How to put social media on autopilot; Social media scheduling and automation tools have revolutionized how businesses manage their social media presence. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, automation had become a preferred strategy for marketers. In fact, 83% of marketers surveyed in 2019 reported social media post scheduling as the preferred use case for automation. Since that time, we have all experienced a push toward virtual communication platforms as social distancing has prevented in-person gatherings.
This post will explain how to put social media on autopilot by leveraging automation tools. So, there are many ways to streamline your social media management, and you’ll find suggestions related to posting, website design, and communication. These ideas will help you develop a social media strategy that’s efficient and provides significant value for your audience.
What is social media automation?
Social media automation involves using specialized software tools to manage the scheduling and posting of content to social channels. Moreover, keeping up with posting regularly and at the right times is often a major challenge for brands; given a large number of popular social media platforms with their target audiences. By streamlining content management with social media automation; it’s possible to reach more potential customers with a reasonable amount of effort.
How to put social media on autopilot
So, there are a variety of social media automation tools available, offering capabilities such as streamlined content curation; scheduling posts to publish well into the future, recycling evergreen content, and more. Like many aspects of marketing, it’s important to identify automation techniques that work best for your unique business and the tools that are best suited for your needs. Some of the most common benefits seen with social media automation include:
- Streamlined posting schedules
- Reduced time needed for social media management
- Maximized audience reach
- Data collection for social media optimization
- Extended content visibility
- Greater return on investment (ROI) from social media campaigns
Social media automation is especially useful when managing a global brand with customers around the world. So, engaging with an audience through social media helps to build and maintain brand awareness; and gives people the opportunity to comment, tag, and interact with your content.
How do I put social media on autopilot?
Your social media strategy should connect your audience with your brand, and make it easy for them to interact with your posts. This includes integrating social sharing tools and connecting your channels in a way that creates a cohesive brand experience. Here are a few proven tactics for automating your social media management.
Publish at peak times to put social media on autopilot
Perhaps the most popular social media automation technique is post scheduling. With post scheduling, you can create a schedule in advance and have your social media posts published at particular times. This helps maximize audience engagement by choosing times when users are most active.
Maintain a strong content funnel
Quality content is a must when posting on any platform, and it helps to have an active queue of upcoming posts. Creating a strong content funnel helps ensure that you can keep a set schedule, and post to social media channels on a regular basis.
Add social sharing buttons to your website
Linking your website and social media profiles is a great way to increase overall engagement with your brand. People can easily navigate from your website to your social media profiles using the links; or icons you’ve strategically placed on your website. So, you should also consider adding social media sharing buttons to your website which allow website visitors to share a post; or page to their favorite social media platforms with only a single click.
Create automated responses to put social media on autopilot
Many companies use chatbots or other AI technology to create automated replies to customer inquiries. As your brand grows, you’re likely to receive an increasing number of messages through social media channels. It will be nearly impossible to respond to all messages directly, and automation can help ensure that some response is provided.
Set up social media notifications
A dedicated social media management software program can help a great deal if you’re managing multiple accounts. When setting up your social media platforms, take time to configure notifications so they’ll inform you about significant changes on your feed.
Should you fully automate social media?
Putting your social media on autopilot can be a useful strategy, but there are certain limits that you should keep in mind. Cultivating a community and having personal interactions are two of the primary reasons for using social media – benefits that other channels like email lack. While it can automate many aspects of social media with great success, always pay close attention to audience behavior and maintain a hands-on approach when possible.
Putting your social media on autopilot is a proven way to increase both audience reach and brand awareness. So, you can use the ideas presented in this post to streamline your social media management and free up more time for other value-added tasks. As your social media following grows, you can also analyze your social media statistics and identify even more ways to optimize your outreach and customer engagement.