5 Ways to use Social Media Automation in your Marketing Mix

We are now in 2019, and Marketing Automation has well and truly established itself. We’re spoiled with a number of scheduling tools at our disposal.

We can automate pretty much anything, sales workflows, blog posting, e-mail responses, social posting and many more. A sizeable slice of time spent on tasks in the workplace that could be automated, especially in Marketing….. Automation is an invaluable tool that boosts productivity.

Today, a massive amount of our time is spent staring at screens of one size or another. The devices and their screens are getting more and more sophisticated too. Keeping that in mind, here is the nitty-gritty of social media automation in a handy 5 point format.

So here’s five simple rules for social media automation

1. Post When Your Audience is online

An obvious one, but the chances of getting more views of your posts are higher when your audience is online. Your business (and social platform) is unique. The surefire way to know your peak posting times is to dive into analytics. Once you are clued up on the patterns of your perfect posting times, you can make a decision based on actual data rather than posting and hoping for a reaction.

Once you’ve figured out the best time to post, you can then use a tool like SharpSpring, or Hootsuite – both are extremely powerful Marketing Automation tools with a very simple Social Media calendar interface. These tools can help you plan and schedule your posts at specific intervals. You can pre-load posts weeks or months in advance, leaving you free to work on other areas of your business.

So, there you go, a simple way to save a whole lot of time and effort, whilst being more efficient and effective! What are you waiting for?

2. Automate to drive it home: Re-Usable Content

Your re-usable content is your key to success. These content rich areas of your website, such as your blogs and resources never get old. Re-usable content is material that is considered helpful, useful and exciting to your readers. It gives them some form of value. So, repost this content quarterly or whenever it fits in your calendar – be it a blog, a page, an article or a quote. Let it keep showing up on your social media pages regularly.

3. Set up automation between platforms

Another great feature of automation in general is inter-connectivity. As a marketer, you are able to set up a linked list of updates based on set triggers. By inter-connecting one social media network with another (for example, Twitter seamlessly links to Facebook), you can achieve greater reach with one post.

4. Set up notifications -stay ahead!

You’ve probably seen those annoying pop-up’s which keep appearing on your phone? Well, a similar feature can be implemented here! You won’t always have time to respond and interact with your Social Audience and stay engaged all the time! So, to stay up to speed, you need the ability to create automated notifications. Plenty of tools can help you manage your mentions on certain platforms and enable you to see your most influential, engaged, and active users. The beauty is in its ease of use. Find a mention, click on the tweet, and respond, you’ve interacted with your audience in a matter of seconds!

5. Don’t get too lazy

Lets not get to carried away here, social media automation is a time saver!  But, having a section of your work automated doesn’t mean you sit drinking coffee watching it roll. Social media management software is the future, but only because they free up your schedule from time guzzling tasks. Use your new free time to interact more frequently with your customers; spread your message far and wide, and build relationships in the process!