One of the most misused quotes ever is, “If you build it, they will come,” from a fairy-tale movie about magic baseball players.  In the real world, the way it works is “if you build it, and work at it, they might come.”  In order to brand yourself, you not only need a presence on social media, but you must use that presence to engage people.  Setting up a Facebook and Twitter account is a good initial step to building your social media presence, but you have to make sure there is a human element behind it.  People tend to look at automation tools and think, “oh, fantastic!  Now I don’t have to spend as much time monitoring my content.”  Not to be a killjoy, but, yes, you do still have to spend time on what you post. 

It would be nice if we could all rely on ‘content discovery’ tools such as HootSuite and Klout, which find and post relevant content from your industry.  The problem is, many people will then share content that they haven’t actually read.  This auto-sharing is a big risk: not only are you taken out of the picture of social engagement, but your automatic postings might post something you don’t agree with.  Imagine walking into a business meeting only to discover an angry mob demanding why you posted that article yesterday (they assume you know what article was posted– but alas, you didn’t actually read or post the article yourself).  Automated postings won’t generate enough meaningful engagement for you.  It is better for you to take the time yourself to read your content before you post it, so you are prepared and informed on what others will see under your name. 

You want your clients to feel like you really are behind your accounts, and automated tweets and messages will often bring the opposite effect.  No one wants an automated response every time they mention someone in a tweet.  Those messages make them feel like they are just a number, and not someone you are willing to take the time to personally tweet “thanks” back.  Unless your automatic message provides useful information (such as “Out sledding with penguins.  Will return your call as soon as I get back), stick to personalized responses.  Remember, you want to communicate meaningful messages, not meaningless verbiage. 

Quite simply, we can’t automate real interactions.  Everyone knows how annoying it is to call a company and get a machine’s voice on the other line.  People want humans to help them, not a robot who responds “I am sorry, please repeat” whenever you ask a question.   

Social media is only going to become more important in our world.  With Facebook having been around for 10 years, it is safe to say that the up-and-coming generation will almost entirely have a social media presence.  People are used to getting what they want, when they want, and blocking what they don’t want, which is a suite of powers that is attained through social media.  Anyone who wants to engage this generation (and the next) will have to engage and communicate the necessary channels, but not through oxymoronic “automated engagement.”  Your automatic content will be too easy for people to block.  It will take a human to engage your clients, not robots.  

For more information, check out Social Media Today.