dave Schneider, Co-Founder of Ninja Outreach
To summarize:
- Social media automation helps save time
- Social media automation allows more time for engagement
- Social media automation boosts your online presence
- Social media automation reduces effort
- Social media automation helps maintain consistency
- Social media automation keeps you organized
- Social media automation widens your reach
Social media automation works even when you are not working, and that is the biggest benefit you get out of it. It helps you become more productive by allowing you to focus on other aspects of social media marketing instead of having to schedule post after post. Download DrumUp to enhance your social media marketing strategy and see the difference for yourself.
Note: This post was originally published on Oct 20, 2015 and has since been updated with additional information.
Image Credit: Pixabay
