When most people think Social Media Automation, the first functionalities that typically come to mind are automated posting and scheduling. There are more tools to count out there that will allow digital agencies to bulk upload content, and schedule posts to be sent out at a pre-determined time, and often it can be difficult to differentiate a Good tool from a Great one.
In this post, let’s dive in to Smart Social Media Automation, because there’s so much more to it than simply automated posting. If you know what’s out there, you can leverage automation to really make the most of you time, (and your team’s), and get the very best ROI for your clients.
Let’s look at some time-saving functionalities that social media automation tools can offer:
Post Planning: Post Planning is one of the core functionalities that the majority of Social Media Automation tools offer. Not only can post-planning take the stress out of your week and check remembering to post regularly and at the right times off your to-do list, but can also help you visualize your posts in a full feed view. On platforms such as Instagram, for example, you can get really creative with the profile page view, and by using post-planning tools you might find that certain posts look better next to each other than others. Post planning will let you visualize your future feed, and can take the guess work out of whether or not you’re staying “on brand”. Plan your posts for weeks ahead of time, and see how much time and stress this functionality can save you.
Cross-Platform Posting: We’ve all been there, writing a post for Instagram, and then Facebook, and another for Pinterest and Twitter. The days of posting to each platform specifically are long gone, however. Not only can you now post across any/all platforms in one go, but you can automatically optimize this content based on the intended social networks. Twitter, for example, has a very strict character count, and Instagram has a limit on the number of hashtags that you can use on a single post. These nuances can make posting to each platform a cumbersome and time-consuming process – so why not automate it?!
Content Generation: Our own platform is integrated with Pexels, and this can be a huge life saver for those days when you’re short of content. Try integrating some stock imagery to your posts if you’re in a pinch, or incorporate content from other creators – (just be sure to give credit where it’s due)! Using smart social media automation tools to access a library of new content at the touch of a button can be a huge life saver for you and your team.
Content Recycling: On the topic of Content Generation, it may at times feel like you’re all out – that there’s nothing else left in the content bank to share with your audience. This is where content recycling comes into play; and leveraging tools that recycle your content can ensure that you are posting, (or re-posting), your most successful pieces at a cadence that makes sense for your business or your client’s businesses.
Caption Generation: Another fantastic functionality that many tools offer these days is automated caption generation. Cloud Campaign, for example, will analyze the content in your blog post and will generate several possible caption options that you can flick through in a matter of seconds. Additionally, when you recycle your content, you can tell our platform to switch up the pre-approved captions, so that your audience is seeing fresh content every time.
Data Analysis and Reporting: So many of the decisions that we make in business today rely on data, but at times there can be too much data that we just don’t know where to start. On top of that, data may be inaccurate or incomplete, further complicating our decision-making process. Whether you’re using data-powered tools to analyze your target audience, or to scrape your inbox and followers to detect and eliminate spam, Data Analysis is a key component in automating your social media initiatives.
Have you tried using Smart Social Media Automation at your agency? How do you feel about the use of platforms that offer automated functionalities? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Give us a shout out on our social channels to let us know!
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