Balancing Automation and Authenticity in Social Media Engagement
In the quest to balance automated social media engagement and maintaining authentic interactions, we asked ten professionals, including a Director of Marketing and Technology and a Digital Marketing Manager, to share their best practices. From blending automation with personal touch to tier-based handling of social media interactions, discover the top strategies these leaders employ for a more personalized customer experience.
Balancing Automation and Authenticity in Social Media Engagement
Tip 1
Blend Automation With A Personal Touch
Fahd Khan, Director of Marketing and Technology, JetLevel Aviation
At JetLevel Aviation, we blend automation with a personal touch by using automated tools for routine updates and responses, while ensuring direct, personalized engagement for customer inquiries and feedback. Our best practice is to use automation to stay active and responsive, but switch to personal communication for deeper engagement. For instance, automated posts keep our feed active, but we personally respond to comments and messages. This strategy ensures efficiency without sacrificing the personal connection that is crucial in luxury services. It can be adopted by other teams to maintain authenticity while optimizing social-media management.
One of the things that we’ve been very careful with on social media is balancing automation versus real engagement. One of the things that we’ve done to ensure that we still provide authentic experiences for our audience is to look at the types of questions they ask and the ways that they engage with us in direct messages (DMs). FAQs are easy ones to automate because they’re usually quite straightforward. We’ve found that our customers appreciate a quick and simple response to these types of questions. More unique questions and other types of messages, on the other hand, require a more personal touch from our customer service team. This is where the authenticity comes in. This method of separating the types of questions we get has been very successful for Oxygen Plus’s social media engagement. I’d strongly recommend it.
We focus on nurturing our social media communities by having dedicated team members who actively engage in conversations, answer questions, and share insights. Our best practice, “Community First,” places value on creating genuine relationships with our followers, encouraging our team to interact as part of the community rather than as a faceless brand.
Our organization balances automation and authenticity in social media engagement by blending scheduled content with real-time, human interactions. We use automation to maintain a consistent posting schedule, ensuring a steady stream of relevant content.
However, we complement this with ad hoc posts and responses crafted by our team, providing a personal touch. A best practice we’ve adopted is the “human-first response” strategy. Even with automated messages, we ensure a team member follows up on inquiries and comments, fostering genuine conversations.
This approach helps in maintaining the efficiency of automation while ensuring our audience feels heard and valued, enhancing customer relationships.
Tip 5
Dedicate Response Time To Comments And Messages
Nikhil Jogia, Managing Director, Jogia Diamonds
Our social-media engagement strategy hinges on a blend of automation and personal touch. While we schedule posts to ensure a consistent stream of content, we are equally committed to real-time, live engagement. We dedicate time to respond to personal comments and messages.
This approach allows us to maintain an active online presence without compromising the personal connection that fosters customer loyalty. It’s this personal touch that distinguishes our brand and gives our audience a sense of genuine care and appreciation.
Tip 6
Complement Scheduled Posts With Spontaneous Posts
Precious Abacan, Digital Marketing Manager, Softlist
For our company, we make sure to include timely posts. Businesses often fall into the trap of setting their social media to run on autopilot, scheduling every post in advance. When they do this, it can become pretty clear to their followers that the posts are pre-planned. To prevent this, we complement our pre-scheduled posts with content that’s posted on the fly.
It’s vital to have the option to throw in spontaneous posts or announcements as things happen. Posting as events unfold allows our brand to be part of current conversations and reflects our take on what’s happening. Just as important is to avoid relying too much on automated posts or setting them up too long before they go live.
Brands might want to get into the routine of scheduling their posts only a week ahead to keep their content fresh and to have the space to share live, organic posts.
Our mission statement with automated content is that it should amplify human interaction, not replace it. Our social media content is streamlined through automation, but we don’t have a single engagement factor that is run foremost by a human.
We use automation to schedule posts and to help research topics and curate trending analytics, but our posts are typed by a human and the curated data is reviewed by a human. I won’t trust AI to reflect our company’s voice and personality; it takes the right person to do that. Responding to comments and DMs promptly and authentically is the best embodiment of this. Generic responses are more of a detriment here; I want to make sure that our audience and customers know that we’re actively listening and that we care about their feedback.
It’s understated how important it is to be transparent about your social media engagement and which aspects are automated. It can automatically instill a sense of trust in you.
Tip 8
Combine Efficiency Tools And Genuine Human Connection
Mona Kirstein, Ph.D., Digital Strategist, Holistic Coach and Consultant, The Wholehearted Path
Balancing automation and authenticity is key for social media customer experiences. While we use tools for efficiency, like scheduling posts, we reserve genuine human connection for direct interactions.
One best practice is personally responding to questions and feedback. An automated reply can seem impersonal. Our team sets aside time daily to check notifications and thoughtfully reply—even short, customized responses show customers we care.
We also develop online events and community spaces for meaningful experiences beyond automation’s scalable reach. Though tech enables our breadth, these interactive touchpoints build loyalty.
The combination of automation for repetitive tasks and authentic engagement when it counts sustains our social presence while keeping it human. Customers appreciate personalized responses amidst the high-volume online space.
I have found that one really great way to merge automation and authentic interactions between you and your customer is to offer personalized recommendations. Utilize automation to analyze customer behavior and preferences, providing personalized product recommendations or content suggestions.
Also, combine automated algorithms with human curation to enhance the quality of recommendations and ensure that they align with the individual customer’s interests and needs. This way, you are truly using automation to your advantage by not only helping the future of your business but also ensuring to provide great customer service.
Tip 10
Aim For Tier-Based Handling Of Social Media Interactions
Laia Quintana, Head of Marketing and Sales, TeamUp
At TeamUp, we’ve adopted a strategy we call the “engagement pyramid.” This pyramid categorizes social media interactions into three tiers: low-touch, mid-touch, and high-touch. Low-touch interactions, like acknowledging comments with a like, are automated. Mid-touch interactions, such as responding to general inquiries, are semi-automated with predefined responses that our team personalizes before sending.
Then, high-touch interactions involving complex questions or issues are handled by our team in a completely personalized manner. This approach ensures we maintain authenticity while using automation effectively to scale our engagement.
Balancing Automation and Authenticity in Social Media Engagement
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