Social media is a well-established way to connect with customers and others interested in your brand. The broader availability of automation also opens opportunities to save time and achieve more consistency. How can and should you apply these technologies?
Use AI for Content Brainstorming and Optimization
Staying relevant with customers is a practical way to elevate their brand perception. One way to do that is to put yourself in the position of certain groups and consider what content they’d most like to see. Someone who has recently purchased their first home will have different needs and concerns than a person who has just moved out on their own and is navigating the rental market.
Some content marketers use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to partially automate brainstorming what topics to address through social media posts and how to stay relevant to the audience. That approach also lets them experiment with tone and word choices, especially if the goal is to write for multiple audiences with different priorities.
Social media users who feel your brand aligns with their life stages, needs, goals and interests will be more likely to interact with the content and keep following the page. Such perceptions can strengthen your company’s presence and keep it competitive in a crowded marketplace.
One 2023 study of marketers at small-to-medium-sized companies found that 52% use AI for social media and 44% for content creation. Another notable takeaway was that 70% of respondents would pay more for marketing tools with AI or automation features.
Research elsewhere also got insights from marketing and sales executives to determine the estimated impact of deploying generative AI in their organizations. Using it for marketing optimization would significantly or very significantly impact 55% of those surveyed. Building and maintaining brands requires consistent work, but automating appropriate parts of the process could lead to meaningful gains.
Keep Social Media Comments Safe and Brand-Appropriate
Anyone who has casually browsed social media comments knows how quickly a formerly civilized conversation can devolve into name-calling, threatening behavior and other things that could upset people and cause them to leave the page.
Many people expect brand-based social media pages to have professional moderators working to find and remove rule-breaking posts. However, that job could be too big for humans to do themselves. In 2024, researchers examined social media conversation patterns to see if they had changed over time. The work involved studying more than 500 million comments over 34 years on five platforms.
Results indicated that while some social norms had changed within that time, those interactions had ingrained toxic behaviors. That suggests people overseeing social media pages to ensure they reflect a brand’s voice may face constant challenges. Fortunately, numerous AI tools can automatically remove or flag comments containing specific words or phrases. Brand representatives can then review the content and take appropriate actions.
That’s a practical way to keep a brand’s social media channels safe and enjoyable. These automated tools can also save time for marketing professionals with perpetually heavy workloads who often encounter challenges in the evolving online world.
Eliminating the manual review of all comments lets people adjust how they spend their workdays and get more done. Not surprisingly, studies from one university indicated workers using automation were 31% more productive than those without it.
Schedule Posts for a Balanced Social Media Presence
Many managers use automated scheduling tools to anticipate demand and ensure adequate coverage. These products eliminate conflicts and keep the company operating efficiently. Some also work according to industry or government-mandated labor laws, preventing accidental violations.
Appropriate scheduling is also important for a company’s online brand presence, albeit for a different reason. Marketers must determine which platforms to post on and how frequently. Automated tools allow setting publishing dates for content weeks or months in advance, providing page followers with new, exciting material.
Such automation also makes it easier for marketers to target specific content to particular age groups. Data collected in 2023 by the Pew Research Center showed a wide variation in which demographic groups in the United States are most likely to use specific social media platforms. YouTube and Facebook are the most popular, and 47% of adults are Instagram users.
Although most people in the 18-29 age group use TikTok, the platform’s adoption rate decreases significantly in older demographic segments. A person’s obligations change as they progress through life, and that could also impact when marketers should post on platforms to reach their audiences. Someone who commutes to work every morning on the train will likely use social media to pass the time. However, a retired person who frequently cares for their toddler grandchild might take social media breaks during the youngster’s naptime.
Content marketers must perform in-depth target audience research to determine which social media platforms people use and when they typically access those sites. Marketing professionals can let those insights inform how they set up automated posting tools to publish on demand.
Connect Automation Applications to Wider Goals
In addition to following these suggestions, remember that the most rewarding social media automation efforts usually align with an organization’s stated ideals. Linking plans with those goals lets people clearly understand the reasoning behind automating tasks and which metrics they should track.
