Automation is a popular marketing trend that’s likely to see continued growth as technology continues to advance. Marketing automation is great for businesses, providing benefits like streamlined workflows and more relevant content to your target audiences.
No matter how long you’ve been involved in marketing, you undoubtedly know the importance of social media when it comes to building your brand. It’s one of the best ways to connect with your audience and “humanize” your business.
However, that doesn’t mean your social media strategy can’t take advantage of automation, too. Let’s take a closer look at how automation can have a positive effect on your startup’s social media strategy. When you’re just getting your business off the ground, being able to streamline this area of your marketing strategy will allow you to focus on other things while knowing you’re still connecting with your digital audience.
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What Does Social Media Automation Look Like?
Initially, you might not think social media and automation go together. After all, social media is supposed to be just that – social. It’s an opportunity to connect with potential customers and people who are learning about your new business for the first time. Nowadays, consumers want to form relationships with brands. So, won’t automating your social media take away from that personal connection?
Not at all. In fact, it can help to boost your connections and improve communication. Some of the easiest ways to get started include:
- Keeping a queue of posts so you can share content at optimal times
- Analyzing social data
- Setting up automatic responses using chatbots or message features
All of these features are important, but you might find the most useful is the analyzation of social data. Automated tools make it easy to look at data in real-time, and they eliminate the possibility of human error. You’ll quickly be able to see who is checking out your social media platforms, whether they’re engaging, and what they’re looking for.
Every marketing expert and business owner needs to understand the importance of recognizing and catering to their target audience. Automation makes that easy while you’re trying to take care of other things.
Automation is just one aspect of the future of social media. It’s closely connected to AI, which should also be implemented into your startup strategy. You can use AI very similarly: integrate chatbots, offer personalized product recommendations, and help your brand understand customer preferences.
By combining automation and AI into your social media strategy, you’ll learn what your audience is looking for faster, so your startup can begin to see success as soon as possible.
How Can Automation Help Your Startup?
Not sure if social media automation is worth it for your startup? That’s understandable. When trying to get a business off the ground, it often feels like you’re wearing a million hats. But, the beauty of automation is that it can take some of that stress away and allow you to focus on other things. Some of the biggest benefits include:
- It saves time
- It centralizes communication efforts
- It provides enhanced visibility
- It offers superior data
Automation also allows you to keep your business “open” 24/7. Because we’re living in such a fast-paced digital world, people will be searching for your business all the time. That’s especially true if you’re trying to take things internationally and you’ll have to cater to customers from different time zones. As a startup, you might not have the resources, funding, or manpower to have someone managing your social media accounts every minute of the day.
That’s where automation steps in, allowing you to stay active on social media after business hours. By programming chatbots or messages to answer common questions, you’ll be able to provide superior customer service to your audience without physically monitoring your accounts.
Obviously, nothing beats human interaction and it’s important to make sure you have a real person engaging with your social media audience as much as possible. But, when you’re stretched thin, automation makes you available to everyone at any time.
Automation Isn’t Just for Big Businesses
One of the biggest challenges new entrepreneurs face when launching a business is keeping their finances in a good place. That’s becoming harder to do in today’s struggling economy. You might not be able to rely on consistent income for quite a while and might end up spending more on your startup than you originally planned.
Automation can seem like something only major corporations can take advantage of, but it’s become so widely available that it can help even the smallest startups grow their business while saving money. Not only will it help you grow by providing 24/7 support to your customers, but it can help you reduce the need for manpower, so you don’t have to hire as many people right away.
According to Entrepreneur, startup owners can spend up to 40% of their working hours on tasks like hiring, payroll, and other administrative jobs. None of those tasks generate income, but they’re necessary for a business to get off the ground.
So, how can you deal with economic uncertainty, especially at the start? One of the best ways is to develop a crisis management plan. If you need to cut back on manpower in your business or redirect employees to take care of other priorities, you shouldn’t have to compromise your social media efforts. Automation will still give you that digital presence while allowing you to carry on with your crisis management plan and put your employees where it makes the most financial sense.
Far too many startup owners make the mistake of not utilizing social media as much as they should. While it might not be at the top of your priority list, it shouldn’t be anywhere near the bottom when it comes to your marketing strategy.
If you’re worried you don’t have the employees or the resources to give enough time or attention to your social media platforms, use automation to your advantage. It’s an affordable, easy way to help your small business grow and stand out from your competitors. You’ll learn more about your audience and be able to give them what they’re asking for faster than you likely ever thought possible.
