For a few months in mid-2023, we have been exploring the explosive expansion in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning across various industries and business processes.
Our interest has been heavily focused on how AI and natural language processing (NLP) tools are being used to create content ideas, write content, and generate visuals and images to use across platforms, as well as how those tools can impact and enhance automation.
This month, we’re tackling AI’s expanding role in the social media marketing channel. Throughout this article, we will cover:
- How can AI help with social media marketing?
- What tools are needed to fold AI into social media?
- What does the emergence of AI in social media mean for digital marketers?
- How best to leverage AI in social media marketing campaigns
Social media marketing must evolve with the increasing need for content-creation solutions
In addition to the massive economic disruption across international markets, the COVID-19 pandemic had the effect of massively increasing social media usage across all demographics. Consumers became increasingly concerned with the social engagement of the brands they chose to consume.
Now in 2023, consumers are spending more time engaging with brand content, video content, and other consumers across social channels. Keeping up with the demand for content has become a challenge for even the most talented and skilled marketing teams, and many are turning to automation and AI to augment their content creation efforts.
How can AI help with social media marketing?
With almost 70% of marketers acknowledging that learning and embracing AI will be crucial to the future of their industry[1], it’s clear that–one way or another–digital marketers must prepare for a future marketing landscape that includes AI.
Social media marketing occurs across several tiers, and AI-driven tools can have a different impact at each level. At its core, however, effective social media marketing relies heavily on the analytics gained from user engagement and interactions across social platforms.
AI tools are used to quickly and efficiently assess that data to provide actionable insight into improving campaigns, maximizing return on investment (ROI), and even determining how content should be used.
Tools needed to use AI in social media
Because social media marketing is complex and multi-tiered, marketers have to be sure that their tech stack can support executing each step in a cadence to ensure the success of social media campaigns.
Social media analytics
Data is the driving force behind modern marketing strategies. Businesses rely on the data gathered from social media interactions to determine how to best optimize their content and determine gaps and opportunities in their audience reach.
The social media platforms themselves are the best sources of information, as each platform has its own analytics dashboard that provides professional accounts insight into their social media posts’ reach and audience activity. Software and web-based tools pull analytics from your social platforms and can be configured to provide customized insight.
Social media content creation and social media management
Curating your online content across multiple platforms can be a daunting task given how many social platforms your brand might need to leverage to reach your entire target audience, especially with users seeking highly customized experiences.
By pairing analytics with generative AI and natural language processing (NLP) tools such as ChatGPT, social media marketers can generate topics, outlines, and entire campaigns worth of AI content tailored to specific segments of their audience in order to provide a more personalized experience. With the right editing and oversight of the content generation tool, marketers can create high-quality engaging content in a shorter amount of time than would take a copywriting expert.
AI-powered curation tools can also be used to analyze the content across your social media platforms to identify what content is most relevant to your audience, as well as content that could be improved based on the parameters of your campaign. Similarly, with the growing popularity of influencer marketing, AI tools can be used to identify content creators that will best support your efforts to build and improve brand awareness, inspire customer loyalty, and improve lead generation and conversion rates.
All-in-one solutions for optimizing your social media efforts
Managing multiple ad campaigns across all of the relevant social media channels requires software solutions that give marketers access to the latest tools[2]. All-in-one solutions are able to track engagement across the Meta properties of Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
They are then able to generate reports and insights that help marketing professionals shape and manage content campaigns and social media advertising efforts around a central set of goals.
What does the emergence of AI in social media mean for digital marketers?
As with other marketing channels and business processes where artificial intelligence tools have gained traction, social media marketers are having to face the reality that AI tools are here to stay. Before integrating AI into your own social media strategies, it’s important to understand the range of benefits and challenges posed by the rapid increase of AI in the social media sphere.
Benefits of AI in social media marketing
As with automation and other software solutions, AI social media tools introduce a wide range of advantages for marketing professionals able to leverage them properly[3].
Increased efficiency and accuracy reduce overall costs
AI-powered data-driven analytics platforms are able to forecast trends, analyze and anticipate customer behaviors, and provide near-instant access to benchmark metrics and data visualization tools.
In the absence of AI, social media marketers would have to manually analyze social media activity and test out different approaches until they landed on the right combination of content and advertising to increase lead generation and conversions. The time saved in analysis can be dedicated to customer engagement and community building, both essential for long-term success.
