These days, social media is ever changing! You finally get the hang of one platform and then *poof* there’s something new on the market. Thankfully, there’s always the option of automating your posts via popular scheduling sites, such as Hootsuite and Buffer. But there’s really no handbook for what isn’t “Kosher” when it comes to automated accounts- until now.

Keep reading to find out more about the “Don’ts” of Social Media Automation.

Don’t Make Your Social Media Accounts Look Robotic!

This is probably the worst thing that’s come out of automation. Make your account interactive. Even though you have your accounts scheduled out, hop on and reply back to people, follow accounts, let people know what you’re up to, etc. Nowadays, people can spot a “spam” account from a mile away. You know, those accounts that only post their articles, re-post the same new article over and over without much variation to the Tweet, look like they are just trying to drive traffic to their website and don’t really care about communicating with their followers? Make it a priority to post several times a day, especially on Twitter, about things going on in your life as they’re happening.

Don’t Post Just To Fill Up Space.

Sure, it’s a best practice to do anything you can to constantly have your company’s name in people’s faces, but REMEMBER: that includes ‘anything’ that doesn’t make you look “spammy”. Be intentional about your social media posts and think about how you would react if you scrolled past that post in your timeline.

Don’t Sacrifice Customer Service for the Ease of Automation.

Platforms like Twitter are for people to connect with businesses and get a response back quickly. If you have everything automated and don’t task people with actively replying to customer questions, complaints and praise, then you’re doing yourself a HUGE injustice. Not only will your account look even more robotic than it already does, but also your brand be written off in the customer’s book as insincere and unworthy of their money.

Don’t Post Too Frequently.

Not to be confused with “Posting Just to Fill Up Space”, posting too frequently is all about the spam factor. Yes, I said it again; SPAM. Spam is probably one of the things in everyone’s top 3 pet peeves when it comes to social media, and you know why? It makes your brand look sketchy, suspicious and downright shifty. When a company’s social media is being posted on every 15-30 minutes, something is wrong. Unless there is a rep from the company replying to customers, you should never be that active on your social platforms. Let’s be honest, NO ONE wants their timeline filled with a single brand’s posts, especially when they’re just promoting their own product/service/website.

Don’t Automate Your Replies.

This is probably my personal second highest pet peeve on social media. There’s nothing more insincere than a company who uses a system to automate their replies to followers/customers. Automated replies are the kiss of death and here’s why: When people go to your social media platforms, they want to see what kind of company you are. They want to see customers being interacted with and a genuine community-based environment. When they see automated replies for when people follow or say something constructive/destructive, they’ll label you as a joke and go spend their time and money elsewhere.

Don’t Post Links That Aren’t Direct to The Webpage You’re Talking About In the Post.

And we’re arrived at my number 1 social media irritation: people posting links that don’t redirect you to the thing that they’re talking about in the post. We all know how it goes. You click the link and either have to a) scroll your life away trying to find the post you actually came there for or b) the link was never legit to begin with. Almost nothing is more annoying than feeling like you’ve had your time wasted by a fraudulent link. Make sure that any links you post are going straight to the page you’ve written about in your post!