(video & conversation) Social Media Automation for Founders Live
This session is titled Social Media Automation To The Max! How To Save Time And Automate Authentically and includes Nicole talking about how to automate your companies social media activities authentically, which will save you time and expand your reach at the same time! It begins with a short video segment featuring Nicole showcasing the SaltyWaffle product and illustrating how easy it is to automate your social media activity. Below, a group discussion followed with a ton of questions and comments from the group. Check it out!
alright, hello everybody. Who’s in the house? Feel free to shout out and say hi
Nicole Donnelly12:15 pm
Hola!
Nick Hughes12:15 pm
Hi. Great day in Seattle and great looking product (SaltyWaffle)
Nicole Donnelly12:15 pm
from Vancouver, BC today
Nick Hughes12:15 pm
Thanks Nicole
Nicole Donnelly12:15 pm
My pleasure
I’m so super excited about all of the possible automations in one place now
Nicole Donnelly12:16 pm
when I first started my social media biz back in 2009 it would cost a company $10,000 a month to do what you can do now for around $500
thanks to automations!
Founders Live Team12:16 pm
Ok, here’s what we will be doing. It’s a group chat Q&A session. THE ROOM IS OPEN FOR ANYONE TO ASK QUESTIONS OR MAKE COMMENTS!
Eric Schudiske12:17 pm
Hey Nicole, very exciting potential in automation. I’m interesting in automation, and collaboration. What’s your take on using this tool to work with clients for approval/input. etc?
Nick Hughes12:17 pm
Yes. It’s really come down in price as these types of products allow for such easy automating
Nicole Donnelly12:17 pm
you can use it that way too, there are settings to add users with limited permissions
Nicole Donnelly12:18 pm
and they will get alerts to items to approve
Krishnan Gopalan12:18 pm
Hi Nicole – There seem to be a ton of tools like meetedgar, buffer, hootsuite, saltywaffle (that you are using). How should one go about evaluating right fit for our company?
Eric Schudiske12:19 pm
Thanks. Very cool to see the calendar and all the content plotted out. How much time do you devote to monitoring comments, after posting?
Nick Hughes12:19 pm
Great questions here!
Nicole Donnelly12:19 pm
well, Salty has the most functions in one place, so that’s why I use it
hootsuite doesn’t have so many automations
edgar and buffer, you still have a lot of manual searching to do
Nicole Donnelly12:20 pm
we are working on a comparison chart to illustrate this
Eric – it depends on the post
Krishnan Gopalan12:20 pm
Got it thank you.
Founders Live Team12:20 pm
Nicole – let’s dive a bit deeper in Automation – what’s the main benefit of automating social media? And what sort of posts can be automated? What can’t?
Nicole Donnelly12:20 pm
If I’m trying to make a linkedin post go viral, I pay close attention and tweak the copy to get the right number of likes
Nicole Donnelly12:21 pm
and comments to get the reach that I want
usually the alerts of comments are sufficient for normal, not hot topics
if there’s something hot, I’m on it all day
Automation saves time!
Nicole Donnelly12:22 pm
You can automate curated posts like I did in the video, you can also automate the posting of custom content.
Shreya Ley12:22 pm
So does SW also consolidate/track your engagement?
Nicole Donnelly12:23 pm
You can automate the syndication that happens after a blog post is posted to your site so that all social networks, including linkedin groups get your posts
Shreya, it does, there’s a social inbox that aggregates all feeds and you can segment by types of engagement, so you could filter all comments and just look at those
every biz/person should be posting to your own blog on your site, it’s the backbone of good SEO
John Meier12:24 pm
how lo
Nicole Donnelly12:24 pm
Hi John
Nick Hughes12:24 pm
Hi John.
John Meier12:24 pm
Sorry, How long does it take from starting automation to really see the effects of it
Nick Hughes12:24 pm
Hi Shreya
Nicole Donnelly12:24 pm
it depends on how often you typically post
Timmie Kenneh12:24 pm
just finished
Nicole Donnelly12:24 pm
and also on the network
Shreya Ley12:25 pm
Hey Nick!
Nicole Donnelly12:25 pm
Linkedin, you’ll see movement faster
Nick Hughes12:25 pm
Hi Timmie.
Timmie Kenneh12:25 pm
hello everyone
Founders Live Team12:25 pm
Great room we got going here! FEEL FREE TO ASK AWAY!
Krishnan Gopalan12:25 pm
For posting of custom content (for example a video or picture that you take so often) does that content need to be uploaded to a location like dropbox, or is that functionality typically built into these tools?
