Thanks to automation, digital marketing processes can be labor intensive, but they don't have to be. Automation tools have enabled platforms to work together to refine processes and streamline work into an efficient, well-oiled machine. These pairings allow business owners and practitioners to put many tasks on autopilot, freeing them up for other tasks that demand their time and attention.
What is Social Media Marketing Automation?
Before we dive into what social media marketing automation is and what tools you can use to help, it's best to zoom out and look at what marketing automation is and how it puts practitioners at an advantage throughout their work. Marketing automation is defined by HubSpot as "Marketing automation uses software to automate monotonous marketing work."
They continue, "Marketing departments can automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns - not just for efficiency, but also to provide a more personalized customer experience. The technology behind marketing automation makes these tasks faster and easier to do."
In short, social media marketing automation links tasks to make your processes more streamlined, saving you time and effort.
How can Your Business Benefit from Social Media Marketing Automation?
There are many wonderful benefits to social media marketing automation tools, including the following:
It reduces manual work - you don't have to remember to post on a specific day or time, and you can use automation tools to schedule them ahead or in bulk.
It streamlines your information - many platforms offer a singular dashboard to manage your social media accounts and inboxes, with alerts to let you know items are waiting.
It frees up your time for other, more complex tasks, allowing you the benefit of one hundred percent effort when it matters most.
What Can Social Media Marketing Automation Tools Do?
Every day, a new application or platform to help with various day-to-day social media tasks. While some span many applications, others are task-specific. Nevertheless, a provider is likely ready to assist when seeking help on a particular job or series of functions. A few examples of social media marketing automation tool capabilities include:
Content creation
Content curation
Bulk scheduling and posting
Social media analytics and automated reporting
Automated customer service
Automated ads management
Organization
5 Amazing Social Media Marketing Automation
I have barely scratched the surface of what Zapier can do for me. Still, whenever I look for more, I fall down a rabbit hole of efficiency and automation. Zapier pairs with many applications to help you manage social media marketing, including Facebook ads, LinkedIn, Airtable, and Google applications.
Rather than use a separate service for content curation, Social Pilot built it into its social media marketing publishing platform. This means you can access sharable, relatable content tailored to your brand or keywords when needed.
Thanks to the innovation of the past few years, today's customers are accustomed to quick responses to inquiries. You can tackle routine questions like "What are your hours?" or "Where are you located?" using preset, simple automated messages on Facebook and Instagram.
According to the company, "When you turn on an automated response, people will automatically get a reply from your business when they interact with your Facebook Page or Instagram account for a specific event or when their message contains certain keywords."
Tailwind Create offers automated content creation to produce "almost ready" designs. According to the site, users can "create with confidence. Automatically generate hundreds of "almost done" designs." What's better is that you can create Pinterest pins, Facebook posts, and Instagram posts and stories all at once, saving you even more resizing and adjusting time.
Agorapulse is one of several social media marketing publishing platforms with more than publishing built in. Agorapulse allows you to bulk schedule posts with a few clicks, setting your social media on autopilot (you should still check in to ensure no issues have arisen). In addition, it also features a robust analytics dashboard to help you gather the most critical metrics for your business. Other platforms that offer similar features include Buffer, Hootsuite, and SproutSocial.
Key Takeaways
In short, automation tools are available - and becoming better every day - to help you manage the boring tasks, so you can focus on the ones that are more fun and creative.
Whether you need help with content creation, curation, scheduling, analytics, customer service, or ads management, a provider is likely ready to assist.