Another Wisdom Wednesday is upon us…I hope you have all been enjoyed my blogging analytics series from a few months ago. I had a lot of people reach out and say that it was extremely helpful and enjoyed learning more about how to get started in this digital world.!
If you haven’t, please check out, Blogging Analytics Part 1, Blogging Analytics Part 2, and Blogging Analytics Part 3: Influencer Communities. This week on the series, I wanted to talk about growing your blog with bots!
Now, keep in mind that there is no SECRET or QUICK way to gain real followers and engagement without doing the work. These are just tips and tricks to help increase engagement but should not be replaced with your routine of engaging. It is important for you to genuinely engage with those as you would want them to engage with you! Think of this as more of a helpful tip for you to help get your photos and videos onto the explore page so others can find you easier!
What Is a Bot?
Some of you may be wondering what exactly a “bot” is…well simply put, it’s a nickname for robot. When I refer to growing your blog through bots, I mean using apps that are programmed to help you engage via social media robotically (meaning you don’t have to do anything). I’ve mentioned joining blogger pods in some of my previous Blogging Analytics Posts (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) and bots are a great way to save you time so you can engage more with followers in comments sections, etc.
For the purpose of this blog post, I’m referring to bots as Social Media Bots. Essentially still a robot. They are algorithms, pieces of software that use artificial intelligence to automate tasks and carry conversations with humans, with the purpose of assisting them.
Also, I don’t feel as guilty using bots for blogger pods because majority of the users on the pod are not your active followers, so spend the time you can to engage with your followers and less time liking photos on blog pods….
So…..how do you build your brand AND still make time to get all other tasks complete??? Well, most of us ask or get help. This help comes in the form of a bot or automation tool….
Schedule Social Media Posts
One of the best ways you can incorporate a bot to help you build your platform is to schedule all of your social media posts. Let’s be so real….most of us “influencers”, “bloggers”, “social media managers”, etc have another job outside of their creative and digital world. Often times we are so busy working and creating that our followers literally think we live carefree and easy lives. Which FYI that is FAR from the TRUTH! Even if you are a full time blogger, influencer, social media manager, etc. posting and engaging on social media is just ONE of the many tasks on your list. Bloggers and influencers have to go meetings, attend events, and find time to still CREATE CONTENT!
Top 5 Social Media Scheduling Tools
Feedly – If you’re investing in any social media scheduling tool then I recommend Feedly’s platform! They cut out the legwork for you by automatically curating content to fill up your social media calendar
Planable – If you are social media strategist or run a social media marketing business then I recommend Planable or something similar to Planable. The most notable feature about Planable is its commenting and approval system for scheduled posts. Your team members are able to go back and forth with comments to fine-tune scheduled content before it goes live. A very important process when your blog/business is ran by multiple users
CoSchedule – Has the ability to integrate with company blogs via WordPress
Sprout Social– a single hub for social media publishing, analytics and engagement across all of your social profiles
Later – Later is an official partner of Instagram which is a great foundation! Additionally, the platform allows for true automated publishing on single-photo posts
Engagement, Engagement, Engagement
Let’s be REAL! If you want to engage with your followers you have to leave comments, like posts and follow accounts. However with most people’s busy schedule it’s hard to keep this up 24/7….I’m just stating FACTS!
But because of bots, you can sit back and spend your time creating meaningful content. There are Instagram bots that can engage for you, so you don’t have to. You can automate bots to like or comment on posts that used a specific hashtag or you include into an auto-liker bot!
…but bots aren’t completely perfect. Bots can completely mess who sees your posts and content! You’ll go on the explore page and see pages and tags that are completely unrelated to your niche or target audience. This is why it is important to join pod groups that are focused on your brand’s niche.
For example, I am a part of a ton of Blogger Pods that are geared to just women who blog about anything (fashion, makeup, family life, travel) while others are very exclusive to age range and content topics. If you only want other fashion bloggers or similar content to see your page then make sure to join pods and groups that gear ONLY to that particular type of content. Or else you will go on your explore page one day and see a ton of content that may be completely unrelated to the topics/content you create and would like to see…
TIP: Keep in mind that in the world of being an influencer, the purpose of artificial intelligence and social media bots is not to entirely replace the interactions between humans! If there is any piece of advice that I could give my readers it would be that. However, it can be used to support business owners and marketers in connecting with customers more efficiently.
Top 5 Social Media Engagement Tools
Like Growers, Instagrowing, Ingramer,
Online Sales
If you sell products of any kind and use social media to promote and increase engagement, you should also look into investing into social bots that are able to interact with humans. Rather then spending hours scrolling through e-mails, comments on facebook, comments on IG, and your website, why not use a Siri-like technology that an answer all of your customers’ queries without getting tired and can simplify the buying process for your customers.
Next, I’ll share the polar opposite where we talk about Growing Your Instagram WithOUT Bots….
SnatchBot – With the free plan you get unlimited bots and messages and access to a bot store where there are several hundred free industry- and event-specific bot templates to add on.
HubSpot– With HubSpot you’ll be able to create an operational bot in less than 10 minutes. Additionally, you are able to create a linear flow of basic questions like asking for name, email, company and also giving the visitor the option to sign up for an email subscription.
Dialogflow – If you’re going to pay for a chatbot then Dialogflow is definitely worth the money. The free chatbot is highly favored because it includes integrations with Facebook Messenger, Slack and Skype among others and supports 21+ languages.
Happy Blogging <3
