Why Automation Isn't Necessarily A Good Thing

We've said it before and we'll most likely need to say it again: social media is a conversation. Whether you're using Facebook, Twitter or the red-headed step child that is Google+, the key to effective communication with your followers is engagement--not automation.

Let's face it: managing multiple social media accounts can be taxing. Whether you're maintaining the online presence for one brand or for 20, it's one of those line items that can fall by the wayside when things get busy in the office. To save time and effort, many brands use multi-platform systems such as HootSuite to schedule their updates, often posting the same content across all social media outlets--Facebook, Twitter and the like. Though it may save time, automation means missing out on feedback, a major aspect of the tried-and-true communication model that we learned way back in undergrad journalism class.

Relevancy is the key to building a solid following on the web--but, without paying attention to the style, tone and overall progression of conversations on Twitter and Facebook, you can't possibly expect to have relevancy. Think of it this way: if you walked into a room and interrupted a conversation with an off-handed remark about something completely unrelated to the current topic, people wouldn't view you as a particularly skilled communicator. Pushing an outbound update without monitoring the goings-on of the internet is essentially the same concept.

Find out more about why automation can be a bad thing in DreamGrow's article here.