Today, AI is as commonplace as social media. Both of them have come a long way, especially over the last decade, and as they have progressed, they have become interlinked.
AI can be used to maximize the potential of marketing campaigns and drive sales of any kind across social media platforms. Here we will look at:
- Social Media and Marketing;
- Production of Content;
- Machine Learning and Engagement;
- Image Recognition;
- Monitoring Rivals;
- Sponsored Advertising.
But first –
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence – AI – is a simulation of human intelligence performed by computer software. Specific areas in which Artificial Intelligence uses algorithms and is often applied include the processing of languages, speech recognition, and the recording, keeping, and analysis of data. AI can handle a multitude of tasks and make highly accurate predictions and estimations, decisions, and suggestions. More than this, it is able to perform with such rapidity that it can find answers and solutions that would take humans months – and longer.
Generally, AI works by absorbing huge amounts of data and information, analyzing it for patterns and seeking correlations, and then, once patterns are discovered, making predictions. So this encompasses such things, for example, speech recognition (in the moment) and – relevant here – sales predictions (the future). AI is now a priceless asset for every business imaginable. With its analytical abilities and high speed, a business can now rake up details and important data scraps that previously may have taken years to discover or notice at all in any capacity.
Social Media and Marketing
The sales and marketing landscape has changed over the last decade with the social media explosion. Millions of people around the world use at least one platform on a daily basis. It’s become a vital tool for businesses of all types and sizes. Social media has made the world a smaller place, with people within reach of the other side of the world in real-time. This has become as good an opportunity for business as it could ever hope to find. A huge audience is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week – and easier than ever for firms to reach their target audience on a daily basis.
Today, Twitter alone has almost 400 million users and is in the top 3 most-used social media platforms. With a user volume such as that – on just one of the platforms – it’s not hard to conclude the power, which these platforms hold for sales drives. Anyone using these sites will be aware that AI is hard at work in the background. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter – all make suggestions based on your own activity, as well as inform you of some of the activities of friends and other accounts that you follow. For example, Instagram may tell you that one of your friends recently followed a particular public figure, or based on your own actions and activities, make recommendations that fall within the criteria of what you have been looking at.
How many times have you looked at certain products and then, later that day or the next, suddenly find related sponsored ads in your timeline? This is all the work of AI – and businesses can, and are, capitalizing on it and optimizing social media, especially for it.
Here’s how AI works with three of the top social media platforms:
Instagram AI uses ad targeting based on what you’ve liked, commented on, and shared before. Based on the same criteria, it will also suggest other accounts that you might want to follow, which will also increase Instagram followers. Instagram’s AI has also been strengthened in an effort to counter bots and malicious accounts. More recently, artificial intelligence for translating foreign languages has been improved.
- Facebook
The top social media platform unsurprisingly has the most potent AI, covering every conceivable angle. Artificial intelligence has become the literal core of how the platform now operates. From predicting what you will like or want to watch based on your historical actions, to targeting ads, Facebook has an omnipresent AI constantly at work. It even goes a step further with targeted ads: it won’t just select a specific audience, it will select those it has learned are most likely to act upon an advertisement that has been viewed in the past. It also utilizes AI to combat spam, misinformation, and other harmful content.
- TikTok
TikTok is almost entirely ruled by robust artificial intelligence. Every video is ranked, and its suitability is determined for particular users based on their actions. This near extreme user-focus has worked: it’s what keeps its users attached to the platform by ensuring everything that appears has relevance to previously watched content. TikTok has made a name for itself not just for its platform but for the speed at which it rose through the ranks. This was in part down to its incredibly clever AI, which is primed to hook users immediately by supplying them with their interests.
Production of Content
Content is the crucial key: even more vital – making it original. Artificial Intelligence can help with this too. Technology today is more than capable of working with languages, so it is able to pick up on poor grammar, bad spelling, word repetition, and other mistakes and flaws. AI can assist with writing content – even the tone and nuances used in it, to better the written content for specifically targeted audiences. Text generation software is one of many tools now available to marketing teams. Not only can they aid text content but they can assist with the creation of product names and branding. To a degree, AI has reduced the work of marketing and content individuals: however, its ‘uninhibited’ approach to thinking and creating means that it can generate some truly unique ideas and product names for creators to work and play with.
