The smart marketer's guide to using AI for social media

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has ushered in transformative change across the world. It’s reshaping how businesses operate, from personalized customer experiences to optimized supply chains, and from predictive maintenance to advanced healthcare diagnostics.

One area where AI has made a significant impact is in marketing, specifically social media.

AI is reshaping social media in four main areas: personalization, chatbots, content creation and image analysis. With the click of a button, AI has the ability to provide instant responses through chatbots, automatically analyze images and videos for tagging purposes and even generate engaging (and some not so engaging) status updates.

Ready to dig deeper? Here are some tips for how you can use AI tools like ChatGPT to work smarter, not harder – and how you can become more efficient in your day-to-day social tasks without undermining the strength of your brand. (Hot tip – you’re not handing the reins over completely to AI!)

Understand your goals.

Before you do anything with AI, clearly define your social media objectives and how you can leverage AI to help support them.

There are many ways AI tools can help optimize social media programs, whether it’s creating a target audience to reach your customers, generating post topics or themes or organizing your content. By aligning AI capabilities with your brand’s objectives, you can create targeted and effective social media campaigns.

Here are a few AI prompts that can help you get started creating effective social media campaigns:

• You’re a smart marketer who wants to use social media to connect with my customers. Propose five ways social media can be used to reach my ideal customer.
• My boss doesn’t think there is value in using social media platforms to market our business. Give me five reasons why social is a good tactic to raise brand awareness.
• Provide me with three examples of a content scheduling template that can be used for social media posts.

Personalize your content to align with your brand.

We’ve all experienced those moments of staring at a blank screen, waiting for inspiration. Luckily, AI can help overcome creative blocks and streamline content creation processes.

While AI can generate content ideas and status updates, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Most likely, your social audience can detect AI-generated content. Treat AI-generated posts as your initial draft. Edit them to align with your brand’s voice and tone, adding authenticity and a personal touch.

Remember, the more you refine your prompt, the better the output will be. Always ask for more than one version, so you have a few examples you can leverage.

Research established topics.

Utilize AI to gather insights and summaries on topics relevant to your social media strategy. This could involve using AI-powered tools to help you identify popular topics within your niche, understand what competitors are posting or analyze the effectiveness of certain strategies.

Additionally, AI can highlight key findings or trends, such as emerging topics or audience preferences, to inform your content decisions effectively.

Here are some AI prompting samples to help get you started:

• Can you name the key elements of a social media campaign?
• What emerging trends should a marketing agency consider for its Facebook content strategy?
• Give me five examples of how a brand could ask for audience feedback on social media.
• What key performance indicators should I be using to track and measure my social media marketing efforts?

Don’t underestimate the power of creativity.

Human creativity is irreplaceable and serves as the cornerstone of engaging content. While AI can enhance creative endeavors, it’s essential to recognize that it cannot replicate the innovative thinking and intuition of humans.

That’s because it’s built on a Large Language Model, which essentially digests and regurgitates things based on existing content. In other words – if you want new and creative ideas, don’t expect AI to tell you what those are.

Encourage your team to think outside the box, experiment with new ideas and push the boundaries of conventional marketing tactics.

Don’t use AI content without checking.

AI tools are great resources for research, content generation and streamlining processes, but it’s important to verify the information before you post anything. This approach safeguards against spreading misinformation and ensures your brand remains credible, fostering trust with your audience.

Don’t overlook the power of personalization.

Human input is essential for refining strategies, maintaining brand consistency and ensuring that your social media efforts stay true to your brand’s identity. In other words, take the ideas and/or content that AI provides and add your brand’s flare to it!

By keeping these things in mind, you’ll be well-equipped to harness the power of AI for your social media strategy while maintaining authenticity and creativity in your content.

Let the MindFire team take the pressure off your social media marketing. Contact us to see how we can help!