Social Media Marketing Automation- #RubhuSocial Chat Recap

Automate or not to automate or is it what to automate?  I feel there is a thin line of difference between automating your tasks and behaving like a robot. I am sure most of you here are automating your tasks to some level. And may be confused on what more you can automate and what you shouldn’t.

On 11h October we had  this topic for discussion during our #RubhuSocial chat to discuss, ask and share to learn more.

Here is the quick recap of the chat. For complete recap check out storify.

#RubhuSocial chat happens on every Tuesday at 3 pm IST which is 9:30 am GMT / 7:30 pm AEST

Icebreaker: Do you automate your social media activities? Do you find it useful?

Pretty much. Extremely useful and saves a lot of time to do other stuff. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/WkNe3PZpIT

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

Yes, I do automate social media activities and it is useful especially when you have lots of work in front of you #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

Automation is inevitable in today’s information overloaded world, just we need to know, what to automate & not too #RubhuSocial https://t.co/BYtDobr8gu

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

@RubhuSocial For my personal accounts i don’t use social media automation but for clients i surely use ! #RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

Q1. What is your definition for ‘Social Media Automation’?

A1. Currently it’s limited to scheduling & posting content on multiple social platforms. Future would be intuitive #AI platform #RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

A1. As per me Social Media Automation saves lots of time of marketers as it we don’t need to publish social posts each time. #RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A1 Automating your social Media activities with the help of various tools such as @hootsuite @buffer @SproutSocial #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

A1 – Social Media Automation is simply a method of using a tool to post content / updates in advance by scheduling them. #RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

A1 #Socialmedia #Automation ranges from content distribution to conversation monitoring (reply excluding) to retargeting #RubhuSocial https://t.co/YkAzsYj1cs

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

A1 – Automation for me is to help myself take decisions faster and efficiently. #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

@RubhuSocial A1 it is tool for conveying your message or brief about product/services or anything want to update #RubhuSocial

— virag shah (@viragshah4) October 11, 2016

Q2. What are the advantages you find by automating your social media activities?

2: Automating helps save time. That’s the single biggest advantage. Time is money after all. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/qZOc3A2E2F

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A2. Undoubtedly it is Time! But I also find better control over the content I automate, more strategic plan, #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

A2 Time saving from repetitive & unproductive work. In this data overloaded world, u can’t monitor manually, automation helps #RubhuSocial https://t.co/ErhuOjwBku

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

A2 Saves Time which is most imp in SM, You can do your other tasks n u cn schedule ur fututres activities related 2 any event #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

A2. Waking up to the list of already monitored messages to respond on social media! Ah! It is bliss! #RubhuSocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

A2. Better time management & multi tasking. The insights help to strategize better. #RubhuSocial @RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

@RubhuSocial It’s gives the balance to our social media strategy and increases reach and engagement. But we need to monitor. #RubhuSocial !

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A2- Advantages:
– Helps maintain consistency in content
– Helps taking control over strategies
– Helps in giving back time#RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

Q3. What social media activities a businesses or marketer can automate?

A3 Almost everything except live conversation, later one has to be real, though some started using #chatbots #RubhuSocial https://t.co/3GmVFJ9gIL

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

3: Social listening, posting content, to name a few. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/MBVboS548o

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A3. Schedule posts, Analytics, Manage social media calendar are the primary activities. #RubhuSocial @RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A3. Post schedules, report generation, social listening, auto responses to name a few #RubhuSocial @RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

A3- One can automate the following:
– Links to your company blog
– Links to interesting blog posts and articles
(cont. 1/2) #RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

A3- Promotional links
– Questions for your followers / contests
– Inspirational quotes
– Funny liners
– Daily hashtags
(2/2) #RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

Q4. What are the social media activities that shouldn’t be automated?

