Using social media as a marketing strategy is important for both B2B and B2C companies. Without a social media manager, social marketing can become a challenge, according to blog post on ExactTarget.com. According to the blog post, marketing automation has been criticized as being impersonal and is directly at odds with the concept of personally interacting with your audience using social media.
If it is used correctly, automation can go a long way toward remedying the frustrations. Here are three ways you can use marketing automation to get more out of your efforts without being less social.
Post to Multiple Channels Simultaneously: One of the most important uses of social media is content distribution. Social channels are an excellent way to quickly and effectively spread content, driving traffic back to your site and establishing thought leadership and credibility through social likes and shares, according to the blog post.
With automation solutions, users are able to connect to multiple social channels to the same platform, select which statues they would like to update for a post and publish to all channels simultaneously. It is a great way to get the word out about a new piece of content or a product update, according to the blog post.
Maintain a Constant Presence: Automation allows users to schedule out social postings in advance, meaning you can continue to provide your followers with a steady flow of valuable content even when you’re not in the office, according to the blog post. Recycle older content in scheduled posts on evenings or weekends, or schedule out a series of posts each workday morning to establish cadence with your updates without having to stop what you’re doing every hour.
Social media is not an area where you can afford to neglect. The purpose of social media is allowing clients and prospects to interact with your brand, according to the blog post. Make sure that you’re regularly managing your various outlets and responding to interactions.
Calculate Social Marketing ROI: Proving that hours spent on Twitter and Facebook is one of the most frustrating hurdles for those that handle social marketing, according to the blog post. Using automation, marketers can see how many clicks a particular piece of content received on social media, but which prospects are interacting with the content and how. Tracking social interactions and recording them as part of a prospects’ profile gives sales reps insight into the prospect’s interests.
