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Artificial intelligence is profoundly changing both the way we interact and communicate, and the way we generate and access content – as individuals and (perhaps even more so!) as marketing professionals. While everyone can benefit from the technology, it is becoming particularly useful for brands, businesses and content creators.
In light of this groundbreaking transformation, it is worth taking a deeper look at how you can apply artificial intelligence to the content you publish on social media.
As the average attention span is only a few seconds, and new content is constantly being uploaded to social media platforms, social media marketing can no longer be based on intuition, experience and human thinking alone. This is where AI comes in: the technology is rapidly altering the way businesses and individuals communicate online.
The social media platforms themselves have incorporated AI technology into many of their functions. This means that, for example, even if two Instagram users follow the same accounts, their feeds are likely to look different depending on when and how they interact with the content.
But let’s go back to the world of marketing. What does using AI with social media involve? What benefits can you get from it? And are there any particularly noteworthy examples of it in action?
I’ll try to answer all these questions and more in this article, which is dedicated to anyone who is trying to take their communication and marketing operations to the next level.
What does applying AI to social media involve?
When we talk about applying artificial intelligence to social media, we mean using algorithms and smart systems to automate, optimise and enhance (some would say augment) digital marketing. From personalised content and predictive analysis to efficient community management and chatbots, AI allows brands to act more strategically, quickly and effectively… in other words, to seem more human. So AI can be used to increase users’ perception of dealing with a person, rather than a business.
The aim is to offer users increasingly relevant, timely and engaging experiences, while at the same time reducing marketing teams’ workload (time and effort, open tickets, etc.)
There are various specific ways that business can use AI to improve their use of social media. The article Social Media and AI: Is it Safe? on the Kaspersky blog has a great list, which is worth reproducing here in full:
- Manage advertising: Companies can use AI-enabled tools to perform customer segmentation to ensure that advertising on social media is targeted to the right audience.
- Analyse data: AI can automatically analyse massive amounts of data in a short time to assist with more targeted advertising, as well as track the performance of social media posts and ads.
- Automate posts: Businesses can use AI-based tools to schedule posts to be published at a time when audiences are most active, thus ensuring better engagement.
- Moderate content: Social media AI bots can assist in moderating the user-generated content on a business’s public pages, filtering out anything that may be inappropriate or infringe on community guidelines.
- Generate content: Generative AI for social media posts can help quickly craft high-performing content as well as choose hashtags that will boost the posts’ visibility. On LinkedIn, businesses can use generative AI to help draft job descriptions, for example.
- Select influencers: With so many influencers and content creators around, companies can use AI to help determine which ones are best suited to their brand and advertising goals.
- Social listening: Collating online brand mentions to get an idea of what is being said about a company on social media sites
- 24/7 customer service: AI-enabled chatbots allow companies to offer automated customer service at all hours through their social media pages.
AI also has various benefits when it comes to managing your daily social media marketing:
- Advanced personalisation: AI can analyse user data (interactions, interests and behaviour) to suggest tailored content, thereby increasing the relevance of messages and the engagement rate.
- Smart automation: Tools like social chatbots can be used to respond to users’ messages in real time, handle complaints or provide assistance, with an ‘always-on’ approach.
- Predictive analysis: AI not only reads data, it can interpret it. It can predict trends, identify viral content, and estimate how future campaigns will perform.
- Content creation: Some tools can generate text, images or videos optimised for social networks, speeding up the creative process without affecting quality.
- Sentiment analysis: AI can monitor online conversations and detect the tone (positive, neutral or negative) of comments about your brand in real time, useful for handling reputational crises or opportunities.
Some AI-based tools for social media
There is a vast array of AI-based tools on the market today, each designed to meet different needs. The world-renowned expert Scott Brinker has been updating his Martech Map for years: an infographic showing the marketing technology and AI tools available across the world. The latest map available is dated 2024, but even so it is now impossible to identify the individual tools with the naked eye (each ‘coloured dot’ is actually a logo!), which tells you everything you need to know about the direction things are heading in…
ChatGPT is perfect for generating copy, captions, content ideas and personalised messages.
Lately.ai is an AI assistant that analyses content and automatically transforms it into posts optimised for social networks, helping to increase content teams’ productivity.
Brandwatch and Sprinklr are AI-powered social listening platforms that allow you to monitor mentions, sentiment and trends in real time.
Canva (with Magic Write and Magic Design) draws on generative AI to create effective graphics and copy.
Predis.ai automatically generates social advertising content starting from a brief or specific topic.
Hootsuite Insights uses AI to suggest the best times to publish content, trends to jump on and content to optimise.
Going back to the Martech Map we mentioned above, any self-respecting technological tool nowadays has artificial intelligence solutions incorporated within it. So if you’re using other tools, it’s only a matter of time… 🙂
Who is using AI for their social media marketing?
Many businesses of all sizes and all around the world have already adopted AI for their social media work.
The obvious place to start is with major brands like Netflix (which uses predictive algorithms to tailor the content promoted on its social channels to users’ tastes), Sephora (which has integrated AI-based chatbots into Messenger, which recommend products and allow users to make purchases directly in the conversations) and Lufthansa (which used AI to analyse customer reactions on social media during a promotional campaign, optimising the creative content in real time based on the sentiment detected).
However, partly as a result of the tools mentioned above, which are increasingly user-friendly and reasonably priced, with accessible pricing models, smaller organisations, public bodies and non-profit organisations with less generous budgets can still use AI to make their social media presence more efficient, strategic and impactful..
Maison Valentina, a small Portuguese interior design firm, uses AI for social listening and sentiment analysis through platforms like Brand24 and Mention, seeking to understand how architects, designers and international buyers perceive the brand, so it can then produce more targeted communication on Instagram and Pinterest. The Municipality of Bologna – drawing on financial support and expertise from a pilot European project – experimented with a virtual AI assistant to provide updates on events or during local emergencies via social media and Messenger. The bot responded automatically to frequently asked questions on topics like road closures, schedules, weather and cultural information. Beardbrand, an American company that sells beard and grooming products and services, used Jarvis/Conversion.ai to write social campaign texts and Facebook ads. Automating the copy halved production times and led to an average 17% increase in the CTR (click-through rate – the percentage of users who click on a link or ad compared to the number of times it was viewed).
Takeaways: a long road ahead
Using artificial intelligence to enhance social media marketing is no longer a novelty: it is an everyday reality for marketing and communication professionals. Today we have the evolving knowledge, dynamic tools and practical skills to use technology to strengthen our business communications.
Time to get started 🙂