Social media marketing is fast becoming an integral part of company internet marketing strategy for many. With the use of multiple channels, efficient management of social media activities has become a challenge. Automation is an option, which can help social media marketers handle ever increasing number of social media activities. But opinions regarding use of automation techniques are divided.
Automation techniques enable you to create content at one go and post it at multiple locations and multiple timings. For instance, you can write a single tweet and have it posted on more than one Twitter accounts. You can also have the same content automatically posted on different social media platforms.
These techniques also enable you to schedule tweets, posts and updates throughout the day. This means that you can create content for multiple postings in a single sitting and have it automatically posted at different times in a day to make it look like you are active throughout the day. Thus automation techniques can make things much easier for social marketers.
The drawbacks of automation include inability to post in-the-moment content, as the content to be posted will be created in advance. This may be acceptable, except in case of any major events. Also, different social media platforms may cater to different group of users and require unique content. If same content is posted on all platforms, it may be effective on one, but may not work on others. The best solution is to automate only those aspects that allow you to maintain social media activity as a personal and, if possible, real time activity.