AI In Social Media: 8 Techniques To Stay Ahead Of Competition And Grow A Digital Presence

During the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), many business leaders viewed these programs more as writing tools that churned out low-quality content and delivered minimal impact at a high cost.

However, things have since changed, and artificial intelligence is now standing as the brains behind major corporations, providing business leaders with market intelligence, directing digital marketing campaigns, and helping businesses make more informed decisions through market and competitor analysis.

AI-powered applications have found a place across most business functions, but none are as important as AI for social media campaigns or marketing. In 2023, a survey by Statista, found that 14 percent of small and medium business (SMB) owners were using AI across marketing and social media. A further 36 percent said they would consider using AI in the future.

Across the board, companies big and small are shifting their budgets towards responsible investing in AI-focused marketing tools, transitioning their focus away from traditional print and television/radio media, and instead investing in digital ad spending. This activity boom presents challenges for enterprises that are only now starting to leverage the possibilities of artificial intelligence–how do they stay ahead of their competition?

1. Data Analytics For Content Personalization

Personalization plays an important role in providing customers with tailored experiences, even when they are not directly interacting with your brand. At least 90 percent of users follow at least one brand on social media, which is a powerful illustration of how user behavior has changed.

Creating a unique online experience requires brands to harness data analytics to better understand where their customers are, and what type of message they need to put in front of them. Through these adjustments, brands will be able to grow a more unique presence, and further establish and maintain consumer loyalty.

2. Optimize Social Media Content Planning

The majority of young consumers make use of social media as a search engine, according to one ExpressVPN survey, where 66 percent of Gen Zs and 60% of Millennials now use social media for search queries. By applying the right set of AI-powered tools, marketing teams can further optimize their social media content planning to meet the changing needs of consumers and online users.

Through this, brands will have a better understanding of how customer behavior changes, and where they can make adjustments to their social media content to meet user needs more effectively.

3. Competitor Analysis

Market activity has become immensely saturated as more brands begin to enter the online environment, and leverage digital marketing to boost brand awareness. Knowing what market competitors are doing will help brands uncover their shortcomings, whether that’s in how they communicate with customers via social media or the type of content they’re sharing.

AI-focused tools provide a more thorough understanding of campaign gaps and the shortcomings of a brand’s social media activity. Furthermore, this technology helps to highlight key opportunities and seek to identify near-term risks.

4. Customer And Trend Analyzation

As a brand, it’s impossible to predict the near-term development of new trends and how customers will react to them. Around 31 percent of marketing professionals make use of social listening to help analyze cultural trends as a primary objective for using social listening tools, which, in these instances, may include artificial intelligence.

AI-enabled software helps to track, monitor, and report on several queries, including customer preferences and how they perceive a specific trend. This may be through the number of likes, shares, or hashtags used to promote specific content.

5. Social Media Post Automation

Business owners and social media managers spend an excessive amount of time per week on post-scheduling and putting together content calendars. On average, 43 percent of small business owners spend six hours per week on social media activities over a five-day workweek, according to one survey.

Though this might be a reasonable amount for many business owners, newer tools now allow them to automate posting on social media platforms, giving them more freedom and control over how to curate content. Smarter AI features frees up an immense amount of time for brand leaders, business owners, and social media managers, and result in more accurate content delivery.

6. Customer Review Analysis

As a brand or business, you want to know what customers are saying about your product or service. Smaller enterprises tend to rely on an approach that sees them reading most of their customer reviews or comments and giving feedback based on each demand. Not only is this time-consuming, but often requires a vast amount of resources to complete.

There are now social listening tools powered by artificial intelligence to help brands discover in which corner of the internet they are being discussed.

This may include things such as blogs, forums, and other social media platforms where your business may not have a presence. By analyzing customer reviews, you will have a better indication of where you may have shortcomings, and what improvements can be made to deliver a more preferable customer experience.

7. Product And Service Development

Part of identifying opportunities is the ability to leverage AI to help deliver more insights into new product and service offerings. Customer demands are constantly changing, and staying on top of new developments will mean that your business can adjust and shift focus as the market evolves. Taking advantage of how AI can help identify new opportunities will bring more insight into how your business can scale and where new developments might help you build a better relationship with your clients over time.

8. Performance Analysis

Artificial intelligence acts as a fly-on-the-wall in many instances, helping business owners have more eyes and ears on the ground, and uncovering where they might encounter possible obstacles. Continuous performance analysis enables your brand to have more accurate content delivery and allows marketing teams to make changes to campaigns as new insights are being discovered.

For instance, should one post perform better than a previous one, teams will have a better indication of where they may need to make improvements to the forward-looking campaign.

Final Thoughts

Social media is a powerful tool that enables businesses to connect with their customers and meet them at the touch points where they are. By combining social media practices with the use of artificial intelligence, businesses can have better control over their online presence, while furthering their brand voice and awareness. AI-enabled tools can help business owners make more sense of their social media, how they’re perceived, and what shortcomings they can work on to stand out against their competitors.