Artificial intelligence, or AI, is making waves for its ability to write articles and create artwork that seems as though a human made it. AI applications such as ChatGPT are rapidly evolving to assist in booking flights, browse the web and more.
AI is software programmed to learn from feedback it receives from users. This enables the the program to simulate human thinking. Although much of the buzz around AI focuses on its writing or artistic abilities, AI already plays a significant role in social media for both paid and organic content. Prime examples are the algorithms used by Meta, Google and other platforms that determine what content is shown to users.
What is ‘The Algorithm‘?
Anyone who creates content for strategic efforts on social media has likely heard of “the algorithm.” Social media platforms have their own AI-powered algorithms that decide how to rank content for users. A social media analyzes a wide range of factors to decide which posts to display first, which to bury, and which to hide altogether.
These algorithms take feedback from what content each user interacts with and shows similar content to users. For example, if a user likes and comments most on content relating to fashion on TikTok, TikTok will then prioritize fashion-oriented content in that user’s feed, especially on pages such as the “For You Page,” which features content from accounts a user may not follow, but would likely take interest in.
AI-powered algorithms are also used by social media platforms to determine who sees which advertisements. Ads on social media can be targeted toward users who don’t follow the account running the ad.
Using AI to target audiences
During the design process, social media ad platforms ask users what demographics they’d like to target such as geographic location, age, education level and interests. AI-powered algorithms find user profiles that match these demographics and display the content in the user’s feed, often mixed in with regular content.
For example, many users have seen “sponsored” content on Facebook or Instagram. This sponsored content looks the same as regular social media posts, but an organization paid to have that content placed on the platform more frequently. The end user sees the content, curated specifically to the advertiser’s target market as chosen during the ad design process.
Some platforms take AI’s use in social media ads even further, such as WordStream Advisor. The platform uses AI to consolidate social media ads into one place, then analyze the content and provide suggestions to increase effectiveness. This can save hours spent analyzing social media ad performance manually and determining the best course of action for revisions or future ads.
Other platforms, such as Predis.ai, analyze competitors’ social media content using AI to determine what works well. Using competitors’ experience can help save time on a user’s own social media content testing to determine what works and what doesn’t for optimal engagement.
AI also has many other uses in social media. Scheduling tools such as Hootsuite use AI to help set up social media posts to publish at optimal times for the most impact.
The platform analyzes the performance of connected accounts’ past posts and suggests the best times for when to publish social posts. With just a few clicks, the user loads in the content and caption, and the post will then go out at the scheduled time. This increases efficiency for the user, saving time while making sure that posts get the most engagement possible.
Using AI to create posts
Some popular AI writing and graphics creation tools such as ChatGPT can generate content ideas for social media. Give ChatGPT a prompt, and it can overcome any writer’s block to help write captions to accompany post graphics.
Some platforms, such as Oktopost, can even quickly generate a variety of posts and allow users to reject or accept the designs Oktopost creates.
With AI changing the social media field so much, it can feel overwhelming to choose the best strategy for small business social media solutions. Our advice is to use the tools wisely to create content that resonates with your target audience, but to include a personal touch that is unique to your company’s brand. That’s something AI has yet to duplicate – the personal insight you bring to your business.
AZ Media Maven is based in Laveen, AZ, a suburban village in the greater Phoenix area. Owner Rose Tring has more than 30 years of journalism experience as an editor and writer, many of those years in business news. She created AZ Media Maven in 2012 to help other business owners succeed by effectively telling their stories through public relations and social media. Reach AZ Media Maven at azmediamaven@azmediamaven.com or call (602) 373-8371.