What does spring mean to you? For some, it means witnessing colorful rows of tulips popping up in yards, parks, and in front of local businesses. Sometimes, it means a quick getaway to warmer places where spring shows up in proper form, not just a date on the calendar. For me, spring means all of those things and something deeper.
Spring is when the idea of renewal takes root.
When the grass turns green again, and the warm raindrops nourish the frozen earth, the soggy, lushness of this time of year invites rejuvenation, warmth, and goodness to settle in our souls.
As we move into the first full week of spring, I am excited to renew certain promises to you – my readers.
First, let me back up for a second and tell you how this all started. Over the weekend, I was researching different types of automation tools to keep my social media accounts fresh and exciting. Some of you reading this post know what automation tools are; others might be in the dark. To those of you who haven’t heard of the concept of automation, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. In general, automation is a tool that lets businesses, personal brands, etc., schedule content to post on blogs, email, and social media so fans/readers see regular posts and fresh content.
Automation is great for my blog because some days I have more time to write than others. I can write several blog posts at one time and schedule them to go out over the course of several days or weeks. The same concept works with my emails. Automation is also great for you because you’re not overwhelmed by so much content at one time. So, in terms of blogging and email, it’s wonderful.
Automation and Social Media
Now let’s consider how automation works with social media. I like to schedule posts for Facebook and Twitter for a few reasons.
- First, some days I have a lot to say but don’t want to blow up your social feed. That would, in a nutshell, get annoying for you.
- Other times, there are long stretches of time when I’m writing, traveling, or just not feeling social media, and don’t feel inspired to post.
Automation fills in the gaps for me and lets me create. However, here’s where automation sucks! Of course, just my opinion. Remember that please.
So, I was looking at automation apps for Instagram to help me engage with users and attract more people to my feed. I love Instagram. It’s my favorite social media app and the one I spend the most time on. But like all social media it’s difficult to build a following. I mean, how do people get 18K people to follow their feed?
I figured it out this weekend.
Automation.
I’m not saying all accounts with huge followers rely on automation, but I know quite a few do. The accounts that rely on these tools to increase followers create auto responses and automatically like accounts that match pre-defined hashtags relevant to the brand, writer, or business.  All of this is done automatically, and the user never has to actually engage. Account follows are done automatically. Unfollows done after a day or two when the targeted account follows back or doesn’t (based on predefined parameters).
Light bulb moment!
Suddenly, weird things with my own account started making more sense like:
- The weird, generic comments that didn’t make sense with the image I posted
- Large number of followings in one day and then losing close to the same number of followers a few days later.
I realized my social accounts were part of the automation game. Well, I’ll admit. Sometimes I’m naive. Learning that bit of info kind of shocked me. For some insane reason, I believe in people’s authenticity.
Then it made me mad. It got me thinking hard about the smoke and mirror games played, online and off.
The realization prompted me to sit down and type this message to YOU, a renewal of my author promises to you.
Check out my renewal promise here.
[yikes-mailchimp form=”2″ submit=”Join the Community!”]