Social Media Automation and How to Use it in Combination with Effective Engagement
As modern marketing transitions more towards social media usage and away from print media public relations, learning about the trends that are pushing social media and listening to the lessons being taught by the leading current social media experts is the most effective way to continue to learn. One of the tools that is playing a leading roll in social media is automation. That are many apps and services that let you schedule posts in advanced, for instance my personal pick is Buffer. These automation services have benefits and potential downfalls that industry experts warn about.
When looking at this article on Social Media Today (https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/a-guide-for-effective-social-media-automation-infographic/531584/), social media users are asked to look their automation usage and how it relates to their customer engagements. On the positive benefits side, automation apps let social media users pre-plan their submissions and that can translate into saved time, chances for social media marketers to be away from the internet while still successfully completing the tasks of promotion, and for a marketing message to be pushed forward in a cohesive manner. While on the downfall side, and a main point of the article, is that automation can take away from customer engagement if not used in the correct way. While initial posts and ideas can be pushed forward via automation, customer engagement has proven to be a key impact of social media marketing and if completely automated, that key part of social media is negatively impacted. Social media marketing should allow for a personal engagement touch and automation doesn’t allow for that in its pre-planned, already scheduled format.
So its about the balance, as with many things. Balance here is the use of automation and the live engagements at the same time. Consider using automation to allow for social media marketers to be prepared for future live engagement when the post pushed out. Balance between automation and engagement will produce a more cohesive message and impact.
