Automation is a word that can strike fear into the hearts of marketers, but when it comes to social media, automated platforms can help your content reach a wider audience than ever before.
There are many ways to automate content distribution to social media. Some are more advanced than others, like HubSpot automation at First Page, but most are relatively simple. Social media automation requires some advance planning and a bit of elbow grease, but the payoff can be huge if you do it right.
Here are five ways to improve your social media content with automation:
1. Clarify your goals
When you’re planning an automated campaign, it’s important to have a specific goal in mind. Do you want more likes? Followers? Retweets? It’s best to pick one goal for each automated post or campaign so you know what success looks like once it’s over.
2. Set up alerts for relevant keywords and hashtags
The greatest benefit to automating posts is that you can reach people who may not already be aware of your brand — and one way to do that is by monitoring relevant keywords and hashtags that your target audience uses frequently. Once you’ve identified those words, set up alerts so you don’t miss any opportunities to join in the conversation using Buffer or Hootsuite.
3. Use a scheduling tool to manage your social media posts.
Automation tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Buffer allow you to schedule posts across all your platforms in advance. This allows you to handle all of your social media responsibilities at once instead of logging into each platform separately.
4. Work with influencers to get the word out about your business.
Using automation tools like those mentioned above, you can see which of your followers are considered taste makers or influencers and connect with them directly by sending them a direct message (DM) or responding to their tweets or Instagram posts. These influencers can help spread the word about your product or service by sharing details on their social profiles.
5. Automate social media Posting
The most obvious way to automate is by using a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite that lets you schedule posts in advance. This is great for scheduling blog posts, sharing content from other sources, and other types of long-form content that you want to share regularly.
However, you can also schedule more dynamic content like tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram photos by setting up an RSS feed for your blog posts or website’s updates. This will automatically pull in any new content and add it to your queue so that it can be scheduled automatically.
As a bonus tip: keep your social media schedule flexible! It’s okay if you don’t post exactly at the same time every day; in fact, it can be better when some of your posts pop up unexpectedly for people who weren’t expecting them.
6. Boost the posts that perform well
Use the analytics tools available on each social media platform to identify the posts that perform well. Then boost these posts so they reach more people and drive more sales for you.
You can also use a third-party tool like CoSchedule to analyze your social media results, track your progress and make improvements where necessary.
