What is Social Media Automation?
Updated: Jul 16, 2022
Social Media Automation is the practice of using AI-focused software to boost engagement on social media platforms for both individual and business accounts. The tools are used to interact and engage with other users on the platform in a given time period, under numerous filters, and most often providing a call to action for the targeted user.
How Does Social Media Automation Work?
Social Media Automation works by programming a "bot" to complete specific tasks on one's social media account, either individual or business. That bot will then take the instructions it was given and complete the tasks assigned to it.
These tasks often include liking, following, and messaging other users on a specific platform.
Most Social Media Automation tools are "set it and forget it" style programs. This means once the bot is set up, it will continue to complete those assigned tasks until told otherwise. Artificial Intelligence comes into play as the bot completes these tasks automatically after being programmed.
"If you're looking to automate your social media, it's best to hire, or consult with a professional before getting started. If you mess up from that start, you can perminantly damage you account and be banned from using these kinds of tools. We have seen it happen time and time again." William at Slaterock
Social Media Automation Platforms
There are lots of social media automation platforms in today's market. Many of the available platforms are built using Python, JavaScript, and Anaconda.
These are different kinds of code used to create the platform, allowing the bot to easily connect to your own social media account and complete the actions on your account's behalf.
On some platforms, you can even watch the bot perform those actions live; for example, when using Jarvee, you can actually watch the bot complete the assigned tasks in real-time.
Using Github for Social Media Automation Tools
If you are looking to use a social media automation tool or platform, often, you will find yourself on a Github page with code and lots of instructions.
Although Github is a great resource, at Slaterock, we advise that you avoid Github projects for social media automation as it often leads to issues with your account in the end.
It's best to find a well-established social media automation company that you can trust with your accounts login information.
What are the best Social Media Automation Tools?
Since the beginning of Social Media Automation, one of the most asked questions is simply this. Slaterock believes there are a few different answers to this question as some social media automation tools are definitely better than others.
Users are often looking for the best tool when they don't necessarily know what they are doing with that tool. Many of the top lists for social automation tools aren't considering your experience or knowledge in the space.
For example, a tool like Jarvee is a fantastic automation tool, but there is a massive learning curve to get started. Another great tool is Flock Social; this tool is nearly "plug and play," but the functionality is limited compared to Jarvee.
This makes it an excellent tool for those that are getting started and simply want some form of automation on their profile. But it won't work well for those that are looking to specifically target their exact target market.
The best Social Media Automation Tools are:
Slaterock has chosen these tools based on their individual strengths and weaknesses, including specific social media platforms and the learning curve needed to begin.
Jarvee
Jarvee is the number one social media automation tool thanks to its comprehensive capability and bank of likes and follows. Although there is a steep learning curve to getting started on Jarvee, they offer a great knowledge base with videos that show you exactly how to use each tool.
Jarvee also integrates with most social media platforms, including:
Instagram
Facebook
Linkedin
Twitter
Youtube
Reddit
Tumblr
& More
Flock Social
Flock Social is a platform we often use for Instagram Automation, and it is a great option for any beginner. If you're are simply looking for basic automation on Instagram, Flock Social is your best option.
There is little to no learning curve and a fantastic support team to help you get started when you're ready!
LinkHelp
Linkhelp is an automation tool built for LinkedIn only. Linkhelp is a fantastic tool for those looking to target their audience on LinkedIn.
Not only can you directly target people that may be your customers, but you can even add them to your own audience, allowing you to create specific audiences and send them clear messages and or posts on your behalf.
This is great if you have multiple products or services because you can build audiences around the people that would be interested in each product or service. This ensures you are feeding relevant information to your customers.
Overall all of these applications will help you boost your social media presence with the power of automation, but there is certainly a lot to consider. First, you need to ensure that your target market is actually on the platform you decide to use.
For example, if you're marketing professional services, you should probably be using Linkedin to engage with your potential customers. If you're selling custom t-shirts or soaps, you probably would want to be on Instagram or Facebook as that is the platform where people buy those products the most.
Social Media Automation Benefits
There are many benefits that stem from using social automation media marketing tools and tactics. The main benefit is that the tasks you assign to the automation tool are carried out throughout the day without needing any input.
Many would consider this a form of social media management as the account acts on your behalf, getting your name in front of others all day long.
This gives you the time to focus on other tasks, such as running the business and its day-to-day operations.
Boost in Social Media Engagement
One of the most significant rewards from a social automation campaign is the overall boost in engagement with your profile. In fact, we have seen upwards of a 700% increase in engagement on some Linkedin profiles after beginning a social media automation campaign.
The amount of traffic that is drawn to your profile can be tremendous. In a way, this could be used as a form of advertising when set up correctly and using the proper name and links to your website and social media.
Grows Your Following
Another great benefit to social automation campaigns is the growth of your following. In general, the more people you drive to your page, the more people that will follow you, and the more people that will visit your website.
While none of this is guaranteed, automating your social media is bound to increase your page's following due to the sheer number of people your account will engage with over time.
There are also a few tricks to help boost your following, such as offering a "follow for follow" or attempting a giveaway for the next "1,000" followers.
