The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media Automation for Law Firms

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There is no doubt that social media automation tools make digital marketing easier. Scheduling, optimizing, and responding to social media posts all day long on multiple channels can be overwhelming; and honestly, who has time for that? While social media automation is certainly a more efficient, accommodating way of managing social media tasks, there is absolutely a right way and a wrong way to use these tools. Read below to learn our dos and don’ts when it comes to social media…

DO:

1. Schedule posts ahead of time for each channel.

The beauty of social media automation is that you can knock out a day or two (or a week’s) worth of posting in one sitting. Take the time to go through emails, Google alerts, timely evergreen topics, and news articles, and schedule relevant posts for the next day or two. It’s best not to get too far ahead of yourself and plan for a whole month for reasons we list below in the “don’ts” section.

2. Schedule posts at optimal times on each channel.

As you take the time each week to plan out your editorial calendar, be sure to take a look at the analytics for each of your social channels. Pay attention to when your audience is most engaged and plan your scheduled posts around that time. Pro tip: instead of scheduling your posts to be shared at an exact time like 8:00am or 1:30pm, try scheduling at more unusual times like 8:03am so you aren’t competing with the masses who post on the hour or half hour in your audience’s feed.

3. Plan a variety of posts for each social channel.

Yes, you will often share the same piece of content on every social channel, but you don’t want to share the exact same wording, formatting, or images on every network. Think about asking questions, hosting a poll, or including quotes or anecdotes from the articles you share as a way to change it up. Otherwise, your audiences will feel like you are posting the same thing over and over.

4. Establish an appropriate post frequency for each channel.

  • Another piece of information to uncover in your social media analytics is post frequency.
  • Does your audience seem more engaged if you post five or 25 tweets per day?
  • Do your Facebook posts generate greater impressions when you share two or ten posts per week?
  • Once you establish optimal posting frequency by channel, use this information to inform your scheduling moving forward.

DON’T:

1. Skimp out on analyzing your scheduled content.

Did you actually read the articles you are scheduling? Are they pertinent to your practice areas and what your followers will want to read or see? Did you use a shortened links and relevant hashtags? When you are mass scheduling content on multiple social channels, it’s easy to make mistakes and extremely important to double-check your posts. At the end of each day, give your schedule one last lookover before your posts go live.

2. Think of your content as a “one size fits all” piece.

As we mentioned above, every social media platform has different, specific best practices for sharing content. For example, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn each have different character limits and recommended sizing for images attached to a post. Be cognizant of these parameters as you plan the content for each of your social shares. Scheduling the same message for every network will come off as lazy, impersonal, and obvious to those who follow you on multiple channels. Take our advice in the “variety” suggestion we mentioned above.

3. Plan too far ahead.

While it is helpful to schedule social posts in advance, you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. It’s important to make sure your posts are still timely and relevant. Going on a vacation for two weeks? This could be the perfect time to post timeless evergreen content or repurpose a video or graphic you previously shared that performed well.

Social Media Marketing Experts

Despite the stress social media automation can relieve, it’s not for everyone. It still takes time, knowledge, and a great amount of effort to do it right. If you need help with your social media marketing efforts, contact the experts at Stacey E. Burke P.C.

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