Sometimes you just need to automate social networking. Set it and forget it! In this post let’s look at why you should automate social networking, how it can help you, and 3 ways to make it so.

Before we get to far into this discussion, however, I wanted to take the opportunity to say no. Not everything should or could be automated. Robots should not rule your internet persona. Instead they should just enhance it! Keep this in mind as we go through this post.

Why Automate Social Networking?

The fact is that when you went to go start up your business, you more than likely were not looking to go full time into social networking. Unless, you are me and are tweeting mad!

This means that you want to get the most out of social networking in the least amount of time. While social networking is not an overnight success, it does help to have some automation to reduce the stress and help you build a quality network faster.

Automate Social Networking-How It Helps

So, you are not ready to commit your life to social networking? Really? Well, then you might want to use some time savers to make your job more effective. That is why we automate social networking. Making your life a little bit easier, so you can do the things that are important to your business and you.

So, when you are building a relationship with someone you met on LinkedIn, an automated tweet can go out on Twitter discussing how you are of value to your clients. You still have to drive the social networking toward it’s destination, but when you automate social networking business just becomes easier.

5 Ways To Automate Social Networking

1. Feedburner– It all starts here. When you want to have a stream of your content going out to different places you need to have an RSS feed. The best place to create it is Google’s Feedburner. This is not an automation tool. However, without having an RSS feed from your blog, it is like driving with three tires on your car.
2. Ping.fm- Do you ever have that feeling that it is just not possible to create great content every day for each and every social network? Then you need Ping. You can send one update to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, Myspace, Google Buzz, and other social networks. Additionally, that RSS feed you just created on Feedburner becomes useful, because you can set up a feed that automatically spreads out your content whenever you post on your blog to the social networks listed above.
3. Twitterfeed– Twitterfeed is probably the one thing that allows me to have so many different accounts on Twitter. I get to spread out content across numerous accounts by telling people about different social networking stories. I use my RSS feeds and also other social media and business news outlets to help spread information that is relevant to my audience. Additionally, now that all the information is out sent to my network I can spend more time creating valuable relationships.
4. SocialOomph (Affiliate) If you do not want to automate your tweets, what about scheduling them in advance? That is what my clients and I have done for the past few years. I can schedule all types of tweets and updates that can appear on Twitter and/or Facebook whenever I want them to. When information alone is not enough you can rely upon SocialOomph. Even better, I can spend an hour writing it down on a text document and then upload that document to spread out the information over a period of days, weeks, or even months.
5. Tweet Adder (Affiliate) I believe the moment that Twitter changed for me was the first time I used Tweet Adder. It felt like the almighty power of the guy upstairs. When they upgraded the system, it was like heaven on Earth. It is just such a cool system, because I do not want to spend my time following people. Instead, I want to interact with those who follow me back. Additionally, some of the automation tools on Tweet Adder just blow you away. Note: Twitter does not allow automatic unfollowing, which you can still do on Tweet Adder. Do with this as you want.
6. Yahoo Pipes (Bonus!) For those of you looking to do a little bit more with your automation, test out Yahoo pipes. I will tell you that at first I did not get it. Be prepared to spend at least an hour or so reviewing this. It is great for combining different feeds and twisting it around into cool new functions.

So that you know how to automate social networking, start making valuable connections again!