Targeting Potential Customers
A social automation campaign is unique because it allows you to target people based on specific characteristics of their profile, something that is not generally available on most social media advertising platforms.
One of the biggest success stories at Slaterock when using a social media automation campaign, or in fact multiple, was targeting treasurers of publically traded companies in specific cities to help fill gaps in meetings and increase the value of the business trip as a whole.
What Are the Best Platforms for Social Media Automation?
In other words, what platforms are the most automation-friendly? And this is a great question; if your target market is found to be hanging out on almost all the platforms we have mentioned earlier:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
etc.
Then we recommend starting with Linkedin as this is currently the most automation-friendly platform. Although you may run into problems here and there when pushing the software too hard, overall, LinkedIn is the most friendly.
Instagram and Facebook are hard to manage as they strictly do not allow for social media automation tools. Rightfully so, as this can put a strain on their systems, the best way to avoid the penalty box is by programming your bot to act as if it was a human scrolling through and engaging with the community.
When it comes to Instagram, our second most automated platform at Slaterock, there is a long process that goes into getting an account warmed up. This includes a few days of manual action on our own servers to ensure that we don't "spoof" the system right away.
Doing so could cause a huge red flag causing Instagram to block all actions coming from that specific IP address. Speaking of IP address, if you are located outside of New York, our team will fire up a remote server allowing all traffic to be sent through a server near your home address.
This ensures that your social media accounts will remain safe and unaffected by any geographic restrictions.
Automating your Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is a new field that has grown tremendously in the last few years, creating many jobs for those managing social media accounts for individuals and small businesses. Today, many large companies have teams dedicated to running their social media.
Automate Social Media Posts
One of the most asked questions about social media automation is the idea of automating your social media posts. While this is possible with many different automation tools, including Jarvee, we do not recommend doing this for your company's profile.
Too often, there are errors or reposts that you may not want to be associated with your business. It's best to schedule your posts at the beginning of the week; that way, you can set it and forget it while customizing the stories you would like to share.
One of the best ways to automate the process of automating your social media posts is by repurposing content. Too often, small business owners don't begin creating content because they think it's too time-consuming.
Content Creation for Automation
While creating content can certainly be time-consuming, Slaterock recommends repurposing your long-form content for multiple use cases.
Writing a blog is a great way to generate long-form content while being SEO friendly in Google's mind. But the best part is, after dedicating the time and resources to create a blog post, you can easily repurpose the points written into other forms of content such as:
Long-form Videos
Short-form Videos
Tweets
Artsy Photos
& more
You're simply just using the points and information you already stated in the article and using them to target other audiences on different platforms.
Collect Information from your Followers
Getting information from your followers is one of the best ways to market your products to them in the future. When we first started Slaterock Automation, this was our biggest regret.
As we grew different audiences, we never established an official call to action to help build a contact list. This caused us to have to retarget a different call to action for followers that have been following us for months already!
Collecting a follower's information or intent early on is a great way to continue automating your social media marketing in the future, allowing you to target that follower on other channels.
A good social media manager will be sure to discuss these topics with you before getting started on your campaign. Many small business owners expect that there should be some results or increase in sales when hiring a social media manager, but this is far from the case.
Be sure to check out our website trends for small business owners to ensure your website is ready to handle the traffic that is going to flow from the automation tools in action.
Why You Should Use Social Media Automation
There are many reasons to begin automating your social media, and they have been outlined throughout this article. Automating any part of your business is the way of the future, allowing you to cut back costs while increasing productivity and removing human error.
Increase Brand Awareness
The most important reason to automate your social media is to increase your brand awareness. When automating your social media platforms, your account will be able to target and interact with a highly targeted group that may be interested in your products or services.
Not only can your target these people directly, but you can also collect their information through a call to action, allowing you to build an email list, add them to specific campaigns, or even run paid advertisements to them.
Boost Your Social Media Engagement
When running social automation campaigns, you not only increase your brand awareness but also boost your social media accounts engagement.
This can lead to a spiral effect in which the social media platform you choose can begin showing your content organically to others, furthering your account's reach.
Focus your Time Elsewhere
Small business owners know how powerful social media can be today, and therefore they tend to spend more time on social media than they usually would.
Although spending time on social media can be great, if you are consuming good information at the right time, many business owners don't have the time to scroll through social media to increase their engagement.
Luckily, you can set up an automation tool mentioned above to complete this for you!
Overall there are many great reasons to automate your social media accounts, especially if you don't have the time to dedicate to social media each day (most of us don't), and at the end of the day, it's probably not the best way to spend your time when these tasks can simply be automated.
This allows you to enjoy the little time on social media you can throughout the day, focusing on friends and family and not your business.
Thanks to many of the great tools available today, it's relatively easy to get started automating your social media accounts. With little time dedicated to understanding the platform, our recommendation is to program your bot to act like a human, maybe like yourself!
If you know that you check social media twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, then program the bot to do the same; when first starting. As the platform begins to get used to your account being automated, increase the time the bot spends actively engaging your account.
Over time you can increase the amount of time the bot spends and the number of actions the bot takes, but these have to be minor adjustments made over the course of months, not days and weeks!
If you have any questions or would like to get started automating your social media accounts or any other business processes, click the link below, and our team will contact you shortly!
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