Time is a marketer’s most valuable resource when it comes to growing a social following and getting big results growing accounts. As much as we would like to manually build connections and followers, spending time handling each social account is taking time away from the real conversation.
Why You Should Use Social Media Automation Tools in Your Marketing Strategy
There is an overwhelming list of marketing automation tools you can use to your advantage, but which one suits your marketing goals the best?
You can start by listing out the goals you want to achieve from automating your social media.
What are you looking to achieve through social automation, besides the time you can save?
Are you trying to build followers?
Keep your account active?
Get more traffic to your site or blog?
Automating these social processes will get you the results you’re looking for without taking too much time away from creating content.
For the skeptics who think automating your messages on social seems a bit robotic and spammy, remember that it’s not about selling, it’s about nurturing the customer. There is nothing wrong with reminding the customer that you’re around and have valuable content to share, as long as it’s not overdone.
Striking a Balance Between Social Automation and Manual Activity
Automating your messages and scheduling posts into the future will ensure that your account is up-to-date and active. A brand can look bad having an inactive account with the latest post dated a month or even a year ago.
Knowing there is a tool for automatically publishing your posts will give you more time to manually respond to mentions on Twitter and time to create more content for sharing.
Social Media Media Tools for Marketing Automation
Build a Twitter Following
If you’re goal is to grow your accounts, then there are tools for finding the right Twitter users and following back users who follow you. The Follow-Unfollow-Strategy is a great way to gradually increase followers by automatically unfollowing those who don’t follow back for awhile.
Solution: ManageFlitter
ManagerFlitter allows you to find relevant people to follow in your industry with accounts matching a combination of keywords in their bio by using advanced search and selection features.
For unfollowing Twitter users and identifying spammers or inactive users, you can also perform an advanced search and easily unfollow the selected accounts.
Alternative: Statusbrew
Originally known as Unfollowers, Statusbrew is a fairly new tool that offers the same follow/unfollow functionality as well as automating DMs and Mention Tweets to new followers.
Optimizing Social Posts
If your goal is to stimulate more likes and shares on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, there are tools that will automatically publish your posts at optimal times during the day for higher engagement.
Solution for Facebook Posts: PostPlanner
PostPlanner promises that you will save 2 hours daily by scheduling Facebook updates using its software. It will also give you suggestions on what type of content to share on Facebook for the most likes and shares.
Solution for Multiple Social Accounts: Buffer, SproutSocial, Hootsuite
Buffer – One of the first tools created for social media publishing, Buffer allows you to schedule your content across multiple social networks and up to 10 posts at a time. Not to mention, using Buffer is free, with paid plans starting at $9 per month.
SproutSocial – A very powerful social media software, SproutSocial allows you to also schedule multiple posts with its convenient publishing system that’s also available on iOs or Android as a mobile app. The only downfall; the pricing starts at $59/user/month but it’s useful analytical reports are worth every penny.
Hootsuite – Everything a social media manager needs can be offered using Hootsuite. It differs from SproutSocial with its multiple streams that display all social media accounts in organized tabs. Hootsuite can be used on a mobile app to manage social networks on the go and it features a team collaboration tool. Start using Hootsuite now with a free plan or commit to a paid plan starting at $9/month.
Are you using any of these social marketing tools? Let us know about what you think in the comment section below!
Want to save even more time on your marketing automation? Find out other useful marketing automation tools in our next blog or leave it to the experts! Find a marketing agency to do the work for you!
