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Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest…
That’s a lot of channels to maintain constant activity on, monitor for questions and comments, and foster community. To say nothing of up-and-coming networks like Threads, or TikTok’s new app that’s coming.
Effective social media marketing is beyond what any one person can do themselves manually, so we turn to tools and automation to help. These tools save time, offer functionality we likely can’t duplicate ourselves, and can bring a degree of consistency and quality to our work.
But there’s some glamour in the glamor, if you pardon me for saying so. Not all that glitters is gold, Mike.
Too much automation, either overall or in specific areas, can actually do more harm than good. Doubtless one of the side effects of the explosion of AI is that people are being more mindful of when content or engagement is authentic or not. And while true conversational AI can be pretty good at feigning human behavior and dialogue, typical marketing automation like chatbots – and how businesses implement them – is nowhere near that level of complexity.
For instance, Facebook has allowed businesses to set up automated responses to Facebook Page inquiries for years. And for years, far too many businesses have turned on default options and left them unchanged and unmonitored, leaving their customers and prospects subjected to countless repetitive and unhelpful responses of:
Thanks for messaging us. We try to be as responsive as possible. We’ll get back to you soon.
Thanks for messaging us. We try to be as responsive as possible. We’ll get back to you soon.
Thanks for messaging us. We try to be as responsive as possible. We’ll get back to you soon.
Listen, there are a lot of ways we’re misusing marketing automation today and as a result, we’re missing opportunities to create genuine connections with our customers and prospects. I’m going to share 6 areas with you today, along with ideas and recommendations on how to avoid those pitfalls while still leveraging automation to scale your business.
Social Media Marketing Automation Pitfalls
Losing the Human Touch
Even the most robust, articulate chatbots are still bots. The tools are incapable of feeling empathy or interest in the human beings who are reaching out to our brands for support or inquiries.
Having a personal touch, some of the time, will go a long way toward building meaningful relationships that drive commerce.
If you’re using chatbots, check in on the responses and conversations from time to time. Interject humor and personal interest where possible. If you’re using saved replies, one of the great features Agorapulse provides to ensure social media managers don’t have to guess or remember how to respond to every single question, take a moment to customize the response you provide before sending to the follower.
Over-Automation Syndrome
Another issue that can arise when there’s too much marketing automation in place is that it actually removes the human marketer from the equation and conversation. If a chatbot is handling all of our website inquiries and conversations, that might seem like a terrific efficiency! Until later when you realize that your marketing team is no longer actually talking to prospects and has lost touch with the issues they actually care about.
If we’re using a scheduling tool to automate all of our social media publishing, and automated replies to answer comments and questions, that means we’re never actually on the platforms, talking to and engaging with our community.
I’m certainly not advocating against the use of such tools – I work for one! But in all things moderation.
Do not automate to the point where you or your staff are no longer engaging personally with your audience in any meaningful way.
Inflexible Responses in Social Media Marketing Automation
There is no such thing as a “set it and forget it” marketing automation. Even for something as simple as an automated answer to an FAQ.
Times change. Events shape the world. Heck, even our URLs change now and again.
Build time into your schedule to review all automated messaging and make sure that it’s all up to date and relevant. Consider both facts as well as tone and context. A funny GIF you programmed a year ago might not hit the same today.
Timing Errors and Insensitivity
This is an issue that’s plagued brands and social media professionals, particularly over the past few years. It can seem like every week there’s another earth-shattering event, whether it’s global or limited to our own industry or community, and it’s inherent on brands and marketers to be mindful of our messaging during those instances.
And that includes scheduled content.
Remember how I said over-automating can remove social media managers from having to be on the platforms and engaging with your audience? That also means they are less likely to be aware of news or trends that might relate to or impact content they have planned. SMMs who are active personally on social media are much more in tune with the audience and aware the latest crisis.
And they can hit pause when they need to.
Your marketing team needs to be prepared to put a stop to all scheduled content at any given moment if, for no other reason, than to give them time to consider the potential ramifications of posting at the moment during the current climate. To say nothing of choosing to abandon a post that now, due to events, will not resonate the same way.
One of my favourite Agorapulse features is the Queue and this is one of the key reasons. Instead of scheduling posts one at a time, for very specific times and dates, you establish a queue that has a time of day and days of the week – multiple queues if you wish – and simply add content to the queue to be published at the next available time. You can shuffle and repeat and duplicate queues, even bulk import, and most importantly – you can pause a queue.
If you’ve diligently scheduled a month’s worth of content and have them all in one or more queues, going quiet in the wake of some tragedy now takes just moments.
Dependency and Complacency in Social Media Marketing Automation
Similar to automated replies which might have bad links or outdated information, we may also be using posting tools that are automatically sharing content that is no longer valid.
Perhaps the links work fine but it’s a post from 2013 that isn’t relevant or factual anymore due to the passage of time. I know many of my older social media posts that talk about platforms and tools are no longer useful (like, oh, say, ~50 articles on Google+ 🤣).
If you’re creating a ton of content and pushing it out to your channels and recycling content with success, that’s great! Just be sure to spend time regularly reviewing and excluding content as needed.
These are the kinds of issues marketers can run into if they’re not careful. Marketing automation tools are great but in the end, they’re just tools. They still rely on us humans to adequately deploy and utilize them.
Don’t be a lazy marketer!
Oh, but I promised you 6 pitfalls, didn’t I? There’s one more critical one to your business overall:
Ignoring User Feedback
Your users aren’t shy about telling you what they think, particularly if they feel there’s a problem. And while no one wants to hear complaints or criticisms, they’re often the most valuable form of feedback as they represent opportunities to improve.
Even if your automated responses are fabulous and replying at a 100% effectiveness rate, you still need to have routine processes in place for humans to review some of the interactions and be aware of any negative sentiments or valuable feedback that might not have anything to do with the triggered responses.
Social listening and monitoring is an essential feedback loop and early warning system. Do not overlook it!
Consider these recommendations for yourself or your team and utilize them to elevate your marketing.
