Trying to ride a unicycle while simultaneously manually posting to social media and automating those posts with a social media scheduler is a futile endeavour. If it tips to one side, it will fall.
For example, without a scheduler, it can be difficult to keep up a constant and active social presence, which can eat away at valuable business time.
However, if you rely too heavily on automation, you risk coming off as robotic. Or more accurately, like a robot, with no humanity, sentiment, or online presence.
Who is your target market, and what do they need from your product or service?
Let’s get our heads straight before we dive into today’s topic of “social automation with a personal touch”: your target demographic really does want to hear from you.
Eighty percent of consumers say they look for brands on social media. More than 4.48 billion people around the world use social media. You can reach your demographic among this community of users. There is just one caveat: you have to keep at it.
There are no positive outcomes from an irregular social presence. People who follow you rarely get the chance to interact with you, let alone do business with you. However, you can gain your audience’s trust by actively engaging with them on social media on a regular basis. Also, you’ll be remembered.
Why should your brand’s social media posts be automated?
Obviously, you could just update your own social media accounts. Okay, try to picture that.
Let’s say you’re responsible for maintaining a presence on three different social networks for your company. As a first step, you should develop a spreadsheet to record changes and their progression. Assuming you have finished creating your content, you will need to sign into each of your social media accounts separately.
The next step is to post three times across three different channels. Just fifteen to twenty minutes of your time will be required to update that in your sheet.
Not only that, but there are additional benefits to social media automation:
- Facilitates content redistribution with minimal effort: Put one post on hold for as long as it remains relevant.
- Allows some wiggle room for social media interaction: The key to social media success is engaging with your audience, and that can only be done if you have regular posts going out.
- Makes a difference in the satisfaction of your clients: Automated responses to customer messages can also be set up with a social media scheduler. If you enable notifications, you can quickly reply to these messages. Also, in case you were thinking about slacking off, know that 85 percent of your customers want to hear back from you within six hours.
- In the end, your readers receive a constant flow of material from you.
Automating your social media without sacrificing your voice is the key to success
At this point, it should be obvious that using a social media scheduler is essential if you want to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts and avoid wasting a tonne of time. However, relying solely on a social media scheduling tool isn’t going to cut it.
If all you do is set up schedules for your social media posts, you’ll soon find yourself falling off the social media unicycle. To avoid tipping the scales too far in either direction, it’s important to spend time connecting with your audience.
When using a scheduling tool to post automatically to social media, how do you ensure that your brand voice remains consistent?
In the next section, we’ll talk about scheduling posts in advance with a social media management tool. First, let’s discuss some strategies for staying true to your brand while developing social media content.
Some suggestions for developing brand voice
Develop a deliberate plan for utilising social media
You probably already use social media to promote your business, or you’re about to. It’s important to have a plan for using social media regardless of the situation.
A social media marketing strategy is a blueprint for your social media content.
Plan Details
Check that it is carried out properly. The surest way to fail at social media is to post content without first checking it for accuracy and appropriateness. There are two possible outcomes here:
scenario 1: you’re promoting your own website’s articles.
You know your audience best, so the content you’ve created should already appeal to them.
Scenario 2: You’re passing along material created by others.
A careful read and a “is it worth posting” analysis are required here.
Carefully curate content
Content curation is an integral part of the process of developing strategies for social media. It’s a useful tool for honing your writing so that it speaks directly to your readers.
However, remember the 3Cs: Curate Content Carefully, as you work on your collections. In the minds of many, curating is synonymous with data mining and publishing. Although this may seem like a great way to save time, it will not result in the level of interaction you desire on social media.
Repurpose content for each medium you’re targeting
Never forget to keep this in mind. Always and without fail. Don’t reuse captions from other platforms if you can help it. When preparing content for publication, you should take into account the various caption requirements of various networks.
As an example, Twitter requires you to summarise the content you’re sharing. On the other hand, you can get into specifics on social media like Facebook and Instagram.
Give some thought to the readability of your post
Finally, give readability the attention it deserves when automating so that you can avoid coming off as robotic. It has to do with facilitating the reading of your material.
The use of emojis, appropriate spacing, and a high-quality image with a descriptive caption are three ways to accomplish this. Memes and animated GIFs can also help make your content more palatable and interesting to read.