Automated social media posting systems – Why do you need it?

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The newest trend is social media is automated posting systems that manage your posting to your social media accounts. When this initially started there was a big “hooray!” sounding from the offices of social media experts. Finally there is a way to schedule posts to various platforms without having to sit online and wait for the optimum time for this post to go on Facebook. And yes – this definitely is reason to celebrate, BUT it doesn’t mean you can now sit back and scratch social media posting completely off your to-do list. Let’s look at why you need this system and how you can make it work for you.

The first and very important thing to notice is what I’ve mentioned – this does not mean your work is done. It’s like doing washing. You put your dirty clothes in the washing machine and it’s great, but nothing will be washed until you tell your washing machine what it needs to know. You need to set the programme, choose hot or cold water, washing cycles and so on. It works the same with social media automation. The goal is not to take your work away, but rather to help you work smart. So in order to work smart, there are a few things you can do to use your automation system to its fullest capacity.

You need to understand when to automate. Once you start automating, you can find that you may become a little addicted. When you’ve discovered its efficiencies in one area, you might want to keep going with this automation thing until your entire workflow has been automated – not cool. One way of building a brand and an audience on social media is sharing great content. Automation helps here, because it helps you to post this content online when your target market is in the best position to read it. It also frees up some time to find more content. T.A. McCann has a very interesting rule called the 5-3-2 rule of social media sharing. This concept states the following:

For every 10 updates you post to a social media channel;

• 5 should be content from others that is relevant to your audience
• 3 should be content from you (no, not a sales pitch, just relevant information)
• And 2 posts should be personal and non-work related that shows your audience your human side

The great thing about this concept, or rule if you like, is that it forces you to focus more on your audience instead of on yourself. It helps you to convey the right message.

Read the full article on our Online Marketing Experts Blog

Is Social Media Marketing Still Viable?

Facebook recently had businesses up in arms and nearly saw many a social media consultant pack their bags. All of a sudden no-one sees business posts, likes are plummeting faster than Husain Bolt can run and reach stats cause sleepless nights. What is happening? Should you take social media marketing off your to-do list?

The simple answer to the first question is that Facebook is trying to limit business accounts. All companies came flocking to the platform to join in the conversation and reach the millions of relevant people waiting to buy their product. Well, Facebook saw this and have now introduced a price tag on what used to be an open floor.

The second question depends on your business. The best place to find justification for or against social media marketing is the cost-benefit ratio. Are your costs in line with the benefits you receive from marketing on Facebook?

In the old days, someone who likes your page, would implicitly see your content in their newsfeed. Then Facebook started using an algorithm called EdgeRank, which tries to figure out what should be the most relevant information a user wants to see. As a result, many businesses have seen that any post of theirs only shows up in the newsfeed of 15 – 20% of their total followers. This is less than ideal, but if you have a large following, this percentage might still be manageable. Since October 2013, EdgeRank has been put into high gear. Now your post will only be seen by 5 – 6% of your page followers and independent studies revealed a staggering 2% range for pages with more than 500,000 followers. This just shows that larger businesses’ posts are being held hostage and paid advertisements is the only ransom.

Read the full article on our blog: Is Social Media Marketing Still Viable