New advances in technology bring new possibilities and new fears. In this new era of artificial intelligence (AI), social teams will naturally wonder, “Is an AI social media manager about to take my seat?”
I’m optimistic when it comes to AI social media tools…and this from someone who regularly thanks Google Home for keeping it happy.
Rather than replacing social media professionals, the introduction of AI in marketing has the potential to make human creativity and strategic thinking more important. The more tedious tasks your AI can take on, the more you can focus on your strategy, growing your business, and the more you can focus on the things you actually love. Just imagine.
At Unread, Sprout’s social team talked about the benefits and fears of AI, including job replacement. Watch the video below to hear their take on AI and how it’s used at Sprout.
Think about why AI is unlikely to take over your role, and how using AI in social media can help you focus on the impactful parts of your role instead of the busy work. Let’s look at.
Why an “AI social media manager” won’t come to your job
The social media manager role has always been relatively up-and-coming, and last year it was the third most in-demand marketing position. And social media marketers have always had to evolve the way they work. In the 2010s, that meant developing an Instagram strategy. In 2021, that meant watering down our social strategy in favor of short-form videos. Today, that means adding AI to your social media skills to keep all the plates spinning.
To explain why AI won’t take your job, we spoke to Jeff MacDonald, director of social strategy and AI optimist at Mekanism. “I don’t think social media managers need to worry about their jobs being taken over by AI,” Jeff explains. “For me, AI can only help you accelerate your work and reduce the time it takes to do common tasks, if you know how to use the tools correctly.”
That doesn’t mean social media managers aren’t affected. “Everyone’s role will be enhanced and our jobs will change. But I think people will like the difference and prefer to spend less time in front of a screen and more time in front of their face. I-I hope so.”
So let’s make the case for why an AI social media manager is unlikely to come to your table.
Giving AI responsibility is risky
From spreading misinformation to creating posts based on offensive AI output, having unchecked AI in charge of social can create a brand crisis and is a nightmare for communications leaders.
“From an ethical standpoint, I don’t think we’re going to put social on autopilot,” Jeff explains.
jeff mcdonald
social strategy director
Instead, Jeff suggests treating AI as a launching pad for ideas. “You’re going to be at the helm of the ship. You have to make sure that what’s happening on your social channels is powered by humans and curated by humans. I think that’s going to be the dividing line,” he says. We will see AI as an assistant.”
people want to connect with others
Jeff says: “I don’t think anyone wants to hear a response from a computer.”
Building a human connection is very difficult for brands. People crave authenticity on social, and he can spot canned and AI-generated posts and responses from a mile away.
Social media work is more than just creating trending posts. It’s about connection and building community, a human element that AI can’t fully replicate.
“Everyone will still want the human-to-human interaction, which is the most important thing in community building, to be driven by real humans,” says Jeff.
AI still requires human touch, from prompt to product
AI is only as good as human ideas and editorial dexterity, especially when there are brand guidelines to adhere to.
And while AI can be trained to capture a brand’s voice and tone, there are other challenges. “Many AI models are trained in the past,” he explains. “ChatGPT can now browse the Internet to get more up-to-date information. But for the most part, it’s outdated data. So even if there are people in the industry who need up-to-date information, You can’t keep up with the latest trends.”
But even when AI analyzes the latest data from channels, comments, or the larger social space, it doesn’t always pick up on human nuances. “Businesses may not know that all 50,000 mentions your brand receives are from people who are being sarcastic and actually don’t like what your business is doing or the direction your campaign is taking.” I don’t know.”
Without human intervention, inaccurate insights can lead to poor business decisions.
Case studies for bringing AI to social media workflows
Social teams are already taking advantage of these tools. According to his Q2 2023 Sprout Pulse survey of 255 social marketers, 71% have started integrating AI and automation tools into their workflows. And 82% of that group reported that these tools were already delivering positive results.
