Social media automation – pros and cons

Although social media has provided people with a chance to stay in touch and share their personal content and ideas – but it has done more than that. It has also become a way for businesses to spread the word and awareness of their brand. Social media is a vital part of companies’ marketing strategies. There are many reasons why this particular vessel of digital marketing is so effective, but creating content and posts on social media platforms can be both time and resource-consuming. And any digital marketing agency New York will testify that this is the number one incentive for businesses to turn to social media automation. While there are several obvious advantages of using this tool, there is a number of downsides to automating your brand’s social media posting.

In order to find out which approach carries the most benefits for your business, it is necessary to dig deeper into this subject. What is it that you ought to know about social media automation and its perks as well as drawbacks?

Social media automation – advantages

Efficiency & convenience

Using the tools that enable the automation of social media posting means you can share content on several platforms at the same time at a chosen time. This type of efficiency and convenience of use the most prominent upside of using social media automation. There are various programs and tools you can use to create your own system of scheduling.

Whether you choose a specific program or, for example, a scheduling system Facebook already owns – if you operate several social platforms, you’ll be able to use the tool to quickly and efficiently share new posts to each of them. Automation just makes things simpler. On the other hand, using automated responses is a significant time-saving feature. Basically, all of the steps of creating and sharing social media posts are covered and taken care of in an effective, user-friendly manner. And this is just one of many social media trends to take into account.

Scheduling & posting time

Consistency is one of the important factors of a successful social media strategy. This is why it is important to have a regular posting schedule and meet your target audience’s needs and expectations. Social media automation helps you post regularly and provide updated content on time. You will be able to schedule posts even during holidays, and outside of working hours in general. This is important because for many buyers out there, peak hours of using social media platforms are usually off-work hours. After doing research on when your posts are most likely to reach your target crowd, you can simply use an automation tool to choose posting time.

Better reach & audience growth

Being able to respond appropriately to your audience’s schedule means you are able to get a better reach. This is the perfect way to keep your followers engaged, regardless of which platforms you use. Posting at a time that makes the biggest impact saves an immense amount of time and effort. There is no need to point out all the ways you can utilize the time and the manual work you will be able to save this way. This, in turn, can be used to do extensive research on how to improve your social media reach even further and reach an even wider audience.

• Having a tool that takes care of sharing and posting throughout the day means you can grow your website audience to different time zones and parts of the world, as well.

Cons of automating social media posting

Lack of human interaction

Despite the obvious upsides of using social media automation tools – social networks are platforms designed to connect real people. And every marketing strategy out there is pointed towards building relationships. This means that it is virtually essential for actual humans to be involved in social media posting and interaction. If you rely on automation all the way, there is a risk of losing the chance to respond to what your audience actually needs. And although it is saving you time and resources, do not forget what social media is actually about.

Generated auto responses will not properly respond to buyers’ concerns. Moreover, messages may end up being generic; this is a pitfall that leaves the audience feeling less appreciated. In the end, it might cause your brand to appear uninterested in real customers’ issues.

Neglecting company’s social media channels

One of the obvious traps to fall into when using social media automation is neglecting your brand’s social media channels. Letting a tool handle all your posts and not monitoring them or their impact can lead to the posting becoming virtually irrelevant. Make sure your posting activities are being monitored. This will create a more successful contact with the followers and spark better interaction and conversations with people. Although automation helps you sit back and relax – don’t forget that a successful social media strategy needs both care and attention.

Over-posting vs. missing out on posting opportunities

Since automation tools make posting so easy, this may end up leading to over-posting. It is important to be consistent about posting; however, doing so too often leaves an impression of spamming. In order to maintain the image of your brand, try not to post in bulk or overdo it. On the other hand, using the pre-posting and scheduling options means you may miss out on important opportunities to post. Interaction that stems from posting about relevant and current events is something you shouldn’t oversee.

Be sure your pre-scheduled posts are not ill-timed. Monitor current events and post accordingly.

How to avoid the challenges of social media automation

Getting a closer insight into some of the challenges and upsides of using social media automation tools simplifies the process of making the final call on using them. Choose to overcome the obstacles of automation by simply following two important notions:

• Don’t forget that your followers expect a real understanding of their needs. Provide the content they need and do so when they need it.
• Connect with your audience. Building relationships is not something that can be done through using mere tools instead of real human interaction. Use social media automation as a supplement – and you will be creating the perfect social media marketing balance as a result.