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Despite automation being around for years, it’s only recently that automated processes and systems have become a big part of our daily lives. As a relatively modern industry, social media has not been left out when it comes to automation, and there are lots of tools that social media agencies can use to save both time and money.
Too intimidating or risky? Automating complex creative processes can sure seem that way but stripping it back, it’s really just the use of technology to make them more efficient.
By taking some of the human input out of your processes, automation can:
- Reduce bottlenecks
- Minimize errors
- Reduce labor costs
- Increase production speed
Where social media management is concerned, automating transforms painstaking, time-intensive tasks into smart, background operations.
As a result, you can focus on what you do best.
Note! We’re not talking about delegating your entire client content creation work to bots and AI algorithms like GPT3 or Dall-E.
Yes, these tools feel like magic but they’re far from capable of creating the level of content your client needs to reach their social media goals.
In this guide, we’ll talk all about how to use software tools - where safe and appropriate - and how to combine them with a remote creative team to deliver creative work faster and more efficiently to help you scale your agency.
Related: Best White Label Social Media Management Software for Agencies
What to Automate and What Not to Automate
There are automation tools for almost every part of social media management. The key to successful social media automation is identifying automation opportunities that make sense and are appropriate for your agency, your clients and the services you offer.
Think about:
- What’s eating up most of your time
- Which social media services need human input to be successful
Create a list of the most time constraining aspects of your social media management services.
If this is: scheduling, engagement, your approval system and client communication, then automation may be the solution to freeing up some time and saving you some dough. We’ll break each one down and go into more detail later on in the article.
However, automation can’t completely eliminate all of the jobs you have to do. After all, no computer can replace, or even match, the creativity and personality that goes into creating stellar social media content. So, it’s best to leave the content creation to the experts - the human ones!
Automate Content Approvals, Feedback and Change Requests
Client communication is one of the most important parts of social media management, but sometimes it can be the most time-consuming.
You’re busy and they’re busy so schedules don’t always align, leaving both parties often stuck as bottlenecks in all communications.
If you’re always waiting around for content approval, feedback and change requests from clients, there are ways that you can automate the process.
Here at MixBloom, we chose this area as one which we needed to automate to scale up our business.
That’s why we created our own approval system with our interactive dashboard.
When a client chooses MixBloom for their social media management, they’re introduced to our dashboard - where they find all of the posts that their dedicated Social Media Manager has created for them. From there, they are able to approve or give feedback on the content when they can. This then allows the Social Media Manager to pick up and action the amendments or approval straight away.
When compared with the traditional way of going back and forth with emails, this is a much more automated, quick and efficient way of managing your approval and feedback system so your clients’ content can be published (and those social media marketing goals reached!) - a lot sooner.
Automate Content Publishing
One of the most popular automated systems in social media management is content publishing and scheduling.
In the world of social media, it’s critical to avoid mistakes and missed deadlines. Missing deadlines can cause strain between you and your clients, and mistakes - even the tiny ones - can cause backsplash on public-facing platforms, sometimes leading to PR disasters.
Rather than publishing content as and when it needs to go out, automate your content posting by using scheduling tools - there are plenty out there and all have different levels and packages to suit your agency.
This way, it doesn’t matter if something gets in the way of posting on the day as it will already be covered!
It’s also super handy as scheduling tools are operational 24/7 so you can constantly push content out - especially if you’re a global business with audiences in different parts of the world - for your audience to see and engage with.
Some scheduling tools - like SocialPilot’s ShareIt - have features where you can add in relevant keywords and it will pull relevant content and articles that you can share on your social media platforms. Tools like ensure that your audience are consistently educated, entertained and engaged with relevant content, without you putting too much effort or work into it.
As an agency, you’re aware of the importance of analyzing your content to inform social media strategies and highlight the success (or weaknesses) of your content and campaigns. Rather than going through all your social media content manually, most scheduling tools will create reports automatically over a period of time for all of the content you have published. Not only does this save you a lot of time but it also ensures that the reports are as accurate as possible and combats the challenge of human errors.
Delegate Content Creation
While we wouldn’t advocate entirely automating your content creation process as it certainly wouldn’t compare to the level of content that you can create - or your client needs - a great option is to delegate your content creation.
Ok, so it might not necessarily be a computer creating the content but delegating content creation can be a way of automating your social media services.
Particularly if you’re at the stage in your agency’s life where you’re running at capacity and are ready to scale up, consider using a different agency to create content for you.
The content creation side of social media can be a time-cruncher so getting someone else to do this will free up some time so you can focus on high value activities - like strategy and tactics - that drive growth.
A white-label agency - like MixBloom - could be the solution to automate social media content creation and scale your agency’s creative output.
At MixBloom, our white label social media services enables you to outsource yours or your clients’ social media content so that you can take a step back and put your attention to other areas of your agency and social media services.
You’ll be assigned a dedicated Social Media Manager who will get to know you and your clients down to a T to make sure all content is made with your agency’s / your clients’ personality at the heart of it.
To review, edit and approve the content you and your clients will be given access to our carefully-crafted interactive dashboard, where all of this can be picked autonomously as and when by you and the MixBloom team - making communication between us and you more efficient.
Interested? Our pricing and packages range from $199 (8 posts per month) to $449 per client (20 posts per month).
If you want to test the waters first, we offer a 7 days free trial, where you will be able to use our services risk-free before committing to any plan.
Automation is a key player when it comes to scaling your business. Whether you choose to automate your process and systems or delegating content creation, automation will be sure to free up some of your time to focus on the growth of your business.
