3 Types of AI Tools for Social Media Marketing

3 Types of AI Tools for Social Media Marketing

In the 90s, technology advancements made websites and apps more "social" with the addition of personal profiles and ways for people to publish online and make connections or "friendships" with others. These days, companies are incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into online tools. This sophisticated programming provides unprecedented capabilities, from gathering and sorting large quantities of data to composing book-length texts culling content from the Internet.

AI is meant to mimic human thinking but in exponentially more powerful, faster ways. For social media marketing, AI-powered tools can streamline otherwise time-consuming processes by producing results quickly and efficiently. There are many different types of AI tools. Three types of tools that can assist with common social media marketing tasks include:

1. Research and Market Research tools
2. Customer Service enhancements
3. Branding and Logo Generation apps

As the technology continues to develop, new companies are forming to create new AI tools and apps while existing companies are looking for ways to incorporate AI into their offerings. Here are a few ways you can enhance your social media marketing efforts with AI.

1. Research and Market Research Tools

If you’re in research mode seeking information on a topic, Google has incorporated AI into its search engine to summarize vast amounts of content in a few paragraphs of text at the top of each search results page. For additional research support, Perplexity is an AI chatbot-powered research and conversational search engine that answers questions you pose by rapidly culling content from the web and providing links for fact-checking and citations.

If you’re conducting market research, start with AI-powered social listening tools. Sprout Social now uses AI to help more rapidly identify relevant conversations online based on the parameters you set. Marketing and sales tools from Hubspot and Salesforce also incorporate AI.

Newer companies such as quantilope provide tools that can automate many of the tasks typical of conducting market research including survey setup, real-time charting of data as it is received, insights generation and even analysis of video feedback for keywords, emotions, and sentiment. Once you know more about your audience, you can use AI to more effectively reach them online, such as through developing relevant content and by providing more rapid customer service.

2. Customer Service Enhancements

A key part of social media marketing is providing customer service. Responding to questions and comments posed online, both publicly and privately, can be a daunting undertaking. AI software can cull online conversations based on keywords you’ve specified and then quickly analyze sentiment.

Knowing the sentiment of online conversations can help you understand how your customers, or the general public, are feeling about your company or about any topic that is relevant to your business. The more insights you have about your customers or prospects, the better you can serve them.

Another AI-specific tool that can assist you in providing more rapid customer service responses is a chatbot. Chatbots can provide instant responses when someone reaches out to you in social media, even after regular business hours. You can incorporate a chatbot feature on Facebook Messenger, for example, providing responses to commonly asked questions. This gives a person who is messaging you an immediate response, even after normal business hours, which can buy you some time until you are able to respond to them directly. Other chatbot providers include ManyChat, Intercom, Drift, and Chatfuel.

3. Branding and Logo Generation Apps

If graphic design isn’t your strong suit, AI-generated design tools may be a major time saver. Design.com offers branding services for your business using AI and includes a logo design tool along with tools to design business cards, social media graphics, letterhead, posters, branded invoices, even menus.

Many of the design software products you may already be using have added AI logo design and graphics generation features such as Canva, Adobe, Wix, and fiverr.

The time-savings benefits of using AI cannot be dismissed, however, always double check to make sure the results are free of flaws and glitches. If you’re generating content of any kind using AI, make sure it also fits your brand’s tone and image. As with any creative and iterative process, a careful review of the output is essential.