Interacting with your community isn't
something you can fake — why automating the process to save time will cost you
dearly
I read something
the other day that bugged me enough to write a column about it.
Automation. I'm
paraphrasing here, because I refuse to link to it, but basically the person
said there's no reason in 2018 to be doing social media manually when there are
tools to automate the process and save precious time.
Baloney and LOL!
That
suggestion smacks of inexperience.
Only someone who has no social media background would suggest fully automating
their social media. Clearly, this person doesn't know that algorithms punish
many third-party applications that allow for such automation. Not all, but
plenty. But algorithms aside, the whole point of social media is a personal
experience with a client. Turning it into an automated chore defeats the entire
purpose.
Would you save 30
minutes here and there? Sure. Would those 30 minutes add up over time? Again,
sure. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that copying and pasting a
bunch of stuff into an automated scheduler gets the job done faster.
Faster can be
better. We pay for things with our phones and watches. We use robos. We pay
extra for shorter shipping times.
But faster isn't
always better. Here are some key things to remember as you decide how to share
on social media:
Each network is
different: Twitter is not Facebook and Facebook isn't LinkedIn. The
concept of taking a tweet and re-purposing it as a Facebook and LinkedIn post
is terrible advice. The minute you start posting the
same exact content on multiple networks, you've given your audience permission
to choose one network on which to follow you, when the goal is for them to
follow you everywhere.
Algorithms are
terrible: There are hundreds if not thousands of factors that
determine why someone else's Facebook post goes viral and yours doesn't.
Staying with Facebook, we've long known, even without confirmation from
Facebook itself, that the company frowns upon people who use third-party
schedulers to share content. Facebook, and by extension any other network,
wants the newest, most enticing content to be shared. Why share something if
there's even a chance your content won't be shared widely?
Your clients/followers/customers
deserve better: It's as simple as that. If you phone it in to get it done, what
kind of message does that send to the people who rely on you? And before you
say that there's no way in the world anyone would know, trust me … they know.
Automation is always obvious because patterns always emerge.
Let me close this
way. I'm all about saving time. By all means, refrigerate your oatmeal the
night before. Use an app to order your coffee and skip the line. But do not
automate your social media. After nearly 12 years in this
business, it's one of the few things in life I don't question.
You, and only you, can
define your social media goals. If posting content just for the sake of posting
content is your goal, schedule away. But there's no point in posting content if
people aren't reading it or can't find it — or if a social network such as
Facebook buries it.
The better way of
doing it is to learn about each of your social media audiences and then
catering to them through interesting links, conversation, polls, photos — the
choices are nearly endless these days.
There's already
enough terrible content on social media. Strive to make yours the best.
As always, if you
have a general social media question, please let me know. Tweet them to me with
the hashtag #onsocialmedia or email me at skleinberg@investmentnews.com.
And remember to
follow InvestmentNews at @newsfromIN.
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