Dorien Morin-van Dam on How AI Will Impact Social Media Outsourcing

Social media's rise has profoundly changed how businesses communicate with and cater to consumers. It has transformed everything from the platforms where brands engage audiences to the methods that facilitate engagement. Social media marketing has enabled businesses to adapt to the changes wrought by social networking.

Social media marketing enables companies to satisfy new consumer preferences. For example, it makes valuable consumer data accessible to businesses that need it to craft the hyper-personal marketing content modern consumers demand. It's also enabled companies to engage their audiences so they actively participate in the marketing they receive.

The evolution of social media from personal computers to smartphones and mobile devices to the coming metaverse is mirrored by the evolution of social media marketing. For example, the birth of the smartphone drove social media sites to create versions of their platforms — apps — for smallest-screen browsing, with other industries following suit. As a result, social media marketing has adapted to engage consumers on their phones.

With the rise of AI social media steadily underway, businesses must once again prepare for big changes that will force them to rethink their marketing and operational strategies. AI innovations like automation, AI analytics, and chatbots present incredible business opportunities to improve decision-making, boost customer service, and increase operational efficiency.

“Business owners are getting smarter about AI. Soon, they'll start asking agencies 'How do you use AI?' instead of just 'Can you handle our social media?'” said Morin-van Dam when discussing AI's influence on social media outsourcing. “Just as we needed social media education then, we need AI education now.”

Claiming those benefits requires keeping up with the latest trends in integrating AI into marketing efforts. One of the biggest trends of the moment is AI-powered social media outsourcing.

Dorien Morin-van Dam, owner of More in Media, gives her opinion on how AI will impact social media outsourcing in the future.

AI Changes the Game

Today, marketing to consumers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X is standard operating procedure for most businesses. When companies outsource to marketing firms, the first question they ask is, "Can you handle our social media?"

At least, that was the first question. Now, social media mastery is taken for granted. What businesses want to know is: How do you use AI?

Morin-van Dam emphasizes “Once this new generation of marketers and business owners understands AI's potential and proper use, the panic will settle and we'll use it more effectively.”

Among the biggest changes AI brings to marketing is the power of automated workflows. AI-powered marketing tools, from design programs to content management systems, allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks like email personalization, audience segmentation, data processing, and other necessary but arduous tasks. While they are tedious and time-consuming for humans, AI performs them quickly and with fewer errors.

There are countless AI tools for automating workflows:

• Jasper AI: This platform uses generative AI to deliver brand-specific marketing insights. Its automation capabilities save time while increasing productivity and effectiveness, and it offers an AI-powered toolkit to help businesses plan, create, and launch winning AI social media marketing campaigns.
• Canva AI: Marketers use this software for various functions, from creating images and videos to designing branded content for social media apps. With AI, it also offers workflow automation that businesses use to schedule, manage, and track social media campaigns.
• Adobe Sensei: Sensei leverages AI to perform complicated data analysis and automate tasks at scale and incredible speed. It considers a broad spectrum of data to improve decision-making and enable brands to personalize and improve individual customer experiences.

How AI Enhances SMM

AI is hugely beneficial for social media marketing. AI social media outsourcing saves companies time and money, increases efficiency and productivity, and helps brands fine-tune every aspect of consumer outreach. Marketers use AI to superpower:

• Content Creation: Marketers can use AI tools to aid brainstorming and idea generation across multiple marketing channels, while AI analytics provide deep consumer insight that streamlines and speeds up segmentation while improving personalization.
• Data Analysis: AI can process, analyze, categorize, and report on vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time it would take a human. More than that, those functions can be automated so they occur according to a regular schedule.
• Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis: AI provides brands with a deeper understanding of consumer perception thanks to tools that track mentions of a brand across channels and platforms and analyze the tone of those mentions.
• Predictive Analytics: Companies can craft more effective marketing content by using AI to analyze data over time and predict the strategies most likely to appeal to specific segments.
• Ad optimization: AI can track the KPIs of marketing ads and alert you to those that are underperforming. Then, it can offer data-informed suggestions for improving ad content or changing strategies.
• Personalization: By collecting and analyzing user data, AI makes marketing personalization easier than ever. It also simplifies and optimizes audience segmentation, further enhancing your marketing efforts.
• Automation: AI effectively eliminates the most time-consuming marketing tasks. You can automate all kinds of scheduling from social media posting to email drip campaigns, freeing up your team to focus on other responsibilities. Automating metrics and KPI tracking can give you access to real-time reporting, allowing you to adjust and optimize marketing performance fast.

Embracing AI to Stay Competitive

AI is taking the world by storm, and social media marketers have a lot to gain from using it to their advantage. Automated workflows save time and improve marketing quality and effectiveness. AI-powered management systems enable marketers to create dazzling content for any vertical. Analytics driven by AI allow businesses to wring maximum value from consumer data, understand what it means, and make smart decisions for applying it to their efforts.

That said, it's important to choose the right AI tools for your business if you want to reap the benefits. It's also important to balance AI with human insights and not expect it to run your social media marketing for you.

If you need real people to help you navigate AI social media outsourcing, let Clutch help you find them.

About Dorien Morin-van Dam, Owner of More In Media

Dorien Morin-van Dam is a social media strategist, organic social media specialist, trainer, community manager, and keynote speaker. She has been a social media professional for over 10 years and is a Certified Social Media Professional and Agile Marketer. Dorien, often recognized on-stage by her signature orange glasses, has experience in a multitude of industries from local B2B and B2C clients to national and international brands.