Social media management is a lot more than writing quippy posts, as any social media marketer worth their salt will tell you. Social media managers need to create marketing strategies that will support their business' overall objectives, develop creative content that will capture their audience’s attention, and publish all of that content on various social media channels.

From curating content to scheduling posts to engaging with followers, you might feel like you have a never-ending to-do list, but it doesn't have to be that way. Zapier can help take some work off your plate by putting many of those repetitive yet crucial tasks on auto-pilot. 

These strategies apply whether you're a social media marketer or if managing your brand's social content is just one part of your job.

Why you need to automate your social media management tasks

Most social media marketers use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to manage multiple accounts. Now don't get us wrong — these platforms can be a gamechanger for streamlining your workflow. But even with these apps in your social media management arsenal, there are still a lot of manual tasks that can easily add hours to your workweek.

Fortunately, you can use Zapier to connect your social media management tools and other apps and automate some of your daily tasks. For example, you can use Zapier to send out a tweet from your Twitter account whenever you publish a new blog post or YouTube video or send a thank you message to a new follower.

Make content curation a breeze

Curating content to share on your social feeds is a pretty important part of social media management. While you can get some of your coworkers to help you source content using apps like Feedly and Pocket, once you find the content you want to share, scheduling it out can be a huge time drain.

Instead, try using Zapier to connect your content curation apps to your social media management tools. Once you find amazing content to share, rather than copying and pasting links over to your social media management tools, you can use Zaps to speed up this task. You can even use Zapier to automatically add content to your queue that matches keywords — no Googling required.

Fill your Buffer queue with content from new or moved Trello cards

With this handy automation, you can add social media posts like tweets, Pinterest pins, Facebook Profile, Page, and Group updates to your Buffer queue directly from new Trello cards.

Add newly tagged Feedly articles to your Buffer queue

You can use this automation to link your Feedly account to Buffer, so you can quickly share the content you discover to all of your social channels.

Buffer new Pocket favorites

This automation will add any articles you "favorite" in your Pocket account to your Buffer queue.

Post new favorited Pocket items to Hootsuite

Set up this Zapier integration to automatically schedule or publish posts in Hootsuite from Pocket whenever you favorite them.

Share your company's content in a fraction of the time

Whenever your company publishes a new content asset, whether it's a graphic, video, newsletter, or blog post, it's often your job as a social media manager to make sure that content gets shared across all of your social feeds. 

Scheduling out multiple identical posts can be a super repetitive and time-consuming task. Incorporating some of these content publishing integrations can help you automatically share your company's content, freeing up more of your time for strategy and creativity.

Add new Google Drive files in a folder to a Buffer queue

This Google Drive integration will automatically add new files to a designated folder as new items in a Buffer queue.

Add new WordPress posts to Buffer's schedule

This Zapier integration automatically adds new WordPress posts to Buffer, making it easy to share them on Twitter, Facebook, and, LinkedIn.

Schedule new Vidyard videos to be published via Hootsuite

With this Zapier integration, you can automatically schedule new videos in Vidyard to post to your social media channels through HootSuite.

Save new Visage graphics to Buffer

Zapier will auto-post every new graphic you send to Buffer by clicking the option in Visage's share screen from then on.

Post new Mailchimp campaigns to Buffer

This Zap will automatically post your new Mailchimp campaigns to Buffer, so you don't have to spend time posting to social media manually.

Cross-post your content to maximize reach

If you're working with a small budget, limited time, or you're a social media team of one, then you probably cross-post content from other channels to maximize your limited resources and fill up your content calendar.

To save even more time, you can use Zapier to automatically add content from your other social channels to your Buffer or Hootsuite queue to put your cross-posting strategy on autopilot. Keep in mind, however, that sharing the same post across all of your content channels can look a little lazy. To make the most of these integrations, you should hop back into your scheduling tool and optimize the content you're cross-posting for each specific network.

Buffer your Instagram photos

Use this integration to add new Instagram photos to your Buffer buffer queue so they can be shared at a later time—or instantly.

Buffer new YouTube videos

This YouTube and Buffer integration automatically shares new videos through your Buffer account.

Post new YouTube videos to your social networks with Hootsuite

This integration will post videos added to a specified channel to your social networks via Hootsuite.

Automatically engage with your followers

It's called social media for a reason. You need to talk with your audience, not just at them. Starting a dialogue with your followers, rather than merely sharing content all the time, will help your audience feel more connected to your brand.

Interacting with your followers—sending them direct messages and re-sharing their posts about your brand—are great ways to make your audience feel seen and appreciated. Still, engagement, just like any other social media task, can be time-consuming. That's where Zapier comes in. You can use Zaps to instantly send thank you messages to new followers or add your followers’ posts to your social media queues.

Add new Twitter followers to a Buffer queue

Use this Twitter Buffer integration to Buffer a thank you message to new Twitter followers for later so that your thank you message doesn't seem quite so automated.

Add a Twitter user's tweets to a Buffer queue

Zapier can automatically capture tweets from a specific user and create new items in a Buffer queue without copying and pasting.

Add a post to your Buffer queue for new Mailchimp subscribers

This Zap will queue up a new post in Buffer for your Twitter, Facebook, or other social accounts whenever you get a new subscriber on your Mailchimp list.

Thank new Twitter followers via Hootsuite

Use this Zapier integration to have Hootsuite send a quick thank you to your new Twitter followers.

With all the many to-dos that come with social media management, you want to make sure you're doing everything you can to maximize your time and efforts. Automating repetitive tasks will give you hours back in your week and help you get more done in less time.