Friday, July 28, 2017

I am not a robot...are you???


The rise of Instagram automation tools have helped tons of accounts reach new audiences through the use of algorithms that target users using generic comments, likes, and follows. The hope is that those users check out your account and click “follow” on you. However, this is a balance that needs to be struck between manual and automated marketing efforts on social media as a shift too heavily towards automation can be calamitous to your brand as the users see you as SPAM…and no one except diners enjoying a nice bowl of budae-jjigae enjoys SPAM.

While automation can be helpful in small doses, the real trick to social media marketing is to focus on creating genuine content to connect with users and be proactive in user engagement…that is engagement with the right users. Influencer marketing is a tried and true tactic, but micro-influencer marketing is something that can really differentiate a brand, but it takes patience. Encouraging the regular day-to-day customers to become brand ambassadors allows you to reach a much wider audience in a genuine way that can deepen a connection to a brand.

It’s no secret…I love chubbies. If they were to reach out to me directly and hook me up with some swag, perhaps even the newly released Dino DNA's in case anyone from chubbies happens to read this post, I would totally post a photo of myself doing something very chubbies-esque on my Instagram account. While I don’t have a ton of followers, I guarantee some people would click on the link to the chubbies Instagram account, and viola! more followers.

I know that automation is the wave of the future, if I hear about AI or machine based learning one more time I might scream, but when it comes to social media marketing I honestly believe that the best campaigns and those most successful in endearing users to their brands are the ones that are manual and portray the brand in a very human light. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of all the automation and bots and algorithms. To mean, effective marketing incorporates the human element and inspires a consumer to connect with a brand.

When it comes to emails in my inbox, if I get something that resembles SPAM, guess what I do. I mark it as SPAM. Same thing goes for social media, only I don’t mark it as SPAM, I unfollow it. This has the potential to be devastating to a brand and quite frankly is a risk that I don’t think they should be willing to take. Let’s remember, people go on social media for a litany of reasons, but NONE of those reasons is to be bombarded with advertisements. I actually think that even micro-influencer can be annoying – those stupid skinny tea posts that reality TV “celebrities” keep putting up get a big eye roll and an exasperated sigh from yours truly, which has at times been followed promptly with the old “unfollow” if they have been doing this on a regular basis.


So to all you marketers out there, focus on the authentic micro-influencer approach and chubbies, if you are reading this I’m a size L.

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