Automation through technology is a beautiful thing from an efficiency and productivity standpoint.\u00a0 I\u2019m a fan of automating low-level and\/or repetitive tasks to free up time for cerebral and creative work.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there are also many things people choose to automate that can actually do more harm than good.<\/p>\n
Here are several cases where you should avoid automation:<\/p>\n
Auto-responses to DMs in any social platform<\/strong> Blind\/automated digging or sharing of content<\/strong> Auto-responses from customer service<\/strong> Content creation<\/strong> AdWords optimization<\/strong> White papers\/resources for clients<\/strong> Relationship building<\/strong> If you\u2019re in the web industry in any sense, trying to automate things where others work carefully to provide unique, tailored results positions you as the colder, less human option.\u00a0 The web actually enables you to be warmer and more personalized, and there is much to gain by embracing that philosophy.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying to not use automation where it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint, but be weary of removing the human element from your communications, strategies or content.\u00a0 Automation is best used in a fusion with personalized insight from a savvy individual or organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Automation through technology is a beautiful thing from an efficiency and productivity standpoint.\u00a0 I\u2019m a fan of automating low-level and\/or … <\/p>\n
\nNothing irks me more than when I choose to follow someone on Twitter and I get an auto-DM thanking me for following them.\u00a0 It is especially bothersome because Twitter DMs from the people I chose to follow have an incredibly high\u00a0signal to noise ratio\u00a0\u2013 I don\u2019t think I receive any DM spam from the 800 or so people I\u2019m following (pretty amazing actually).\u00a0 I immediately un-follow people who auto-ping me after I follow them and you should too \u2013 it shows a complete lack of respect for users as many of us have tied Twitter to our mobile devices.\u00a0 DM\u2019s were designed to be personal communications to the person receiving them, treat them as such.<\/p>\n
\nA reason certain people are extremely trusted or seen as high degrees of signal is due to the fact they share content with care and purpose.\u00a0 You simply can\u2019t automate this, and it ruins your ability to build social capital and a strong\u00a0digital reputation.\u00a0 Besides, automating sharing can\u2019t approach the quality of doing this selectively and personally.\u00a0 Having an eye for strong content is a talent in and of itself and is actually what makes many\u00a0social media power users\u00a0special.\u00a0 Also if you\u2019re caught doing this on sites like Digg, they\u2019ll outright ban you.<\/p>\n
\nIf you\u2019re in a consumer-facing business and actively pushing marketing\/PR efforts on the web, yet at the same time pushing automatic and\/or canned responses to consumers from your customer service department, you\u2019re potentially fighting yourself.\u00a0 As Steve Rubel has noted on more than one occasion,\u00a0customer service is the new PR.\u00a0 Direct, personal and quality human responses that leave consumers buzzing is a huge PR tactic in itself not just to hedge negativity, but also to build positive relationships.\u00a0 Be a special company that deeply respects every customer enough to take the time to interact with them personally.<\/p>\n
\nSome people use tools to automatically scrape content to build resource lists, but the only way to build truly useful lists or any type of content that is compelling enough to be shared and linked to is to create it manually with thought behind it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ever be sold on tools that automatically generate or scrape content, there is no machine that replaces what a smart writer can do.<\/p>\n
\nAs someone with several years experience working in AdWords I manually work on my campaigns.\u00a0 I\u2019ve played around with Google\u2019s campaign optimizer before \u2013 and while it can prove somewhat useful under certain circumstances, you really have to vest time in AdWords manually if you want to get results from their system.\u00a0 I get what they\u2019re trying to do with the campaign optimizer, but the system is one which begs to be tweaked manually by someone who has been watching the data carefully and understands all aspects of what is happening with thought behind the decisions.<\/p>\n
\nIt may be tempting to template general insights for clients if you are in the marketing industry, but there is much greater value in spending the time to provide industry-specific, researched reports tailored to each client.\u00a0 Take the time to create specific consulting, and you\u2019ll prove yourself that much more of an asset than merely providing generic material.\u00a0 Done properly, these types of documents\/consulting demonstrate you truly understand the business a client is in.<\/p>\n
\nSimply put, you can\u2019t and never will be able to automate this.\u00a0 It\u2019s the antithesis of what a relationship is.\u00a0 Every relationship is unique, and for it to be valuable it must be forged and nurtured in that manner.\u00a0 If you try to automate any parts of this, you\u2019re missing the point entirely.<\/p>\nConclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n