With the ease of social media automation, it is more tempting than ever to auto schedule or automate messages on our social platforms. Many companies do this right and for the right reasons, but there are also many brands who use the automation in a harmful way to their business.  It is important to understand that your followers do not want to be seen as just a number and prefer to have a unique and personal experience with their brand, which is likely why they follow you. When it comes to social media automation there are many guidelines out there on the dos and don’ts of social media.  According to Hootsuite, here are some things to consider:

Do:

• Schedule your posts before you go on vacation
• Use automation tools to find out the best time to post
• Add a personal touch to your scheduled messages

 

Don’t:

• Auto direct messages should not be a part of your social media strategy
• Scheduled messages should not be the same for each social channel
• don’t forget to read the articles you are automating

 

The importance of these dos and don’ts have been further highlighted recently by Social Media Today. They really pinpoint on the importance of personal touch and the use of different messages for different social networks. If we look at Facebook and set up automatic Tweets from Facebook, it can look something like this:

Not only is this extremely annoying, but it doesn’t give me any indication of what the photo is about or why I should click the link.

The main point is to create a different strategy for each channel and to make it personal. Don’t make your followers feel like a number.