How Social Media Automation Saves Resources

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Over the years, social media platforms have been playing a very important role in building a brand’s reputation. Now, around 91% of businesses use social media marketing. Not only does this strategy help you build your brand image, but it also helps form relationships with your prospects and current customers.

The market is huge, with around 3.48 billion social media users worldwide, and nearly every brand has ventured into social media marketing, especially since it costs less than traditional marketing.

However, not everyone has been successful.

Most of the time, money, effort, and time get wasted when social media marketing isn’t done right. This is where you will need the help of social media automation – the use of various AI-powered tools in order to optimize your presence on social media platforms.

These tools help maximize how you post, manage, and engage in your business’ social media page. They’re able to help you implement your social media strategy in a more seamless and cohesive way, saving you from various repetitive tasks, and will give you the opportunity to invest in other aspects of your business.

If you want to find out how, then you’re in the right place. Here are ways how social media automation saves business resources.

Stand out from the overwhelming noise and be certain that your followers – even potential customers – will see your post by being familiar with the day and time most of them are online. 

There are automation tools such as Socialbakers or other social media analytics tools that let you publish across multiple platforms at once. This will save you from going through each of your social media apps in order to post your content.

A platform like Socialbakers offers suggested post times and has a super simple scheduling tool, though brands can also plan posts on their own. Different platforms have different peak posting times, so it’s important to pay attention to the differences as automation can help maximize performance that you would have otherwise missed.

A marketing funnel can be broken down into four stages: awareness, interest, decision, and action. With the available automated tools, you can guide your customer’s journey from finding out about what you’re offering to making a desired action such as purchasing your product or service.

Guiding your target market through the funnel can be a lot of expensive work, which is why automation helps optimize the process. Scheduling posts at peak times is a part of that, and so is utilizing chatbot technology to help your site’s customer relations.

You may want to use a chatbot for your Facebook page so that once your prospects will be greeted and provided with basic information such as product variants and where they can buy your products or services. 

For example, Fenty Beauty, a makeup brand owned by Rihanna, offers you great content through a messenger bot such as finding your shade for the perfect foundation to offering tutorials on how you can use their products.

If visitors need more information, chatbots have the ability to redirect to the company website, or some bots can even assist your customers with the purchasing process like Shopify for Facebook Messenger. 

The funnel doesn’t just stop once you’ve secured a sale. Like Fenty Beauty, the bot redirects you to customer service where they will help you should you encounter a problem with your order.

Consumers always look for good customer service when they’re doing business with brands. In fact, 58% agree that it plays a huge factor on what makes them loyal to a brand.

The highest customer service attribute, which 75% of customers value, is fast response time. 

When your business is readily available and can easily be reached, it sends a message that you care about the people using your product or service. Make it a hassle-free experience for your customers by offering 24/7 customer service.

The easiest way to do this without shelling out too much time and money is through the use of AI such as chatbots, which is a great way to connect with your customers as 56% of them prefer messaging a business rather than calling over the phone.

Aside from that, using these tools helps you save money. In fact, a study has predicted that by 2022, the use of chatbots alone will save businesses $8 billion a year. 

However, it is best to keep in mind that you should not depend on automated tools alone, especially for customer service. Chatbots can only do so much – you can rely on them for commonly asked questions such as “Where is my order?” or “Where is the nearest store from me?”, but real employees still need to help customers with more specific questions.

In case they need further assistance, especially with more detailed questions, you may connect them with a team member as the chatbot only answers what is usually asked about your business.

For example, Clare is a paint company that offers a guide on what color you should use for a particular space. For further assistance, they redirect you to a link which allows you to schedule a consultation.

It’s another way that automation can streamline the process and save business resources along the way.

Social media listening tools are a great way to find out about what people are saying about your brand. When you have an overview of those reviews, it’s easier to track and join these conversations.

Engage in these discussions, whether they are positive or negative. For example, if you see that someone had a bad experience with your product, reach out to them and let them know that you care enough to make it right. Take these responses from Briogeo, a hair care company, for example:

Manage the reviews your products or services get through various AI-powered tools like Socialbakers or a specific customer review software like Weave, where you can gather customer feedback from across social media platforms, making it easier to track your brand’s reputation.

Managing accounts on different platforms might prove to be a challenge for your business, especially when you want to come up with a coherent social media marketing strategy, and connect and engage with your followers at the same time. Once you learn how to automate on social media with different kinds of tools and software by following the guide above, your team can focus on other tasks that require more attention.

Not only will you be able to save business resources, but you will be able to maximize turning prospects into actual sales.