Although it may seem counterproductive to automate something like social response, you’ll never have the time to listen or engage everyone without the help of a friendly robot. Did you know that 72% of people who contact a brand on Twitter expect a response within an hour? So, if you’re busy with operations or you miss them, they’ll probably think you don’t care.
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There are ways in which automation is key for social listening because you cannot be everywhere at once. Professionals that want to focus on their brand will take advantage of as many tools as possible to get the job done. The following are just a few reasons why automation is so important when forming a social marketing strategy.
Not Everything Requires a Response
Social listening will tell you that not every comment is a complaint or question. Therefore, you don’t have to be present for what everyone says about your brand online. Particularly if your business is growing. It’s simply not feasible.
For example, trolls love to bait people. They intentionally create useless and divisive content that has no real effect on business. If you have an automated social listening strategy in place, you can easily ignore the trolls and skip to your potential consumers. The automation will really save you the time of canceling out white noise that’s not necessary for brand building.
Addressing Complaints
Remember our stat on Twitter? The expectations are pretty much the same across all social platforms. People assume you are listening at all times, even when you are unavailable. This means that if there is a complaint, it needs to be addressed immediately. Leaving a grievance or bad review in place could affect your brand in ways like:
- Less consumer trust
- Decreased customer retention
- Poor brand loyalty
- Negative ROI outcomes
Basically, you don’t want anyone to remain unhappy for too long. That’s where automation comes in. You can use social listening to monitor complaints. Then employ a chatbot to apologize to the consumer and tell them you are looking into it right away. Follow up accordingly when you can be present (a 24-hour window should be max).
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An Elevated Strategy
Automation can help you take it a step further with tools that will not only monitor your channels but establish analytics that you can work with. If you are starting to see heavy social engagement, extensive social marketing tools might be in order. Here are a few to get you started:
HubSpot Marketing
In addition to social monitoring, HubSpot marketing can give you insights on leads, customers, and opportunities. It then feeds the data into your very own CRM (customer relationship management tool). The site will also track how social conversations are integrating with your marketing strategies.
HubSpot
SproutSocial
This platform prides itself on connecting to the most social channels on the web. In addition to automated social listening capabilities, SproutSocial can give you detailed reports and analytics that can better guide business decisions.
SproutSocial
The idea behind all of this is to never leave anyone hanging (except maybe the trolls). Modern consumers have high expectations and they want everything immediately. Automated social listening can help you create more personalized user experiences that make people feel like they’re being heard.