- Jamie
How Social Media Marketing Automation Tools Can Help Your Small Business
Technology is moving at light speed across every industry. Systems and processes are becoming leaner, faster, and smarter, enabling innovation and creativity and forcing us to consider a different approach to nearly any task. As our processes have become more intelligent and digitalization has taken over, it has 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 - this is automation.
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 with, "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 experience for their customers. The technology behind marketing automation makes these tasks faster and easier to do."
Understanding the general definition of marketing automation helps you put that into perspective when specifically talking about social media marketing processes. Social media marketing automation automates tasks to make your social media pipeline more efficient and give you time for other things.
How can Your Business Benefit from Social Media Marketing Automation?
As with other automation applications, there are so many advantages to social media marketing automation. A few benefits include 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, complete 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, there is 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 looking for help on a particular job or series of functions. Everyday tasks that different social media marketing automation tools address include:
Content creation
Content curation
Bulk scheduling and posting
Social media analytics and automated reporting
Automated customer service
Automated ads management
Organization
5 Favorite Social Media Marketing Automation Tools to Check Out
Zapier
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.
SocialPilot
Rather than use a separate service for content curation, social pilot has it built into its social media marketing publishing platform. This means you can access sharable, relatable content tailored to your brand or keywords when needed.
Meta Business Suite's Automated Messages
Thanks to the innovation of the past few years, today's customers are accustomed to quick responses to inquiries. You can tackle some of the more routine questions like "what are your hours" or "where are you located" by 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
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 - you can create Pinterest pins, Facebook posts, and Instagram posts and stories all at once - saving you even more resizing and adjusting time.
Agorapulse
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 on things 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 which offer similar features include Buffer, Hootsuite, and SproutSocial.
Key Takeaways
In short, various social media marketing automation tools are available to help you manage your day-to-day tasks. Whether you need help with content creation, curation, scheduling, analytics, customer service, or ads management - there is likely a provider ready to assist. Check out the five favorites mentioned above and see which works best for you and your business.
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