Ask any leading digital marketer you know about automation, and they’ll likely tell you about how it's positively influencing their work. 

Today, social media is a part of digital marketing that's massively being reshaped by automation.

As of February 2024, social media management is the second most common area where marketers use automation worldwide.

Even with this being the case, we all agree with Gray Vee when he said: "Authenticity is the only currency that matters on social media”, right? Social media users are savvy. They can spot inauthentic content from a mile away. So managing social media manually is both time-consuming and costly.

This creates a digital dilemma: While automation increases efficiency, authenticity increases brand loyalty.

This dilemma generates a lot of questions:

• Can we balance automation and authenticity? Must we sacrifice one for the other? 

• If a balance is possible, how do we achieve it? 

• What practical steps can we take to do so?

In this post, we’ll explore these questions together. But before we do, let’s analyze both sides of this issue and see why they matter in social media.

The importance of having an authentic social presence

Authenticity is the cornerstone of an effective social media presence. It's about being genuine, transparent, and true to your brand's values. 

In the past two years alone, authenticity has become a rare commodity. With the current trends around AI content creation tools that are capable of producing social media posts in seconds, the value of authentic, human content has exponentially increased.

Why does authenticity matter so much? The answer lies in human psychology. Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, explains: "People prefer to say yes to those they know and like." Authentic content helps create that connection.

Let’s consider more statistics:

• 46% of consumers say that they would pay more to purchase from brands they can trust. 

• A 2019 Stackla report revealed that 86% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.

• 73% of consumers say they would pay more for a product that offers complete transparency.

The role of automation in social media

Post scheduling, content curation, analytics tracking, customer service chatbots, and even AI-generated content are just a few of the things that we can now automate on social media.

An entire social media marketing system can be fully automated with automation platforms like Make. 

When it comes to the benefits of automating social media marketing, they're significant: 

• Consistency in posting. 

• A 24/7 presence.

• Data-driven insights. 

• Time freed up for strategic tasks. 

• Costs cut. 

• Reduced human error. 

• Reduced cognitive load.

• …and more!

Automation is great. It can literally transform your whole social media marketing strategy for the better.

 but like anything else, it comes with its challenges.

Challenges in balancing automation and authenticity

Now that we have a better perspective on why automation and authenticity can help take your social media marketing strategy to the next level, let's go back to our main question: Is it possible to strike a balance between the two of them?

Our view is that it’s absolutely possible to do so. As a personal brand or a brand owner, you can definitely use social media automation to your favor without sacrificing your authentic touch. 

Here’s why: Automation is a tool, and as with any other tool, its output depends on the input. In other words, the use of automation won’t take away your authenticity unless it’s misused. 

In fact, automation has the potential to make your social media presence even more authentic. The number of social media platforms your brand needs to be present on is significantly higher than before. This number keeps on growing with emerging platforms like Threads and TikTok Notes.

To be present on all these platforms and create unique, authentic content on each of them, eliminating repetitive tasks from your to-do list is a must. This is especially important if you lack the time or budget to hire a dedicated social media manager.

By automating tasks, you'll have more time to focus on creating authentic content.

As Nuelink Founder and CEO Bilal Ararou puts it, “I have noticed a fascinating trend that I wasn't expecting: as our users leverage our automation features, they're becoming more authentic online and not the opposite. By getting rid of routine tasks, they're freeing up time to create genuine content,” 

5 ways to integrate automation without losing authenticity

1. Use incremental automation testing

Start automating on social platforms with fewer followers to minimize risk. Use these as a testing ground to assess automation impacts on authenticity, so you can make adjustments before expanding to larger platforms.

2. Gradually integrate automation into your business

Implement automation tools slowly to align with your brand’s voice and ensure engagement is not compromised.

3. Set up approval workflows

Establish approval workflows for automated posts to maintain control over the quality, accuracy, and timeliness of your content. Even if all of your posts are automated, none will go live until they are double-checked and approved.

4. Mix automation with real-time posts

Mix automated posts with real-time, spontaneous content that shows a human touch. This content can include behind-the-scenes glimpses, live updates during events, or even FAQ livestreams. This approach will keep your social media presence dynamic and engaging.

5. Utilize evergreen content

Design your social media marketing to be focused more on content that remains relevant over time, allowing for efficient automation and scheduling without frequent updates.

Here’s what you should stay away from to maintain authenticity with automation

1. Don't automate interactions like comments and messages

Comments and DMs are the only places where you interact with your audience on a one-on-one level. Automating this process will feel robotic and unnatural, leading them to lose interest and trust. 

Avoid automating this process and instead, give your audience a genuine conversation so they feel like they’re talking to a friend, not a celebrity.

2. Avoid one-size-fits-all posts on all social media platforms

Each social media platform has its own unique characteristics, such as character limits, aspect ratios, hashtag usage, and optimal posting times. If you schedule or crosspost the same content across every platform, you might encounter issues with image and video displays or text being cut off. 

This can be off-putting for your audience. It's better to schedule and automate posts only on social media platforms that are compatible with each other.

3. Avoid setting and forgetting it

Although scheduling months of content in advance saves time, circumstances can change. 

For example, sharing a scheduled post celebrating a milestone might be inappropriate or even disrespectful if there's a crisis in a country where many of your audience members reside. 

Thus, avoid scheduling content over long periods and regularly check that your posts are not out of alignment with what is currently happening.

4. Fact check AI-generated content

AI tools quickly produce social media captions, but they aren't perfect and may include grammatical errors, typos, and wrong or outdated information. 

Always double-check AI-generated content for accuracy before posting, and don’t assume that the content will always be perfect.

How to choose social media tools that support authenticity

Most social media automation tools aim to automate as many tasks as possible and can overlook the importance of authenticity.

At the same time, there are many tools available that prioritize keeping your brand genuine. To help you find the right one for your business, here are some key criteria to consider:

1. Tone customization

Each social media platform and each audience require a different tone of voice — LinkedIn is best approached with a formal and direct tone, whereas Instagram supports a more casual and fun tone. The ideal social media automation tool should allow you to create posts with different tones of voice and unique messages tailored to each platform and audience. For instance, you can create posts for LinkedIn and Instagram about the same topic in slightly different tones of voice.

2. Multi-format support

An effective social media strategy should include various content formats, such as text-only updates, image posts, stories, carousels, and polls. This diversity in content types shows your audience that you're making a genuine effort rather than relying solely on one type of automated content. However, not all social media automation tools support all these types — the best tools should be able to handle as many of these formats as possible.

3. Content scheduling that makes sense

Scheduling posts at optimal times, which mimics human behavior, is a more natural choice than sending out automated bursts. Choose a social media automation tool that can analyze data and automatically share posts at the best times, making your presence seem more natural and less robotic.

4. Custom alerts

Addressing emergencies and significant events promptly maintains your brand's relevance and authenticity by demonstrating to your audience that you're engaged and attentive.

The ideal social media automation tool allows you to set alerts and notifications for significant events, such as spikes in engagement, mentions by influencers, negative comments, and other trends.

How to find a happy medium that fits the needs of your business

With the rise of social media platforms and AI-generated content that can be easily detected by consumers, brands must rely on automation to stay active. It’s likely that as time goes on, the brands that balance automation with authenticity will thrive while others will struggle to maintain a loyal follower base.

 With comprehensive automation platforms like Make, putting automation to good use while maintaining an authentic social presence becomes a reality that’s fully under your control. If you’d like to see firsthand what automation can do for your social media marketing strategy, get started with Make today.