Nicole Donnelly12:25 pm
Linkedin is easy to get traction on right now, there’s a lot of nothing going on there
Nicole Donnelly12:26 pm
you can upload it it directly to the tools
theres an app for that
Shreya Ley12:26 pm
Nicole, is this the same tool that you were mentioning at WeWork awhile back? Out of Bellingham? I don’t want to derail the conversation, but I only caught the tail end of that presentation
Nicole Donnelly12:26 pm
Hi Shreya – it’s framework on which it’s built is the same
Nicole Donnelly12:27 pm
we all start with a template of sorts
they are not using it anymore though
they’ve built a new framework
Shreya Ley12:27 pm
Ok. Sweet. Thanks.
Nicole Donnelly12:28 pm
😎
Nick Hughes12:28 pm
Good question krishnan. Nicole, so you are saying there’s app integrations where you can easily allow custom content / rich media to be uploaded into the system to be auto posted?
Nicole Donnelly12:29 pm
back to traction…Facebook likes native posts and if you have a business page, once you get over 100 fans you have to “boost” your posts for people to see them
and FB likes this automated content when you boost it, just as much as native content
yes Nick, you can upload from your phone
I’m guessing that’s what you use for pics
Nick Hughes12:30 pm
👍🏼
Nicole Donnelly12:30 pm
IF NOT…there’s a really cool spreadsheet template that you can populate and then upload all of your pics to, and put copy in and then program it out into the future
including on IG
Nicole Donnelly12:31 pm
for IG though you have to use the app to post, that’s their rule
any IG tool works that way
Krishnan Gopalan12:31 pm
IG = instagram?
Founders Live Team12:31 pm
Nicole, let’s talk about scheduling. Should we take a day per week and schedule out the rest of the week? So go week by week. Or how does this scheduling work?
Nicole Donnelly12:31 pm
Great question!
Nicole Donnelly12:32 pm
You need to have a base of consistent posts
consistency is very important, so if it’s daily or weekly, make it consistent
the Salty tool tracks when you get the most engagement and will slot the posts into the time around when you want them to go out that will get the most engagement
Nicole Donnelly12:33 pm
in the video you saw that on most days I post 3 articles
it totally depends on you and what you want to do, for curated content it’s easy to put a lot of great articles out there, then you can see what your people respond to and create similar custom posts
Founders Live Team12:34 pm
Makes sense. Consistency is key for most things!
Nicole Donnelly12:34 pm
I like to schedule a month out, AND I’ve got my year planned as far as themes go
Nick Hughes12:34 pm
Ok. So I’ll make a confession. I’m not on top of this area in my company and until I have a dedicated person in position i need to automate even on a low level . What does it take to jump in and get going?
Nicole Donnelly12:34 pm
annual theme, quarterly, and monthly
It takes about an hour to get your accounts hooked up and for you to automate your first month
Nicole Donnelly12:35 pm
seriously it’s sooooooo simple
oh and $99/mo
Shreya Ley12:35 pm
So, you don’t subscribe to the Seinfeld methodology (post often, but mostly about “nothing.”)
Nicole Donnelly12:35 pm
haha
I do post recipes, does that count?
it totally depends on your audience
Nicole Donnelly12:36 pm
and what value you want to deliver to them
on my personal accounts, FB & Twitter, I automate gluten free recipes daily
and then I can organically post whatever I want whenever and those posts get a lot of engagement because I’ve been feeding my peeps along the way
Nick Hughes12:37 pm
Right. Ok so $100 per month and about an hours worth of work to get the month set up and automated.
Nicole Donnelly12:37 pm
Your people are out there and they are hungry, only about 1% of people post regularly
Nick Hughes12:37 pm
Not bad!
Nicole Donnelly12:37 pm
that’s right Nick!
It’s soooooo simple
my motto is Keep It Super Simple
Krishnan Gopalan12:37 pm
is it ok to re-post stuff?
Nicole Donnelly12:38 pm
that’s why I LOVE this tool and am super stoked to share
Krishnan it’s golden to repost!
Founders Live Team12:38 pm
Nicole. What company would you be able to point to who is doing this well? Or doing their Social Media activity well that you are constantly impressed with?
Nicole Donnelly12:38 pm
not on your blog, but on social it absolutely is
all social networks love shared posts
oooooh hmmmm who does social well…
Nicole Donnelly12:39 pm
there are some kickstarter campaigns that do a good job
Nicole Donnelly12:40 pm
I can’t say that I pay attention to one in particular, it so depends on the industry as to what good is and there’s my personal preference
I like it when the brands allow people who post to have personality
Nick Hughes12:41 pm
I know. I’m actually trying to think about a brand or company.. there’s not one that stands out to me
Krishnan Gopalan12:41 pm
There are many times that you post because you are attending a conference or a live event. Of course, that does not seem automatable. Does SW or any other tool help with that?
