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Beware Content Automation – a cautionary tale.
In almost every presentation I give, the question always comes up about my opinion on content automation. To ensure we’re all on the same page, content automation is creating content in advance and then using an automation tool to post to your social media sites in the future. For obvious reasons, this practice can be seen as a big time and money saver. And if used properly, I’m perfectly okay with this practice.
However, every so often, I see a story that reminds me just how dangerous this strategy can be, and why there must be policies in place to protect against mistakes that can offend your audience and damage your reputation.
This past week, we saw a catastrophic hurricane ravish Houston, Texas and its surrounding areas. Many people have used the power of social media to help raise funds for people impacted by the storm.
Unfortunately, a fellow colleague of mine forgot to turn off his automated content and, subsequently, an email with this subject line went out yesterday: “Encore: How to Attract a FLOOD of Paying Customers on Instagram.”
Shortly after, we received a sincere apology and clear explanation on what happened.
I think it’s safe to assume he received a lot of complaints and is still trying to make amends with his subscribers.
This is not a judgment email because it can easily happen to any of us who use content automation. It can also happen without automation; if someone is just not thinking about the bigger picture and posts quickly without thinking. So I have two recommendations that will ensure this doesn’t happen to your business:
Automation has its place and can be a powerful way to stay consistent with your content. But with power comes great responsibility, so make sure you have parameters in place when your content needs to shift to where the majority of your audience is paying attention.