@RubhuSocial A4: Social media interaction with the stakeholders should not be automated at all #RubhuSocial

— Govind Sharma (@hopegovind) October 11, 2016

A4- Things one shouldnt automate:
– Replies to your followers / Auto DMs
– Customer service responses
– Opinions on news events#RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

4: DMs on Twitter and stuff not relevant to what you’re doing. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/PMws4SSoLj

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A4 DM, Same post @ differents SM #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

@RubhuSocial 4: I think all sort of responses that demand a human touch shouldn’t be. Doesn’t work. Creates bad impression. #RubhuSocial

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A4. Automated response like Thank you Reply, Thank you for following etc. This will effect your strategy #Rubhusocial @RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A4 Don’t automate DM (until extreme important) & live chats #RubhuSocial https://t.co/n7g2pPd62R

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

A4. @RubhuSocial Response management! If u take the soul out of the conversation then it fetches nothing to a brand Stay human. #RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

If you want to generate leads then needs to engage with social media audience and automation won’t work there #RubhuSocial @RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

Q5. What are the challenges a business or marketeers face to automate their social media activities?

A5- Maintaining consistency of content is a major challenge.
Could you suggest other challenges? #RubhuSocial

— Shweta Mallapur (@ShwetaMallapur) October 11, 2016

A5. Biggest Challenge I see business facing is deciding on what to automate and what not to.
My tip: Start slow. #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

A5 #Automation is easy, monitoring is difficult & important. What to monitor & what not to – knowing this is very important #RubhuSocial https://t.co/WMeSCyLAYJ

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

A5 Not a real Engagement n what should be automated are 2 big challenges #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

A5. Generating reports can be automated but analyzing and decision making have to be done by you. #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

A5. Automation is not equivalent to human. Challenge is to dissect humongous data to useful insights #RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

A5. Understand! Automation is to help human not to replace him. #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

+1 I believe that is the way to do it! RT @akara_david A5 i automate my reports but definitely have to analyse it myself #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

Q6 What are the tools which help in automating social media marketing activities?

6: As mentioned earlier a plethora of them. Pick one, see what suits you best. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/dD7pLXuJPO

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A6 @hootsuite @SproutSocial @buffer @PostPlanner @socialoomph #RubhuSocial

— Dhiraj ghadge (@dhiraj_ghadge) October 11, 2016

A6. IFTTT and Zapier have lot of recipes to help you with many social media activities #rubhusocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

A6 Plenty of them #SocialOomph, @buffer @Crowdfire @hootsuite @SproutSocial #socialmention @simplymeasured @RubhuSocial #RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

A6. I prefer @socialpilot_co as it gives me various features like social media calendar, Bulk Scheduling & Content suggestions #RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A6 If not 1000s , there are more than 100s of tool to automate, but choose which comes with analytics. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/Qx5jsVfJMZ

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

Q7. Your tips or resources to learn more about social media automation?

A7. I strongly recommend to read blogs of @buffer @SMExaminer and @socialpilot_co as it gives deep insights. #RubhuSocial @RubhuSocial

— Niraj Bariya (@NirajBariya) October 11, 2016

A7 Use automation wisely, Test what work for you. @marketo & @buffer have great content on #automation #RubhuSocial https://t.co/kz7Xes39CN

— Varun Kumar (@varunkr842) October 11, 2016

A7. Tip: Understand what is automation and plan the what tasks to automate. Then go step by step. #RubhuSocial

— Rubhu Social (@RubhuSocial) October 11, 2016

7: Try to understand & figure what you wanna automate. Then go about it. The webs your directory. #RubhuSocial https://t.co/Qcm2PbCidz

— Mehul (@mehulgohil) October 11, 2016

A7. Read @SMExaminer @mashsocialmedia @socialmedia2day Here is an interesting article on #SMAutomation https://t.co/804awKC7ZW#RubhuSocial

— vijay shenoy (@ishenoy) October 11, 2016

For the complete recap here is the storify

If you love to be part of the discussions, we hate to miss you. Leave us your Twitter handle and simply get a weekly reminder tweet along with chat details on every Tuesday morning. Cool isn’t it? Welcome to our #RubhuSocial community.