Nicole Donnelly12:41 pm
yeah, brands have their moments, and I do look at what good public social conversations are happening
Nicole Donnelly12:42 pm
for the live tweeting, that’s it, it’s live
what salty helps with is the monitoring and measuring after
Timmie Kenneh12:42 pm
I’m gonna watch your video again, really good stuff. Really something to invest to
Timmie Kenneh12:43 pm
I came in halfway on the chat
Nicole Donnelly12:43 pm
I was at seattle startup week and vancouver startup week, 2 weeks in a row and I spoke at sessions so I had soooo much to respond to, people tweeting, posting on linkedin, FB, IG, about my sessions, what was helpful is that for every mention, Salty autoliked it!
Nick Hughes12:43 pm
Nicole. This was about automation but any other quick social media hacks on our mind today?
Nicole Donnelly12:43 pm
Timmie, any social brands that you love?
Nicole Donnelly12:44 pm
well….linkedin
Timmie Kenneh12:45 pm
I find I get better engagments on Instagram than Twitter but I’m more comfortable with Facebook
Founders Live Team12:45 pm
On that note, anyone else have any social media tricks to share?!
Nicole Donnelly12:45 pm
there’s math to how far of a reach your post will get based on the number of likes you get in the first hour, their news cycle is about 72 hours, and if you really want to have something seen, you need to get those likes in the first hour, so you can have your friends standing by to like or share your post
Shreya Ley12:45 pm
Tim Ferriss (for brands that seem to be on top of Social Media) seems to get a lot of engagement – at least he boasts it. Do you follow his stuff at all? If you do, what are your thoughts on his presence?
Nicole Donnelly12:45 pm
I do follow Tim, he’s NOT frequent on anything anymore
Krishnan Gopalan12:46 pm
I’m surprised that you like LInkedIn.
Timmie Kenneh12:46 pm
Linkedin is becoming sneaky good for me as well, probably more beneficial for me
Nicole Donnelly12:46 pm
he’s got a loyal following that he built by obsessively posting in the early days
yeah, it’s easier to stand out on linkedin
Nick Hughes12:47 pm
For LinkedIn. What soe
what sort of content is popular now? Effective?
Nicole Donnelly12:47 pm
Video as always!
Nick Hughes12:47 pm
👍🏼
Nicole Donnelly12:48 pm
also your image with your post will help it go farther too, it’s key to have a good pic
Nick Hughes12:48 pm
I got a lot of those! And more coming
Nicole Donnelly12:48 pm
that’s great! You will crush it!
for linkedin you also need to write emotionally gripping titles, short descriptions
Founders Live Team12:49 pm
Ok, well we’re about out of time. A few more minutes to squeeze in a few more quick questions…
Krishnan Gopalan12:49 pm
Any pointers on using Personal Account to post vs Company Account to post and the right amount of interplay ?
Nicole Donnelly12:49 pm
again, that depends on your audience/brand
I keep recipes personal
Nicole Donnelly12:50 pm
and I do post biz stuff on my personal page, because that’s what my people expect from me
so, think of what your audience can count on you for and post about that
for me it’s biz, parenting, EQ, social media/marketing
if you are not getting engagement, shift your message until you get something that lands for your audience
Founders Live Team12:51 pm
Nicole, this is the site correct?
Salty Waffle | Social Media
Do you ‘favorite’ tweets you are mentioned in? Do you ‘favorite’ retweets? Do you ‘like’ your all of your FB page comments as soon as they come in? (do you even get comments?) Do you feel overwhelmed just thinking about keeping up with it all? I sure was!
Nicole Donnelly12:51 pm
haha yes
Nick Hughes12:51 pm
Nice image!
Nicole Donnelly12:51 pm
thanks Lacey Jayne created it!
Founders Live Team12:52 pm
Great, and how can we find and get in touch with you?
Krishnan Gopalan12:52 pm
Really appreciate this chat Nicole
Shreya Ley12:52 pm
Reminds me of old school MTV graphics. Thanks, Nicole!
Nicole Donnelly12:52 pm
and anybody who signs up for the $99 version will get the $149 version as a thank you, no coupon code necessary
oh yeah!
Gabriel Villenave12:52 pm
Thanks Nicole! Super useful
Nicole Donnelly12:52 pm
My pleasure and you can reach me here, twitter, FB, Linkedin and Nicole@spring.is
Nick Hughes12:53 pm
Great. Thanks Nicole. This was awesome.
Timmie Kenneh12:53 pm
Thanks Nicole
Nicole Donnelly12:53 pm
Have a super week! And KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE!
Nick Hughes12:53 pm
See you all later!
Founders Live Team12:54 pm
Ok, that’s it for today. Thanks for joining in everyone. Until next time.