AI isn’t just useful for social media marketers; Ultimately, you may need it to future-proof your skills and save your team time as the role becomes more complex. Let’s see why.
We take over manual tasks so you can focus on the big challenges
The more social evolves, the less bandwidth an already strained social team has. The need to manage limited time and work efficiently will only increase. That’s where social media AI comes in handy.
For Jeff, that is the core benefit of AI. “This is an opportunity to offload the mental burden that all social media managers carry onto their computers,” he explains. “AI is the perfect work companion that never gets tired and is always coming up with the next idea or passing on the next proposal for a client project that you have been putting off.”
When it comes to content creation, leveraging AI for initial ideas can spark creativity when you’re stuck in a rut. And it helps fight social media burnout. Speeding up content production gives you more time to focus on strategic priorities. Experiment with new content formats or dig deeper into performance metrics.
AI tools can also help you get more out of your content by providing optimization recommendations. for example, Optimal send times for Sprout Social and Hashtag recommendations Maximize your reach without spending hours on manual engagement and performance analysis. Learn how to get the most out of your AI generation tools and increase efficiency by using the right AI prompts.
Prove your impact and help make better business decisions
As social plays a more sophisticated role within organizations, greater insight is needed to make better business decisions.
AI analytics and automation tools mine large amounts of data faster than social speeds, compared to hours or days manually.
jeff mcdonald
social strategy director
By offloading time-consuming tasks, data retrieval, and reporting to AI, you can spend more time analyzing and incorporating insights into your strategy. As Jeff says, “You’ll be able to look at large data sets and analyze numbers and data with more intelligence than ever before.”
According to the 2023 State of Social Media Report, 51% of business leaders say they use social media data and insights to inform their business strategy. Additionally, 48% strongly agree that social media data and insights will be a primary source of business intelligence for their organization.
AI gives you the insights you need in seconds. This means less time aggregating data and more time working on that data.
Can be both proactive and reactive
According to the Sprout Pulse Survey for Q2 2023, the top two challenges in managing a brand’s social presence are identifying and responding to emerging trends and changing algorithms.
AI allows teams to get ahead of these challenges. Jeff said: “AI-driven analytics really adds a special use case where you suddenly have the skills to become a true trend spotter.”
Social listening is one concrete way that AI and automation can provide superpowers and information to support proactive action. Listening tools sift through billions of data points to uncover trends, insights, and business intelligence that matter to your organization.
Social media listening can reveal audience trends. The scouting agency used this to discover interesting trends among its client Martell’s Georgia-based customers. They were mixing branded cognac with sweet tea. They used this insight to introduce Martell and Sweet Tea cocktails at Atlanta Falcons games. This drink became the best-selling cognac cocktail at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Not all trends are positive. Social listening can help you identify emerging issues before they become a brand crisis. Purdue University used Sprout’s social listening tools and alerts to detect spikes in specific topics and stay ahead of potential problems.
Regain the time to connect with people
With so many tasks to balance, we often have little time for the “social” part of social media.
AI tools can help social teams connect with each other and free up time for other teams that could benefit from social media intelligence. Jeff said: “AI tools allow social media teams to do more of the things they are interested in. Finally, talk to your teammates about what they want to do with their accounts and what excites them. When was the last time you had free time?”
This also applies to social customer care initiatives. Chatbots and AI-generated FAQ answers allow you to be creative in engaging with your audience, allowing you to focus on the high-level questions.
And for social media marketers who are nervous about being asked for AI-generated responses, remember that AI shouldn’t take the wheel alone. You are in charge. We use AI to draft answers, but we use editing skills to humanize them.
Where will AI social media skills take your social workflow?
AI is here to stay. And as technology becomes more sophisticated, so do the social media teams that employ it.
We hope to put your mind at ease and give you some ideas on how to leverage AI to suit your workflow, skills, and role.
To learn more about AI in marketing today, check out our webinar, “The State of Social Media and AI.”