Anyone who takes their social media seriously will know it can really eat up your time. Between writing and designing your content, actually posting the content, setting up ads, replying to engagement, monitoring your results… the list goes on and on, as I’m sure we’re all very well aware.

So when it comes to tools that can shave off a few precious minutes here and there, the temptation is great. Tools to automate various elements of your social media marketing spring up daily.

With so many options out there, it’s hard to know which you should actually be making use of– especially when with each new tool comes the message that this is IT, the solution to all your social media worries. So how do you know which tools live up to the hype, and which are a waste of time and money?

You’ll also hear (and rightly so) that with social media the personal touch is key. You can’t leave everything to robots and expect to build meaningful, profitable relationships with humans.

Maybe the question should really be, is social media automation ever okay?

I’m playing devil’s advocate here a little, because at Shake we’re no strangers to automation tools. They play a big role in ensuring that content is posted for all our clients every day, as well as pulling together data that we can interpret on their behalf in our reports– and loads more besides.

I’d never argue that anyone do away with automation altogether. Automating certain functions can be a life-saver for anyone who’s pressed for time.

Where do you draw the line? What’s an acceptable task to hand over to a computer programme, and what needs the human touch?

When it comes to automating content and community engagement, I have (like many others, I’m sure) some quite strong opinions.

This is where I stand on social media automation– do you agree?

… to scheduling posts for publication. 

The real beauty of scheduling posts in advance is that it makes it much harder to forget days here and there. Snowed under? No problem– past you has already taken care of the social media for today, so that’s one less thing for you to worry about. If you’re not scheduling posts already, you’re missing a staple trick from the social media marketer’s playbook.

Of course, scheduled posts can’t make up 100% of your social media activity– you’ll still need to check in regularly to engage with others and make sure your great content is being seen.

Forgetting to actually engage with your audience on social media is the equivalent of going to a party to stand in a corner shouting things to yourself and ignoring anyone who tries to talk to you. Don’t be that person, figuratively speaking.

… to automating processes.

By that I mean, for example, when a new blog post is added to your site, it will be tweeted from your account.

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… to greeting new followers.

‘Thanks for the follow, X!’

We’ve all read that countless times, and for most of us, automated tweets to new followers (whether public or direct messages) are so common that we hardly bat an eyelid at them.

Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this is a great thing– when the aim of social media is to grab attention, these bland messages don’t often inspire excitement.

Ideally, you’d reach out to new followers in an engaging and personal way that catches their interest. That said, acknowledging every new follower can be a big job, and few people will begrudge you for making the job a little easier for yourself.

True, automated messages are often used and abused by business– especially now that Twitter have lifted their character limit on direct messages. Under no circumstances send every new follower a multi-paragraph message talking about your services in painful detail. Only use these messages if you have something of use to share– for example, if you want to share your helpline number, or other brief and key information, with new followers.

You can still give followers some friendly and personal recognition with an occasional #followfriday, after all.

On top of that, improvements in automation mean that you can rotate greeting tweets, making them more personal, and less like you’re getting a robot to do your interacting for you.

… to generating leads.

There’s no doubt about it– this can be a controversial one.

My personal stance is that there’s no harm in using automation tools to collate lists of people you’d like to connect with. This can be a great time-saver, if it puts all likely-looking accounts in one place and makes it that much easier for you to follow up on promising leads.

Some tools will also let you automate an initial message to the people or accounts you’d like to start a conversation with, which can be acceptable as long as it’s you (or another human person) who follows up on that message.

Just be aware of the dangers of spamming or appearing impersonal– it’s often obvious when a message is automated, and nobody wants to feel like they’re just one more account in an automated list.

… to automated conversations.

I’ve said already that using automation to kick off a conversation can sometimes be okay. Where I draw the line is letting robots take over the conversation completely.

Not only does this defeat the underlying principles of social media (which is interacting socially with other people, not just harvesting leads), it’s often transparent and just doesn’t work.

I’m yet to be convinced that a robot can successfully hold a conversation with a human being for a sustained period of time. Talk about ’emotion matching’ all you like. The reality is, people can often tell when they’re talking to a robot. Whether that’s down to users’ ingrained cynicism or the quality of the automated responses I couldn’t say– but either way, in my experience, it’s not a strategy that sees much success.

Do it the old-fashioned way– finding and engaging with relevant conversations in a human, non-spammy way. Your community will appreciate it.

… to tools which self-promote.

This final point is one of my greatest pet peeves.

Realistically speaking, many self-promoting tools can be really useful. Is that usefulness eclipsed by the spammy self-promoting tags these tools often add to your messages? In my opinion, yes.

Partially this is because automation is an open secret in social media. Most people do it, at least to some extent, but it’s best not to make it too obvious. Self-promoting tags added by tools draw attention to the fact that it’s not actually you thanking your followers (as an example), and give the impression that you just can’t be bothered to do it yourself– which isn’t the image you want to give to anyone looking at your social feed.

In this case, the time those tools might be saving you aren’t building enough goodwill to outweigh the negative impression they’re creating.

Avoid any tools that self-promote, and only use automation sparingly to supplement your real, human engagement.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on automation– how do you use it? Does it work for you? Have I said anything you strongly disagree with?

Let me know in the comments, or shoot me an email at moya@192.168.1.71:8888/shake.

Until next time!