The automation made possible by AI tools means there are less time-consuming daily tasks. In one sense, some might argue that it reduces the needs for a large staff and reduces costs in that sense. Another way of looking at the savings is the additional revenue your staff can generate being able to focus on customer engagement and revenue-generating activities.
Increased engagement and improved customer experience
AI tools ensure the content and information on your social channels meet the expectations and needs of your target audience across all channels by providing centralized AI engagement tools and tracking visitor behaviors. Regardless of which of your social channels a potential lead visits, your AI tools will recognize where they might be in the customer journey and provide a customized and consistent experience.
AI tools also reduce the friction in the customer engagement experience by providing a method for customer engagement and issue resolution even if your staff isn’t available. AI tools can handle orders, returns, requests for more information, and a myriad of other customer interactions seamlessly, increasing conversions while increasing brand trust and loyalty.
Risk mitigation and management
Social media listening tools and brand reputation management tools enhanced with AI capabilities provide your brand with the ability to stay one step ahead of negative customer perception in the event of a poor review or comment left on one of your social pages.
Quickly engaging and diffusing an upset customer before their negative views of your brand can spread and gain traction across multiple platforms is crucial in mitigating the damage to perception of your brand, and can in fact show potential leads that your brand can be trusted to effectively handle issues.
The pitfalls of integrating AI into your social media
The social media applications of AI aren’t without their drawbacks and challenges. As with other business processes and marketing channels, there are a number of concerns you should be aware of before inserting AI into your marketing technology stack.
Ethics and compliance concerns around data collection and protection
The scope of what’s considered personal identifiable information (PII) has evolved over the last decade to encompass a wide range of data points. From social security numbers to birthdates to email addresses, as well as data revealing a user’s online behaviors and activities, AI-driven analytics platforms collect a vast amount of information about users.
Before using AI tools to gather and interpret the behaviors of the communities across your social channels, take the time to determine which customer data is essential to your business in order to minimize the impact of a potential cybersecurity breach.
Similarly, it’s important to stay up to date on the introduction of pieces of legislation that are focused on data collection, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, as new legislation is being introduced across the United States and abroad regularly. As new laws are passed, your marketing team should work alongside IT to assess your company’s ability to comply with these standards to protect the customers from exposure.
AI tools are blind to misinformation
In the grand scheme of marketing technology and software solutions, AI technology is still in its infancy. It’s crucial to maintain oversight of its performance to ensure that the customer experience is of the quality that your marketing team intends.
This can be especially challenging when AI tools are designed to prioritize content users will be interested in, but aren’t yet capable of fully vetting and guaranteeing the accuracy of the content they generate and disseminate.
How to best use AI in social media marketing campaigns
In understanding the advantages and challenges of integrating AI-driven software into your social media marketing efforts[4], it’s easier to see where those tools can best be put to use in executing your strategy.
Dos: How you should be using AI tools in social media marketing
- Because of the growing buzz around the use of AI software, it’s important to be upfront and honest with your community that you intend to use it if it directly impacts the user experience.
- Fold chatbots into your messaging cadence in order to improve the customer experience.
- AI-driven social listening tools give you insight that other tools can’t provide into your brand’s reputation and the relationship your business has with your community. Use them to better understand customer preferences and behaviors.
- Supercharge your content creation efforts with the power of AI-driven NLPs and other content generation tools.
- You can’t make a single marketing decision without data. Use AI analytics tools to take a deep dive into your social media analytics and find out what the tools suggest needs to be tweaked.
Don’ts: What to avoid with AI in social media marketing
- Don’t attempt to trade your brand’s ability to make a human connection with consumers with the efficiencies and personalization AI tools make possible. Rather, enhance the human connection with content designed to delight specific audience segments.
- You shouldn’t allow your AI to operate independently, as they are prone to being biased, depending on how they were trained.
- Don’t skimp on feeding your AI tool data. The only way machine learning tools are effective is if the data sources upon which they are trained are accurate and extensive.
- Using AI is a new skill set—you will need to dedicate time and effort into training your staff to use it properly. Poorly executed campaigns due to the improper use of AI can be more detrimental than helpful.
Get the most out of AI in your social media marketing campaigns
Your social media marketing strategy is a crucial element of your brand’s SEO, and it’s important to leverage modern AI tools in order to remain competitive and relevant in multiple marketing channels.
Visit the UpCity Marketplace to find a social media marketing expert who understands how to navigate the various types of AI platforms that are focused on social media to help your team fold these crucial tools into your business’s marketing technology stack.