If you’re creating content or managing social media for your brand, then you know exactly how difficult it is to keep coming up with new material. You should be focusing on other aspects of your business, right? That’s where automation comes in. Instead of having to repost and create new content, you can continually generate free posts to reliably drive traffic. The best part is you can do this all at once, or even ahead of time to stay on a schedule. Once you’ve set up your automation your entire workflow will be one smooth process!
Making Things Easier
The first way that automating your content will free up your time, is by simplifying your workflow. With tools like Zapier (free and paid versions available) you can set up complex step-by-step triggerable actions every time you create a post. For instance, imagine if you could create a tracking link and start a social post whenever you uploaded a YouTube video? Maybe you’d like to add users to MailChimp from a Google Sheet you just inherited from a recent event and then send them all a welcome email from your drip campaign? That’s all possible with automation.
This also means you can create one social post and have it post to multiple sources. Don’t worry about editing for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook each time if you have zaps or actions set up. Simply create your content and send.
Using Automation While You’re Away
Another great feature is the ability to set up your content ahead of time. Of course, most social media platforms can draft a post for later. But what they don’t do is repost them periodically. Apps like Buffer create an easy to use interface for assigning your posts and the time you’d like them to show up on your feed. This hits upon a key secret to getting more mileage out of your social media posts: don’t just retweet your posts, Re-Tweet your posts! Of course, that means save yourself some time by rewording and reusing your content. No one is likely to click on a rehash of your own content, unless you use some proven remarketing to show your followers why this ‘Flashback Friday’ post deserves their time and attention.
One feature of setting times and days for your social media to appear that may help step up your game, is that you can also check when people are likely to engage with your content. If, for instance, your office is closed on Friday but your Instagram is wildly popular that day (according to your analytics data… you are using analytics, right? Stay tuned for more on why and how if not!) simply plan your week out ahead of time with an app like Planoly, another free scheduling and automating platform that helps you see your content laid out ahead of time. You can be at home relaxing and have your followers enjoying your content without worrying about coming in on your day off.
Cross Promote Yourself
Unlike the Ghostbusters, who encouraged you to not cross the streams, syncing your blog and social platforms is actually important to getting the information you write in front of the audience you’re writing for. In fact, there’s a multiple of plugins and tools like CoSchedule to create easy to view blog schedules and post to all your content streams at the same time. This also gives you an overview of who’s viewing what content. Example: if small business customers enjoy reading about social media tools on twitter, maybe you’d be better off posting that three times in one day. However, a beautiful looking pink bath bomb might ‘blow up’ on Instagram (I won’t apologize for that pun.) Seeing your metrics all in one tool or reading your blog views alongside your social can really help you understand where to take your strategy in the future.
Let Someone Else Do It
Lastly, let someone else promote your content, or even provide content for you. With all of your newfound free time it may be tempting to begin scouring the internet for all manner of interesting material to post. However, there’s a better way! Using curated sources like Feedly, Curata, Scoop.it and dlvr.it are great. Also, using social listening to see what your customers and competitors are talking about. StumbleUpon, BlogLovin’, Reddit, and other content aggregates can even yield results when you search for specific information. The goal is to let your hashtags and searches be informed by the content that’s already curated and contained by someone else. Spend less time doing more work, and you’ll be amazed at how much more you can get done!
Ultimately, the goal of social media is right there in the title: social. The important thing to remember in all of your endeavors in social media is to engage with your customers. If you’re too busy to do that, it’s hard to imagine what people are saying unless they’re telling you. Take the time to ask them, and respond to feedback. You can’t automate direct engagement, and that’s where your best able to help your business connect with its customers.
