4 Ways to Leverage AI to Elevate Your Social Media Marketing Game
In this blog post I am sharing the 4 ways you can leverage AI to market your business on social media and the potential cons of this technology.
AI, or Artificial intelligence, is rapidly changing the world we live in. With its influence in social media marketing becoming more and more ubiquitous, it’s no wonder that Markets and Markets predicts that AI in social media marketing will grow to $2.1 billion this year. From writing captions, to helping you repurpose your existing content, AI is helping creators fill up their content calendars while also saving time. Given that AI is always learning, improvements in its technology and how it will be able to support content creators will continue to grow in the coming years.
So how can you use this amazing piece of technology to your advantage right now to lighten your current load? In this post, I’d like to explore the 4 ways to leverage AI so that it can be utilized to reduce the stress associated with creating content for social media marketing.
As a bonus, I've created a FREE list of 20 AI social media marketing content prompts you can use to get the most optimal responses from an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT.
How to Maximize Your Social Media Efficiency with AI
1 Generate Copy and Visuals
As a small business owner, you no doubt know how exhausting and daunting the task of producing new and original content for your social social platforms can be. You may work tirelessly creating what you feel is a great piece of content, only for it to get subpar results when posted.
Well, AI can help with that! AI programs can now generate images, video and copy using text prompts to create fresh, new content for your feeds. AI tools such as Lately learn your brand voice from previous posts and generate content built for maximum engagement. The AI studies your social media analytics data, pairs it with its own learned best practices and creates posts designed for success. It even lets you schedule your newly generated posts with the option to let the AI pick optimal times and dates to post. How cool is that?
2 Engaging with Your Audience
Short on time? Of course you are, you’re a busy entrepreneur trying to do 10,000 things at once.
I’ve talked in the past about the importance of responding to DMs and comments in a timely manner and how response times can make or break the relationship between you and your audience. So why not solicit the help of AI to get through those messages faster and more efficiently? An AI chatbot such as ChatGPT can quickly generate replies, cutting the time you spend on this task in half! Your followers are happy to receive a prompt response from your brand and you get to cross one more thing off of your to-do list. It’s a win-win!
3 Produce and Improve Ads
AI has the power to predict what wording will yield the best results with your audience, making it a great ally in creating successful ads that impact. Much like generating content with AI, creating ads using AI works similarly in that the program learns what is successful (and more importantly, what is not) through data it is fed. You can even ask AI to create ads targeting a certain demographic. Targeted ads can save money in advertising costs and are likely to get better results. The program will learn from the outcomes and improve with every iteration.
4 Personalized Services
A personalized customer experience is so important to today’s consumer. 80% of people surveyed stated that they are more inclined to make a purchase from a company that offers a customized experience. AI can collect customer preferences, product purchases and viewed items data and produce tailor made recommendations and offers. Better personalization means consumers are likely to repurchase in the future.
At the end of the day, the biggest thing AI has going for it is how much time it can save helping you with essential but tedious daily tasks. Using AI frees up time for you to focus on other more pressing (or fun!) aspects of your business.
But as with anything, this tool has its limitations. Let’s explore the hazards of overusing a tool like AI for your social media needs.
The Downsides of Using AI
Even though at first blush it seems that there couldn't possibly be a downside to something that could generate content at lightning speed and with exceptional grammar, there are some disadvantages you should be aware of. Let’s look at the drawbacks:
Lacking Human Creativity. AI was made to be logical and practical. Its limitations lie in that it does not have the unpredictability or spontaneity needed for creative thought. Human creativity cannot be captured through a set of data points and therefore cannot be taught to a machine to replicate. Relying too heavily on AI for social media content can begin to make your posts feel unimaginative and uninspired.
Unreliable Information. The AI technology you are using to create content for your social media campaign is only as good as its data sets. If the information it is basing its answers on is incorrect or lacking, the content it produces is going to be flawed. Plagiarism is also a concern, as the way AI works is that it pulls information from already existing, published sources.
Absence of Empathy. As indicated in point #1, the analytical “brain” of AI lacks a certain warmth and humanness to it. It does not do well at distinguishing sentiment and tone. Consumers want to have their values align with, and feel connected to, the brands they are purchasing from. AI generated content can sometimes come off as cold and disconnected, relying only on metrics instead of what the audience may find fun and relatable.
Digital marketing expert and New York Times Bestselling author Neil Patel agrees with the sentiments above, stating in one of his videos regarding AI replacing human jobs, “AI will not replace humans and marketing. You want to know what AI really lacks? Creativity.” In his caption, he writes, “AI only pulls up from [what] everyone else is doing. There is no creative aspect to it, it can’t do anything new and unique. AI isn’t capable of doing something new that nobody has done before.”
In Closing
Although AI is an impressive, time-saving tool that is incredibly powerful and appears to be able to do it all, you are now aware of its shortcomings. AI does not have the capabilities to replace a knowledgeable and experienced social media marketing expert.
As a social media strategist, I can deliver consistency and growth backed by real-world experience to help your brand achieve its goals and reach new heights! If you’re ready to start saving time while your social media marketing is done right, book a free consult call with me!
And hey, I know hiring a social media strategist is a big step for any small business owner and requires careful consideration. In the meantime, I want to help you get started using AI to assist you in your brand’s social marketing!
Until the next one, keep rocking your brand!
Feeling stuck with your business marketing? Check out the following resources that will help you reach your business goals. 👇
Sources Cited:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ai-controversies-marketers-and-brands-should-avoid
www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/ai-in-social-media.asp