HOW YOU CAN USE AI TO STREAMLINE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

Having a solid tech stack is more important than ever in this era of AI. The mainstream adoption of AI requires brands to streamline and improve their internal processes. Brands are already using AI to great effect in social media management. By understanding how other brands use AI to empower their teams and improve social media practices, you can find (and create) opportunities for improvement in your own work. 1. Generate post content. When considering AI social media applications, the first thing that probably comes to mind is creating content using generative AI. Despite its current capabilities, you can't assume an AI should be able to produce content that matches your brand voice and appeals to your audience on its own. AI has simplified content creation for many brands. For example, HubSpot describes how brands can quickly generate high-impact social shares by feeding the copy from their own data-driven report into an AI tool. AI can similarly repurpose blog content and other resources to produce engaging and informative posts. 2. Content ideation. Obviously, you can't fully rely on your pre-existing content to fill out your social media calendar. Fortunately, AI tools make creating new content ideas easy. As described by Wired, providing AI tools with specific prompts (such as asking for lists of content ideas on a particular topic) can provide a lengthy list of ideas you can use for your own content. Some social media-focused AI tools go even further, generating multiple post ideas with content suggestions based on general ideas for your niche. 3. Understanding audience sentiment. Social media posts need to be monitored constantly, but this can take a lot of effort. To refine your content strategies, you must understand why a post resonates or fails to engage your target audience. Edward Rivers, CEO of Comb Insights, recently explained how his company created a proprietary AI that could scan comments on Facebook and Instagram posts to show users the percentage of positive, neutral, and negative comments on each post. By assigning posts an overall positivity score and showing commonly used words in comments, brands can quickly assess how well a post performed, and why. 4. Optimize social media advertising campaigns. AI can be a powerful tool in paid social media advertising campaigns. For example, content creation tools can quickly generate multiple ad copy variants, helping you quickly create unique ads for different audiences. Some brands have even created AI influencers to better connect with their audiences, though the calls for transparency regarding these campaigns indicate brands should proceed with caution. However, AI's full potential in social media advertising can be felt on the strategic side. Predictive analytics and real-time results analysis can improve advertising strategies and audience targeting. Artificial intelligence can help brands maximize their results by optimizing real-time targeting and bidding. 5. Streamline scheduling. Scheduling your social media content can be a surprisingly time-consuming manual task, even when you have basic scheduling software to assist you. AI tools can help brands take scheduling to the next level, with abilities such as bulk scheduling or locking in post categories in a weekly calendar so new posts can automatically be assigned to the right date and time. AI analytics can then track your posts' engagement, helping you identify the days and times when your audience will most likely engage. With a few clicks, you can adjust your scheduling to expand your reach. AI can also facilitate A/B testing to see how different posting strategies compare in terms of overall performance. Maximize your social media potential with AI. AI isn't going to completely take over your social media team's work. A major appeal of social media is its ability to connect people through digital interactions. In addition, AI can empower your team to take on higher-level work that allows you to connect with your audiences more effectively. EXPERT OPINION BY HEATHER WILDE, CTO, THEDIFFERENCE @HEATHRIEL