8 Tools to Automate Your Social Media

Social media is the largest growing sector for marketing and customer support. The internet has enabled instant responses and up-to-date advertising campaigns. However, as any person that has run social media professionally knows, the instantaneousness of this new era has brought about a daunting task for social media operators: constant management of these accounts.

Although many of these tasks require personal touches and specific care and attention, some are very menial. Growing your community, timing of posts, as well as analytics can all be now done easily through online software programs. Known as "bots" or automation tools, these programs can help target potential new online community members, schedule posts, and show metrics that aid in the overall social media campaign. Bots can be highly effective, especially when nearly 30 percent of users assume that messages they receive or actions done by bots as those done by a 'real' user.

Think of the automated message you sometimes receive on Twitter when you follow someone new. This is a great and often misused tool by many tweeters out there. We've all been on the receiving end of a poorly executed automated response and it can often leave a bad taste in our mouths when it comes to the idea of utilizing some of the automation tools ourselves. But, before you go running and screaming in the other direction in fear of losing your personalized touch on social media, we've got a few recommendations for tools to try out, integrate into your social media strategy, and maybe even learn to love!

Below is the ultimate starter's guide to social media automation broken down by social medium:

Instagram

Analytics: Instagram Business Suite

Instagram just rolled out its handy set of analytics this past summer to all of its users, and it is absolutely essential to efficiently utilize Instagram as a marketing tool. The suite includes summary of your overall profile as well as individual posts' reach, engagement, and views. The suite also breaks down followers by gender, age, and location, further aiding even the most specific advertising campaigns on the social platform. Finally, the best feature is showing which time of whichever day your followers are most active, making timing of posts easier than ever.

Community Building: Instagress

Instagress makes community building for Instagram precise and efficient. Rather than just following and engaging with any users, Instagress gives plenty of filters to use for who to engage with: location, users they follow and who follow them, posting recently, and so forth. One handy filter is the option to focus on building community based on what is in users' profile bios. Instagress is paid software.

Auto-Messaging: Holr

Posting sometimes only does half the job, and this is where a messaging bot is useful. Holr allows users to send a customized message template to all of their followers—for example, to promote an event or new product. The messages are not sent instantaneously, but gradually. Be cautious of sending messages with links as Instagram has yet to allow for hyperlinks in its direct messages.

Twitter

Analytics and Community Building: Audiense

Audiense is one of the most comprehensive tools for Twitter out there. From analytics to messaging to community building, this suite does it all besides schedule the actual tweets. With Audiense, you will be able to find new people with a simple tag, location, keyword, and more, while easily and efficiently engaging with them.

Pinterest

Analytics: Pinterest Business Suite

Pinterest's Business Suite features insightful statistics on profile views, board views, and amount of clicks pins receive. This also includes insights into gender, region, country, and language, enabling marketers to have a global reach. The best feature is the statistics on what profile viewers' top interests are. In other words, with this feature, marketers are able to see what particular subjects provoke the most engagement from their Pinterest audience. If connected to a promotional website, the business suite is able to track how much traffic, not just from your own profile, but in general from Pinterest is being directed to your website.

Community building: Autopin

Autopin is truly the only automation software for Pinterest in terms of fluidity as well as functionality. Based on set filter restrictions, Autopin auto-follows and engages with users through likes and board invites. Autopin also features content scheduling, which is even more powerful when used with information from the audience interest statistics from Pinterest's Business profile. With the ultimate goal of driving traffic to your website, Autopin's features will elevate your Pinterest game to the next level.

Facebook

Analytics: Facebook Business Suite

Like other business suites, Facebook's Business Manager helps give insights into how many views and how much engagement, as well as which posts are most popular. Especially as paid advertisements are growing ever more popular on the social medium, the business manager integrates and shows all advertisement performances, resulting in a more efficient use of monetary resources on paid advertising campaigns.

Scheduling for all types of social media

Buffer

Buffer acts like a the ultimate assistant for your social media calendar. The most basic account is free and includes more than enough to organize your social campaigns with queues for each social medium, as well as guidelines for each post. A new feature, called Pablo, helps create pictures for posts easily and with a professional touch.

Step your social media into high gear with these automation tools, and once the initial setup is complete, sit back and watch the results.

To view the original article, visit the Contactually blog.