AI technology, alternatively known as Artificial Intelligence was once an idea or concept which lived mainly through science fiction films, linked closely to clones and digital twins. Whilst scientists may not have quite yet mastered the art of human cloning, digital twins and AI technology have certainly made huge advancements across multiple industries and are showing wide adoptive rates for multiple uses.
Marketing departments from an array of industries and sectors are now utilising AI technology to deliver marketing tasks to better target customers and to improve the services, through quicker and tailored communications and better-targeted content creation and recommendations.
DATA TRENDS
On average, the typical social media user interacts with 6.6 social media platforms and spends an average of 2.5 hours per day on these sites, which could cover business and personal use. Platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest capture data for creating a more tailored experience for the user based on their activity and preferences.
Google Analytics for example can also be used for assessing audience retention, behaviour and popular pages of your company sites to assess who you are attracting to your site and what areas are offering the more valuable information.
Pinterest uses AI technology to not only categorise each post and photo to optimise search engines and image sharing, but since 2014, the site has used computer vision expertise to identify images and share similar content for users for an almost personalised shopping experience.
AI technology is also being used to identify and collate trends and themes across keywords and phrases being used across a magnitude of platforms which unlocks a huge amount of valuable insight for marketers. This can help departments to discover what customers and the public are generally tweeting and posting about, allows teams to gain honest feedback and better understand changing opinions and see how consumers landed at these thoughts.
The demographic of Facebook users in recent years has suggested to marketers this social media platform is one of the more valuable platforms for targeting an ‘older audience’ with 72% of 50 to 64-year-olds admitting to using the platform. This is a high percentage when compared to Instagram where over half of their global audience is believed to be younger than 34 years of age whilst TikTok’s highest demographic (25%) are aged between 10-19 years of age.
Hootsuite now allows users to follow specific hashtags, allowing marketers to assess their popularity whilst identifying popular trends and themes. This research can also inform any reporting and environmental scanning exercises to see how a company is performing against a competitor, within their customer’s eyes.
Engagement rates including click-through rates can also be used to inform which days and times are the best for posting on social media and sending email campaigns, based on user behaviour, engagement, and conversion rates. This will support marketers in ensuring their materials and activity are reaching as many of their target audience through the correct platform at the most optimal time.
COPYWRITING AND IMAGE CREATION
Copywriting is a sought-for skill within marketing, often required for press releases, blog posts, reporting and website copy. Sites such as Canva, typically used for graphic design creation, now offers a ‘Magic Write’, where users submit a 1-line request, and the function will then create a full paragraph. This technology aims to quickly generate something unique using machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to present something as close to your request as possible, matching the tone, audience, format, and style.
Similarly, there are now hundreds of sites such as Midjourney which generate unique images based on tag words. Marketers can then use these bespoke images to support copy or campaigns. Ultimately, there are many blurred areas surrounding the use of these assets with main concern around which sources the AI technology has used for inspiration and subsequent copyright laws and credits for artists original work.
CHATBOTS
Customer service is key to marketing, ensuring customers and stakeholders remain happy and organisations continue to offer a convenient and supportive service. Thousands of companies are introducing chatbot technology, using search queries to interpret and understand conversation structure and offering quick, automated responses to customers, aiming to resolve any issues or answer questions as conveniently as possible.
Whilst AI chatbots can offer convenience and allow us to reassess human efforts into something less repetitive, this can reduce the ‘human’ personalised approach that some customers feel gives certain brands a unique value offering.
Social media automation tools are becoming more advanced through the ability for scheduling posts and responding to comments without even logging into the platforms themselves. There are very clever chatbots that can write posts and blogs for you and even draft responses for your social media comments. This new smart technology means businesses can run their own social media in-house, for a fraction of the time it would have taken ten years ago.
However, these automated tools should be used as tools to complement social media activities. Businesses can not solely rely on automation and third-party tools to manage their social media in its entirety. Social Media is about being social and requires human interaction. A large part of a winning formula on social media is about engagement, engaging on other business profiles, and joining in on conversations in real time. This is the type of activity which rewards businesses with a higher reach and visibility across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
– Becs Bate, Social Media Consultant and Director of Social Media Executive
