Are you sacrificing relevance for convenience?
I used to find the news stream in Linkedin really useful and interesting. People posted something new about what they were up to, an article they’d written or something else work related once or twice a week. Then, along came the function to run your Tweets into Linkedin status and bang went much of the relevance I previously found when logging in to Linkedin. It got me thinking, with so many services now allowing you to pre-schedule and merge various streams of activity – where’s the balance between relevance and convenience?
We’re not averse to a little time-saving and pre-planning in your social media marketing. Far from it. We’re big advocates of effective use of the excellent systems that allow you to set-up various social media interactions ahead of time. Perfect if you have half an hour in the week when you can focus on this.
For example:
- Scheduling Tweets to go out at intervals throughout the week.
- Scheduling a blog post to go live when you’re out of the office.
- Setting your emails to go out at times appropriate to the time zone of the recipient.
However, as with so much marketing science and technology – there’s an art to getting it right. We advise all our clients to think carefully about the balance between automated and real interaction.
What’s the problem with social media automation?
It’s not very friendly…
There is a danger in automating all of your activity. The whole point of social media is to be sociable. It’s an excellent medium for expressing a bit of personality and humour. And, it really is true that people buy from people they like, so being friendly and approachable is a key ingredient in effective marketing.
This is precisely why you need to take care with automation… most people don’t find robots very friendly. It’s well worth making sure that you don’t come across as one. If you have too much automated activity, your company risks being seen as a bit cold and mechanical.
You miss the chance to respond…
The other great thing about social media is that you can chat with people. You know, have a conversation. This means being there to pick up on a thread and converse with someone in that moment. If you’re only ever scheduling your activity, you miss this golden opportunity.
Let’s give an example. I often see Tweets as status updates in Linkedin, and I reply to them, also in Linkedin. But, because the sender used Twitter to post the comment, they forget to check the other places they’ve automated it to go out… missing out on the chance to pick up a thread in the other settings. And, of course, if you don’t spot a reply until hours later, you can bet that the responder has moved on from whatever they dropped you a line about earlier. You also miss people asking questions or mulling something over, where you could’ve given a highly relevant response.
You lose track of which audience wants what…
If your Tweets stream into Linkedin and the other way around, then I assume you’re completely happy for both audiences to get exactly the same material?
Personally, I’m not sure about this. My Linkedin connections, who see my status updates, are all professional contacts – who I doubt are interested in some of the lighter banter I put on Twitter. If they are, they can connect with me in both places. I keep them slightly separate. On Linkedin, I’m imagining that people are in a work frame of mind. On Twitter, I imagine that there are those who are at work, but I also know that many people use Twitter as a lighter distraction at lunchtime or in breaks – so I’m in a bit more of a break room mode in that context. The same is true of Facebook and other platforms – people are likely to be in different contexts and mindsets in different settings.
Adapting your material to suit a specific audience is a cornerstone of good marketing practice that shouldn’t be lost in the system.
What to automate and what to personalise
We think that the following things are perfectly reasonable for an automated approach:
- Event reminders in the lead up to a specific date.
- Opening and closing times.
- Service announcements (like maintenance schedule, etc.)
- Links to blog articles from your back catalogue.
- ‘Did you know’ fact-style items.
We’re not so sure the following should be automated:
- Anything with a question mark in it… as it’s inviting a response and you should be there to respond.
- Jokes, again… they normally get a response and can be the starting point for a conversation.
- Replies… automated replies in social media are really irritating.
And of course, you just can’t automate those happy accidents, when you spark up a conversation with someone. A conversation that often becomes a relationship… that in time brings you a fabulous new customer.
So, take a moment to look at your small business’ approach to social media automation to see if you’re coming across as a robot at times, or if your content is inadvertently cropping up in the wrong context.
By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | @bryonythomas | www.clear-thought.co.uk
If you liked this, you may also enjoy the following:
- Video: How social media supports the whole sales process
- Blog: Be There, Be Relevant, Be Proven; Effective B2B Social Media
- Case Study: Creating an online community for Fable Trading
Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this by planning and delivering 12-month marketing transformation programmes – supporting a small business through a step-by-step process to making marketing pay. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.
Published on 4 April 2011
