You are a modern, engaged company. Of course you have social media. You're all over Twitter and Facebook, right? Social media is one of the most dynamic ways to connect with your customers and potential customers. You can have direct conversations, join group discussions, share interesting stories and articles and much more. And you're auto-posting all the time to make sure your accounts always have new content and everything seems so easy. Hold on just a second.
If you auto-post constantly, your followers will know you are not actually engaging with them. Your company will just be seen as robotic and self-promoting. On the other hand, if you are constantly manually updating your social media pages you will spend a lot of time just posting on Twitter and Facebook. So auto-posting certainly has an important role to play on your social media pages. We are going to examine what you should auto-post and what you should not auto-post in order to efficiently manage your social media accounts without alienating your followers.
First of all, when someone begins to follow you it is a good idea to send them a short thank you message to engage with them. If you are a larger company, feel free to automate this message, but if you are a smaller organization just starting out we recommend that you take the time to send a personal thank you. It lets the follower know their interest is appreciated.
It is perfectly acceptable to auto-post information that relates specifically to the time it is being posted, like birthday or holiday messages, certain news blurbs about your company, product launches, press releases and so on. You could also auto-post a different short bio or small "Did You Know?" segment about your company every week. Tell your followers about special people in the company, talk about your various goals and commitments or share stories about community events your company has taken part in.
You would want to consider a personal post for things like starting or adding to discussions about a certain topic or question that is currently hot. You want to offer a new opinion or viewpoint or fresh relevant information so your followers are interested in what you're saying. New and interesting information is also likely to be shared by followers, which helps to expand your reach. Also, you should definitely post responses to questions from your followers, especially making sure to address common problems that they may be having. If you provide solutions to current issues, your followers know that you are paying attention to their needs. Listen and learn, then listen and teach.
Keep a close eye on which of your posts are most successful. If you respond to what your followers are interested in, and continue regularly posting information or discussions related to those areas, you can really build a sense of interaction and acknowledgement. You should also address negative feedback to show that you are critically engaging, not just regurgitating promotional material about your company. The bottom line: interact with your followers whenever you can and use auto-posting to fill in the gaps.
