• On Sep, 27, 2012
•  webnovation
•  How To's / Tips & Tricks

Automation is the name of the game when it comes to social media for many businesses…but is it the best way to go?

Before we get started, there is a difference between full-on automation and scheduling. There are also tools that allow for scheduling and easier tracking of comments and conversations which may or may not offer fully automated processes as well. The programs or apps themselves are not bad, but the way that some businesses use them is less than ideal.

Honesty and Authenticity Do Not Mix With Automation

When a customer engages a business via social media they expect to be interacting with a real person who is representing that business. When they are met with little more than canned posts and form-letter responses some of the trust they had in that business fades away. Completely automating your business’ social media presence is the opposite of being authentic, and does not provide the best possible experience to the user (your customers).

Instead of speaking with a representative of the business, a customer attempting to get in touch with  a company who has automated their social media is essentially speaking with a robot. Is that the kind of experience you want your customers to have?

Automated Posts May Not Agree With All Platforms

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are three of the most popular social media platforms. Each has it’s own unique “language” or style of post / status update, and none of them is quite the same as any of the others. Each also has unique features that a user must be logged in to the actual platform to use as opposed to making a post using an automated or scheduling tool.

For example, Twitter users make frequent use of hashtags, and only 140 characters are allowed for each tweet. In contrast, Facebook allows a lot more characters in a status update, and users can ‘tag’ other users by typing in their name and then selecting their profile from a list that appears as they type. When you are using an automated tool (or even a scheduling tool) to post the exact same status update across all of your social media profiles, some things (like these special features of Facebook and Twitter) are going to be lost in translation.

Many businesses make use of automated tools in the interest of saving time when updating their social media profiles; what if you were actually losing fans and followers in an effort to save a few minutes a day? Would the risk be worth the reward, i.e. saving time but losing fans and followers?

The Happy Medium

Despite their less-than-stellar reputation, scheduling tools and dashboards like HootSuite and TweetDeck have their uses. Hootsuite in particular allows a user to post to an monitor several different profiles from one place, and does allow for different posts to be scheduled for different platforms. The real beauty of both of these programs is the ability to track conversations which can be especially useful for keeping an eye on your Twitter feed.

If you are looking for a way to easily share your blog posts whenever you update, why not make use of social media buttons on your blog? You likely already have a few in place to make it easier for your readers to share your posts, and nothing says you cannot use them as well. This enables you to quickly and easily share something in the format that is best-suited to each different platform without having to always log in to the platform’s home page or your profile to do so.

Comments:

Do you use any automated or scheduling tools to post to your social media profiles?

Do you or would you use a dashboard to help track and manage your newsfeeds, updates, and conversations?