The Automated Marketing Machine
Let’s get real, who hasn’t been annoyed from an automated telemarketer machine?
I find it shocking that some companies still believe that using automated direct marketing tools is a good idea. Sure it’s easy to get an ROI when the cost is so low.. but really.. is that all you got? Isn’t direct marketing all about personalization? It should be obvious that potential customers will only get annoyed (or even angry) when engaged in such an effortless manner.
If something is not acceptable with traditional marketing tools, then why do people think it is acceptable with social media?
The essence of social media marketing lies in the word «social» which is defined as interactions between human beings. Automation, on the other hand, is about using devices in place of human being.
Isn’t automated social media marketing a contradiction in itself?
So why are more and more businesses using software to update their profile content? People are always scared of “wasting time” on social media and automation seems to be the perfect “quick fix” to this problem. The truth is businesses using automation might feel like they are saving time, but they are in fact still wasting time (and money) because once customers realise the account isn’t responsive to comments or feedback the trust gets broken.
…and your account starts talking to itself.
So here is a 2 step solution:
1 - Do not fall in the trap of automation to try to save time but instead learn to be more efficient in your use of social media for marketing. You can plan ahead for updates and write blog posts in advance, as long as you also dedicate some of your time saved to listening to and interacting with the people in your social network.
2 - You can talk about the same topic on Twitter and Facebook, but do not post your Tweets directly on your Facebook updates: people can easily tell when a Facebook update is written in «Twitter language». I’ve had many people tell me they hate seeing the two networks collide.
Just remember: Social media marketing is as much, if not more, about listening to and interacting with others as it is about creating engaging content. And, who knows, you might get highly valuable market intelligence from following the conversations on your networks.
