Social Media Automation – A Necessary Evil

It was today morning that I woke up to the Facebook Update of a good friend questioning Social Media Automation and his dislike for such updates.

To him it was akin to “talk with machines”

Fine he does have a good point, but for most of us in the industry who automate, I think it’s a necessary evil.

My answer –

We aren’t automating ‘Social’

Unfortunately, we are individuals and unlike brands, we do not have the luxury of investing in team to manage social. And you know, social media is demanding.

So many of us who do lot or bit of social media automation, we are in fact only automating the ‘media’ delivery part. So while the updates are automated, our responses are not. Thus, we understand the essence of ‘interaction’ or to say the ‘social’ part.

Let me go back to the basics once again…

What is Social Media Automation?

It is sharing your social media updates using automation tools, where instead of you sharing the link on the platforms explicitly, the tools will post on behalf of you.

The updates can be anything – sharing articles, tweets, pictures and much more.

But the debate usually is about, why is it done. Is there one answer?

Why we do it?

1. Many of us have a core job that doesn’t involve being on social platforms all the time

2. Many of our followers are not in the same time zone we are in during our most active time.

In each of these case, automation helps to reach out to the follower and share with them, what we think could be an interesting update.

This helps in –

1. Amplifying Reach – Few of my followers could find a particular update interesting and will share it forward, thus helping the content reach a wider audience and possibly few more leads.

2. Increases Efficiency – How would I know the efficiency of my updates? Automation gives me a chance to test if certain content is getting traction by sharing more updates regularly.

How we should do it? Is there a balance?

Referring to one of Dan Zarrella’s study, where he said broadcasting helped him gather much more retweets than replying. Clearly, social media automation has worked out well for him.

But, is that true for folks like me?

Partly. It’s true that it social media automation does work well for brands – personal or enterprise alike, but there has to a fine balance.

Today there are loads of tools to automate social media and the key would be to choosing the right ones and balance your efforts. Undoubtedly, multiple automated updates in short span is a strict no-no but few quality updates when your audience is present is always more effective strategy.

Write quality content, share at certain intervals or again, curate quality content and share effectively.

But end of the day, do not automate the “social” part because you have to respond to each queries. A strong relationship is only possible if YOU respond and not the machine.

BOTTOM LINE: While Social Media Automation is a necessary evil, keep a BALANCE

Your Turn

1. How do you view Social Media Automation?

2. What part of Social Media Automation do you approve of?

Would love to see your views and assure that all response will be mine and not the machine’s.

Happy Sunday!!