Social media takes time… and patience… and commitment. Following through on those requirements is difficult for many businesses, large or small. And there are a plethora of applications and websites that allow you to automate just about everything. Automation decreases the amount of time you have to spend on social media, but too much automation has serious drawbacks…
Inappropriate Content
If you’re automatically feeding content onto your blog or into Twitter or other social network, you have to be very careful that it’s good content. I’ve seen some incredibly inappropriate content show up in such feeds which goes on your permanent record, plus seriously affects how people perceive your brand. If you do use automated content, make sure it’s from a very reliable source, and keep an eye on it (even the most reliable sources can have problems or get hacked).
No Interaction
When everything you do is automated, you’re not paying any attention to what others are saying. You’re not responding when someone comments on your posts. Soon on will bother interacting at all, which leads to…
No Attention
Unless you’re a brand with a loyal following that’s using automation to offer something of value, like Dell’s sales feed, people will eventually stop following and paying attention to you. It’s very difficult to offer information that’s not available elsewhere, and people are on social networks to be social.
No Personality
Social networks are for socializing — for showing the personality and people behind a company. Automation doesn’t tell your story and it doesn’t show any personality. People want to know more about you. They want to interact and converse and socialize with you. How do you do that if everything is automated?
What do you think? Are there brands that use automation successfully? What’s the right balance?
(photo by Louise Docker)