There has been a lot of discussion lately about automated posts to social media channels and how those activities somehow miss the “being human” point of social media.
I have been evangelizing the use of social media for the humanization of brands and organizations for quite some time, but even I think there are times when automating posts is permissible—even recommended.
I need to clarify what I mean before going any further: I am only talking about automating or scheduling posts that warrant it, not putting your entire social media activity on autopilot.
Social media activities are time consuming, and content creation and management is a lot of work. It is not surprising that people and organizations resort to automation to make the work easier and more manageable.
A well executed strategy requires content planning and scheduling, and often there are posts that are not about being conversational but serve a purpose such as announcements.
By scheduling the appropriate posts, those tasked with community management and engagement can be free to be conversational and “in the moment” in social media.
Risk or Reward?
There are risks with automation and there have been a number of recent examples that would suggest that it may be a mistake altogether.
However, I’d argue that the demands of feeding the content machine and successfully executing an enterprise’s social media strategy at scale demand certain actions like automation, delegation, and possibly even outsourcing.
Even if automation is being considered, it still does not mean going so far as to put social media on the aforementioned autopilot. Also, automation does not mean that you abandon oversight. That is where some of these recent missteps occur.
Oversight requires that those responsible for social media management are aware of what the automated or scheduled posts are about or contain so that if something should occur in the media that could be embarrassing or offensive when juxtaposed with the scheduled posts, management can react and address the issue before things get out of hand, and avoid a potential reputational crisis.
There are risks with social media and automation has the potential to enhance some of those risks, but there are also risks that your efforts will fail or perform poorly if you do not keep up the consistent application of effort that social media requires.
Furthermore, with the incorporation of the proper governance and crisis management procedures discussed in my earlier post, you will be well prepared to mitigate some of those risks.
Now, I know there are some that may not agree with what I am suggesting, but as social media becomes more mainstream and part of an organization’s everyday activities, I think you will see companies increasingly adopt ways to make social media more manageable.
In some circumstances, they may have no choice…
About Andrew Jenkins
I’ve always automated the news feed part of my social media. In the beginning, people gave me a really hard time about it. But I see it just like you do: I can automate the news so it goes out intermittently (and not when I’m actually reading the stories) and then my time spent on social is to engage, communicate, and network. What’s wrong with that?
Nothing. At. All.
Andrew, I’ve had this discussion multiple times. I use automation for much, not all, of my social media activity and I make no apology for it. I closely monitor all of my accounts and respond quickly to anyone (well, almost anyone) who initiates conversation. I find it essential to do so in order to be able to stay abreast of the fast paced environment we work in–and to get any work done. I agree that using automation should not be confused with putting things on autopilot and would never advocate taking that approach.
You know what I like about automation? The option to A/B test and see what works and what doesn’t, and then adjust your “manual” strategy based on these results. Everybody wins.
Sorry, was goofing around the the arrows and may have clicked the -ve by mistake. Ignore it
You do know you can click it again, and it disappears back to default?
I agree with both of you. I see a difference between using tools to spread out posts (who wants to see dozens of tweets from me because that’s when I’ve got time to read?) and those irritating auto-dms. Like Allen and Gini, I can automate some tweets, and then use the time to focus on conversations.
It’s all about effective use. If automation can help grow awareness and lead gen, where’s the bad in that?
It’s all about effective use. If automation can help grow awareness and lead gen, where’s the bad in that?
This is a critically important distinction. It’s about the message, not whether you manually post it to each of your hundreds of social networks one by one, slavishly logging extra hours just to meet the maximum standard of the principle of socialization.
Is your message relevant to that particular social network? Is it good quality content or just another sales pitch? Are you interested in what the people on that network have to say about your posts? Do you care about what they have to post? That’s what makes it social, not whether you use a tool to make your distribution more efficient.
Exactly, Chris! Besides, can people (especially solo entrepreneurs and small businesses) cover their online “requirements” 24/7? No – so let’s be realistic less idealistic.
Exactly, Chris! Besides, can people (especially solo entrepreneurs and small businesses) cover their online “requirements” 24/7? No – so let’s be realistic less idealistic.
Ditto for me. I mean, who has time to tweet live all day long? I schedule content the night before or on weekends, and then if I have a bit of downtime through the day, or I happen to check my Twitter feed and see an interesting post, I’ll engage with the author or RT. It makes for an interesting mix of content that I can share with people who follow me.
I once saw someone rail against social media automation, and mentioned they had a blog. “Yes, and?” was the reply. So I asked if they send their latest posts out to their subscribers automatically, or via automated feed. The response? Silence.
I once saw someone rail against social media automation, and mentioned they had a blog. “Yes, and?” was the reply. So I asked if they send their latest posts out to their subscribers automatically, or via automated feed. The response? Silence.
Great to see the conversation that this started and to see that others have a similar mindset.
Got no problem with automation. The people that make the biggest stink about social media being “human” are usually the ones whose whole shtick revolves around them spending a large chunk of their time on social media promoting themselves and/or their social media services. For the rest of us who have jobs/businesses to run, it just ain’t feasible.
I usually check my google reader on Sunday/Thursday and schedule the posts I like throughout the next couple of days. Then there’s my triberr stream that I also check about twice a week.
I respond to any tweets directed at me if I feel they warrant a response and I don’t cry myself to sleep if someone doesn’t respond to one of my tweets. For most people, it ain’t life and death – just a pastime. I still run my business the “old fashioned” way, via phone/email. That’s where my bread gets buttered and those are the best ways for people to get a response from me the earliest possible.
With all the noise on social media streams – I really don’t think most people pay too much attention anyway – but what do I know?
Like Gini, I’ve always automated the news portion of my social properties and use plug-ins to push blog posts out to those same outposts. I don’t understand why some in this space see this as a violation of the ‘sanctity and spirit’ of social. That position is untenable and silly. And certainly you can’t automate engagement (and I’ve seen some local accounts attempt to do that and they’ve worn egg on their faces a few times as a result), but you can (and should) automate content sharing to free up your hands to do other things. You know, like sell new business, meet deadlines and keep clients happy.