Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Automation

Is Automating Social Media Bad?

The answer depends on what you want to automate. Social media automation is good if you do it correctly and automate the right things. It can be bad if you automate the wrong things.

It's important to understand that in addition to automation, you still need to engage with your audience and do some things manually to be “social.”

Automation can provide better results in less time!

In general, businesses that use automation will outperform
those that don't automate!

Keep reading to find out what you automate and what you shouldn't automate.

Why You Should Automate Some Tasks

Managing social media is time-consuming. But luckily, automation can save a lot of time and make social media management easier.

• Posting manually takes time away from other important tasks. By automating, you can spend less time on social media and more time on growing your business.
• Automating helps you get your posts out that you may otherwise not get out and you'll be able to get more information out.
• Automatic scheduling enables you to post at odd times or when on vacation.
• Some automation software like Tailwind and other can also schedule your posts at optimal times when your audience is online. I love Tailwind for Pinterest scheduling. You can read my Tailwind review here.

Which Social Media Tasks You Should NOT Automate

You can't and shouldn't automate everything. You can't automate personal interaction. You have to manually engage with followers. You have to monitor your social media.

• Don't automate responses to direct messages and comments. You should reply manually to questions and comments.
• You should retweet manually.
• You should check the quality of tweets before retweeting.
• You should check Pinterest pins before saving them. Click on the url and check the content before saving pins to avoid spam pins.

It’s better to automate scheduling of posts than have days without posting.

Which Tasks to Automate

• You can easily automate scheduling of your social media posts. Some say that people don’t reply or interact with automated posts. That is not true. I do however recommend that you do some manual retweets and repins in addition to your automated scheduling and that you respond to questions and comments.
• I listened to an interview with a Pinterest employee who clearly stated that they do NOT make a difference between manual posts and posts that are scheduled with automation software. They like you to log in to your account occasionally but they do NOT penalize you for automatic scheduling.

Automating Social Media Scheduling

Automating social media scheduling can save you a huge amount of time.

Here are some ways you can benefit from using social media scheduling programs:

• Automate scheduling. Automating tasks like scheduling recurrent posts, sharing blog posts, sharing events and spreading out your posts will save you a lot of time.
• You can schedule at times you want. And some programs (like Tailwind) will even help you post at the best times to reach your audience.
• Spread out your posts. Space out your blog posts and articles over hours or days instead of sending all your content at once.
• Reach a larger audience by posting your updates at the best time and date. Programs like Tailwind (for Pinterest) and SocialPilot (for a wide variety of social media) will suggest the best times to post.
• Schedule time-sensitive tweets in advance so you don’t forget to send important messages.
• Remind people of deadlines, discounts and specials that will expire soon, upcoming events, seminars, webinars and more.

How to Automate Scheduling

Using social media promotions can be time-consuming. But luckily, automation can make social media scheduling easier and save a lot of time.

There are many automation tools. Some of the popular ones include Tailwind , Buffer, SmarterQueue, SocialPilot, CoSchedule, HubSport, Hootsuite, and others.

What software or tools you plan on using to automate your social media scheduling will depend on what social media you want to post to, the amount of posts you want to schedule, your budget and your preferences.

How I automate my social media scheduling

I was using Hootsuite for scheduling Twitter and Facebook posts for several years. I like Hootsuite and ithas a bulk feature to schedule posts but you can NOT bulk schedule images. You must first upload your CSV file with your posts with the Bulk Composer. Then you have to manually edit each post to add images or videos. That's not practical if you want to schedule a lot of image posts!

I am now using SocialPilot to schedule image posts to Twitter and Facebook and I'm using Tailwind for Pinterest scheduling.

• You can my Tailwind review here.
• You can read my review of Social Pilot here.
• You can read my Hootsuite review here.

I schedule most of my Twitter and Facebook posts for a complete month. I also schedule some new posts manually during the month and add any new posts to an Excel sheet for the next month. If I have something important or urgent I want to post regularly during the month, then I create an additional Excel sheet. Or I use the repeat feature of SocialPilot.

See how I use SocialPilot for some of my social media scheduling here.

As with any program, you need to prepare your posts the first time but once you have them set up in an Excel or text file in the required format, you can use it over and over again.

How I schedule Pinterest pins

Tailwind is by far the best program for Pinterest scheduling.

See my review of Tailwind here and find out how you can boost your blog traffic with Pinterest and Tailwind.

Click here to see how I'm using Tailwind here
and how it boosted my pins and repins in less than 1 month!

Your social media will be more successful if you show your audience that you are a real person. If you combine automatic scheduling with some personal interaction, you can get great results and your followers won’t care if you automate some of the process.

SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCES

• Tailwind – The best scheduling tool for Pinterest. They have an Instagram version too. You can read my Tailwind review here.
• SocialPilot – Automates scheduling for a wide range of social media (I'm using it for Twitter and Facebook scheduling). You can read my review of Social Pilot here.
• Hootsuite – Automates scheduling for several social media (I used to use it but switched to using SocialPilot). You can read my Hootsuite review here.
• SmarterQueue – An all-in-one social media management tool that boosts engagement and lets you curate, schedule, listen, reply and analyze in one place (SmarterQueue comes highly recommended by experts and I will check it out soon).
• Social Media Marketing World 2021 – Discover the best social media marketing techniques from the world’s top experts. Or get the 2020 recordings.
• Check out this planner bundle to help you plan your social media, your marketing, and your newsletters.

Disclaimer: I only recommend products I believe in. If you purchase a product through a referral link, I will get a commission. It won’t cost you a dime extra, and it helps me to keep providing you with quality information.