Automating certain aspects of social media can be extremely helpful. But sometimes ... it can go extremely wrong. Amy Vernon presented on the negative aspects of social media automation at the SMX West Conference in San Jose yesterday.

1. Social Media Automation:
The Good and the Bad
Here’s the bad
@amyvernon
#TheLabNYC
#SMX #25A

2. What Is Automation?
“The technique of making an apparatus, a
process, or a system operate automatically.”
Merriam-Webster
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3. It doesn’t have to be bad
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4. Keep the human element
• IFTTT.com – If this, then • Triberr
that. – Carefully curate the
– Starred items from my “tribes” I’m in
Google Reader are – Don’t automatically
moved to my BufferApp share everything
– Facebook photos I’m – Know whose content I’m
tagged in are sharing, it sets the
automatically schedule
downloaded to my – Can have others
Dropbox automatically share your
content.
#TheLabNYC
#SMX #25A

5. Wasn’t this about the bad?
OK, OK.
How about this?
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Comic via xkcd #SMX #25A

6. Progressive Car Insurance
#TheLabNYC
Twitter snapshot via NY Observer #SMX #25A

7. Progressive basics
• Matt Fisher wrote a Tumblr post
• It was extensively reblogged and tweeted
• Progressive set up an automated tweet to
respond to all those tweeting the post.
• Did I mention the tweet was too long and so
was posted on Twitlonger?
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Research by Ann Marie Van Den Hurk #SMX #25A

8. Let’s Look At That Again
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9. What Went Wrong
• Progressive looked uncaring
• Progressive expected those it was tweeting to
to work extra to get the full response.
• Poor Flo. Her smiling mug just made the
message even more insensitive.
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10. How Not To Use Triberr
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11. How Triberr Works
• Join “Tribes” according to interest or
friendships
• RSS feeds of their sites or content stream in
• Able to share content on
Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, G+, StumbleUpon&
elsewhere directly from Tribal feed.
• Automates scheduling to Twitter/FB/LI
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12. #TheLabNYC
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13. Doing it Right
• You’re vetting the posts you share before
approving
• You’re following people you trust and so even
if you approve an individual post first, you’re
certain of the quality
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14. Danger Zone
• “Atomic tribes” enable you to automatically
tweet anything by the person whose tribe it is
• Ease of approving posts for sharing means
many share without reading.
• Some people join any tribe they can and share
everything without paying attention
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#SMX #25A

15. #TheLabNYC
Image via Travelfish #SMX #25A

16. What about HootSuite?
• Choose a site you love and would tweet out
just about anything from
• Stick in the RSS feed
• Voila! (Side note: NOT Wala!)
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17. #TheLabNYC
Image via Econsultancy #SMX #25A

18. Give a Hoot
• Do you know you want to share EVERYTHING
from a site?
• What if sponsored posts are included in that
feed?
• What if your beloved covers a story days after
everyone else?
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#SMX #25A

19. #TheLabNYC
Image via TechnologyVehicles #SMX #25A

20. Takeaways
• Use automation to streamline, not replace the
human touch
• Make sure you know what you’re sharing
• In a crisis, be of the moment.
• Don’t. Be. Stupid.
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#SMX #25A

21. Contact me
avernon@internetmedialabs.com
www.internetmedialabs.com
www.Facebook.com/AmyVernon
www.Facebook.com/InternetMediaLabs
www.Twitter.com/AmyVernon
www.Twitter.com/InternetLabs
http://j.mp/AmyVGplus
http://j.mp/IMLGplus
#TheLabNYC
#SMX #25A