Social Media Automation

We’ve previously discussed the benefits of leveraging an advanced marketing automation platform. This week, however, we’ll be discussing social media automation and management, the process of managing your brand’s many social channels—LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

You’ve most likely witnessed for yourself the persuasion and impact that social media can have on an audience, from Donald Trump’s popular Twitter account that continues to garner attention from every major American news affiliate to Facebook’s viral spread of the Ice Bucket challenge, which became the world’s largest global social media phenomenon in the summer of 2014. In fact, by the end of August 2014, the ALS Association issued a report publishing that total donations since the end of July had exceeded $100 million. We’ve all had front-row seats witnessing the influence a properly managed social media campaign can establish in a short amount of time.

Even though most brands struggle with social media automation and management, there are many tools on the market to assist with the day-to-day challenges marketers face when managing multiple social media channels. One such tool, Hootsuite, supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and many more. Users can manage up to 10 social media profiles in one place with one password. You can also schedule a post in advance and automate it to publish across multiple, targeted social channels at one time, or multiple times, in the future. Hootsuite additionally offers real-time analytics and allows users to monitor what people say and helps brands respond instantly across multiple channels. Further, because Hootsuite is a platform, it offers powerful apps and flexible APIs. One of these APIs? Marketo, a sophisticated marketing automation tool.

Using these APIs empowers meaningful integration with your marketing automation efforts, such as generating qualified leads from social media, qualifying leads faster with social scoring, and gaining deeper insight into buyers.

How else is a tool such as Hootsuite relevant to your brand? QuintilesIMS, one of the world’s largest sources of information for the healthcare industry, discovered there are many social media opportunities for healthcare marketers. At the top of the list is listening and measurement for health consumer support and insight. Monitoring social media conversations is critical to better understand unmet needs of health consumers, gather insights about the patient experience, track the impact of social media activity on website traffic and new patient inquiries, and monitor your brand’s share of voice in relation to competitors. The result? Greater patient retention and loyalty.

A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers asked health consumers how likely they were to trust health information posted online through social media. The answers showed consumers are more likely to trust social media posts and activity by doctors (60%) more than any other group. This demographic is followed by nurses (56%) and hospitals (55%). Healthcare professionals and institutions are highly respected for their expertise on social media channels, which offers an excellent opportunity to build your organization’s brand and reputation through content and education.

What’s your social media automation and management strategy?