Artificial intelligence can also play a pivotal role regards to assisting content creators by optimizing its deployment across various social media platforms. Each media channel has its own ‘feel’ and style. One advertisement, or a series of them, that work well on Facebook may very well not be ideal on Snapchat. Different demographics tend to use each more heavily, even if they have accounts on both. The mood of an ad may work on one platform but seem very out of place on another. AI can analyze all of this and provide feedback relating to text content, images, video, and so on, and suggest the best ways in which to individually tailor the marketing of the same product across multiple platforms.
Machine Learning and Engagement
At the core of social media and its general success is engagement. That’s its prime directive. The machine learning of AI can detect the most interesting and engaging elements of content and how well it is performing. Conversely, of course, it can also find out the opposite. The learning ability of AI can pick up and report on the traction of keywords and hashtags. Even the engagement rates of colors can be analyzed to inform marketers of what is catching users’ eyes the most and suggest how they can be utilized.
These capabilities are superb not just for the monitoring and tracking systems of a business’s own campaigns but those of its competitors. By doing this, it’s possible for marketers to tweak their campaigns right across the board to get the upper hand over their rivals. If AI hasn’t suggested how to first, of course.
Image Recognition
Of all the content across social media, images, and video are dominant. If it’s not memes posted from personal accounts, it’s short videos – per Instagram stories, and more recently, Tik Tok. This is another golden egg for sales drives. Machine learning software is able to analyze imagery and then report on user/consumer reactions and behavior around what they see on their news feeds. The ability of image recognition software can help to single out what it is that people are interested in and are after. This is a huge benefit for marketers when then putting together new content for products and/or services as it enables them to really zoom in on every key detail that AI has unearthed and optimize the visual appeal of a sales drive.
Monitoring Rivals
Just as it is in sports, most businesses like some healthy competition. Competition has always been a defining feature of running a business and can be as fun as it is stressful. The essence of competition also means always striving to be better – and AI can be an excellent competitive asset. If you can run analytical AI software on your own marketing campaigns and sales drives, then you can run it on that of your rivals – and vice versa. Running real-time analysis across social media provides the ability to make adjustments on the fly. Not just on account of how well (or not) your marketing is being received, but by how well your nearest competitors are faring. If AI reports on where the strengths and weaknesses are in a rival company’s strategy or content, the opportunity is there to capitalize on those weaknesses immediately. At the same time, seeing what is working for them means you can employ similar tactics in your own marketing.
Sponsored Advertising
AI has made it easier than ever for brands to market to and target their intended audiences. Artificial intelligence detects demographics: location, age, gender, and so on. AI sees these users and directs marketing their way, ensuring they are seen by the right people. This is proven to have a better success rate than throwing marketing material out into the world for everyone to see and hoping for the best. Being seen by the right people optimizes the likelihood of a sale – and AI ensures campaigns are seen by the right eyes.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have come a long way – and have brought business marketing along with them. The vast majority of companies today will have a social media department – even if that department is comprised of just one individual – and it’s imperative that they be aware of the AI assistance that is now available to them to optimize any and all sales drives. AI, like anything else, is not fail-safe. So it itself needs to be monitored to ensure that it is behaving as it should and performing in all the right areas.
With the help of AI, the following elements of marketing campaigns across social media can all benefit:
- Figure out what marketing posts work best using advanced designed analytics dashboards;
- Enhanced strategizing – even mid-campaign;
- Monitor trending words and content across each social media channel to find your target audience;
- The textual content of sales drives;
- The efficiency of time spent managing social media;
- Social media monitoring and tracking.
AI adds serious firepower to campaigns aimed across major social media channels. With its help, your marketing can be fine-tuned for optional efficiency and a sales drive that keeps you ahead of the competition.
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