Transforming Social Media Marketing with Generative AI

In a time when everyone is talking about AI, only a few truly understand what it means. Different types of AI serve various purposes, but the one most widely spoken about is generative AI.

Generative artificial intelligence is when AI is used to generate data like text, images, audio, and more. Think, ChatGPT or DALL-E. And generative AI is not new. It dates back to 1932 when the first "mechanical brain" was developed by Georges Artsrouni. 

Before we dive deep into generative AI and what it can do for social media, here's a glance at its evolution. 

Generative AI for Social Media

Generative AI starts with a simple prompt, and it is a game-changer! AI has been used in social media for a while to personalize ads and the kind of content one sees. Now, social media creators and marketers are also using AI to make social posts:

• Generate text, like captions and copy.

• Generate visuals through text.

• Find the right influencer through insights.

• Prevent copyright infringement, like the use of brand logos without permission.

• Effectively manage ads.

• Better customer service.

• Curate brand campaigns with impactful social posts.

Several popular social media platforms like Snapchat and Meta have been exploring generative AI too. In a recent letter, YouTube's new lead, Neal Mohan, spoke about how the platform will be investing in generative AI and reinventing video. In fact, AI in the social media market is expected to touch USD 3714.89 million by 2026.

Generative AI makes content creation easier for users, allows platforms to gather priceless first-party information through chatbots, streamlines social media management, and opens up more revenue sources.

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How Can Generative AI Help with Social Media Marketing? 

For social media marketers, kickstarting their creative process and making their workflow faster is important. This allows them to scale efficiently, which remains one of the significant reasons why AI for social media is a boon.

According to a 2022 report, most marketers believe in the potential of AI to impact their social media management workflows. Here are some of the ways AI can help:

Image Generation for Social Media Posts

Whether it is to generate an illustration through a prompt using applications like DALL-E 2 or take product photos that look professional, there are multiple ways in which AI helps with social media. 

Based on a machine-learning algorithm, AI can quickly produce these images with a few keystrokes. AI tools, like Photosonic, also allow the addition of text annotations and filters.  

Some tools also help generate artwork-like visuals by converting real images or text prompts uploaded by the user. The results generated by AI are deemed "original" and enable social media users and marketers to steer clear of any infringement claims and generate visuals at a fraction of their original price.

Video Generation for Social Media Platforms

Videos are a staple for social media. 91% of consumers want to see video content. They also offer a higher ROI and engagement, which have made them a favorite for social media marketers.

Generating automated videos through AI reduces production time drastically. These generated videos combine elements like text, photos, and videos from different sources to generate something unique.  

Anyone can generate these videos without having a technical-knowledge. They can also be personalized by adding brand logos, taglines, and colors. 

Create Voiceovers Using Social Media Tools

With AI technologies such as voice cloning and lip-syncing available easily, creating voiceovers is a breeze for many social media managers and marketers. Deep fake and synthetic speech technologies can mimic a person's pitch, tone, style, and more to generate a voice model that sounds just like them.

Social media marketers prefer to save resources and spend those on ads instead of hiring human voiceover artists to do the job. The turnaround time is also in minutes instead of hours. AI voiceover tools, like Murf, offer natural-sounding voices, making distinguishing between AI and human voices challenging.

Writing Social Media Copy

When it comes to attracting customers and converting leads, social media copywriting plays a huge role. It is especially useful in generating SEO-rich meta titles and descriptions for landing pages to generate more traffic. 

Using natural-language processing and machine learning, AI in social media marketing can generate copy in seconds based on prompts. 

5. Generating Content Marketing Ideas

One of the biggest challenges a social media marketer faces is to come up with new campaign ideas for the brand or a product.

AI could somewhat replace multiple brainstorming sessions by generating an idea, combining various others that have been used before. 

The use of AI in the digital landscape and any social media campaign can offer in-depth audience insights to sync the marketing strategy and personalize customer support using analytics tools. 57% of marketers believe AI can help them better understand their audience.

Editing Videos and Images

AI is used to edit videos and photos by even those who do not have the necessary skill sets. It can be used to cut videos as well as apply transitions, filters, and special effects.

It also has the ability to evolve through previous edits, identify scenes, and color correction for better visual appeal. For any marketer, this is gold as it reduces the number of people they have to communicate with and gets the job done faster and at a much lower cost. 

Top Generative AI Tools for Social Media Marketing

Almost every day, AI tools are being released that can be used in new ways. AI in the social media industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.7% from 2022 to 2031. This means that the number of AI tools in the market will only increase.

So how do you know which one to pick? We've shortlisted the best AI tools of 2023 for you.

1. Flick

Flick is the "new brainstorming, writing, and planning partner for social media." The AI assistant generates content ideas, writes captions 10x faster, and transforms long content into bite-sized snippets for social media in no time.

Some of the key advantages of this tool include:

• It negates a creative block and saves time and resources by offering an infinite source of unique and engaging content ideas.

• It also allows the saving of posts and social media scheduling with one click.

• It offers a seven-day trial.

• It claims to offer "original" AI content and complete customization for style and tone of writing. 

2. ContentStudio

ContentStudio is an all-in-one AI social media tool used by brands like Decathlon and Unilever to automate social media management and marketing. It enables users to manage all of their social campaigns on one platform. You can also plan, create, and schedule posts to be published to the right channels at the right time.

Here is an overview of its key features:

• It offers an AI tool, "Analyze," that gives multi-channel social analytics and automates social media reporting, enabling businesses to make better decisions.

• Through the "AI writer" tool, users can leverage predefined caption templates, generate hashtags, append emojis, and more.

• The "Publish" AI tool allows for hands-free planning and managing of the social media calendar. It also has a feedback feature.

• One can also discover trending content and conduct influencer outreach through ContentStudio's 'Discover' tool.

3. Lately AI

Another popular AI social media tool, Lately AI, is a repurposing engine that focuses on social media content that converts, which is key for marketers. Using the tool, users can generate customized social content from AI-powered feedback loops tied to outcomes, performance, and proprietary data sets, all designed to get the highest possible engagement from the audience. 

• It generates text, images, and videos that can increase audience engagement.

• It learns the tone and voice of a brand and applies it across all social media assets.

• It splices long-form content into high-performing social media posts. 

4. Murf.AI

Murf.AI, an AI tool, specializes in speech synthesis, voice cloning, and other voice-related features. It can be used to create voiceovers for social media posts, videos, and reels.  

• It provides a wide library (120+) of human-like voices with customization options like pitch, emphasis, and tone. 

• It can convert any text to speech in 20+ languages and multiple accents to create culturally relevant and high-impact social media posts. 

• It allows you to fully produce a well-timed voice-over for a video along with music in a few minutes.

• Murf.AI also has the capability to clone and change voices, depicting various emotions.

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5. Emplifi 

Earlier known as Socialbakers, this AI social media tool works as a Unified Social Marketing Cloud where you can research, schedule, and publish engaging content on all popular social media platforms. Brands like Domino's trust Emlifi to engage with their customers on various social media channels.

• It offers real-time insights for better decision-making.

• Automation with GPT-3 support improves publishing efficiency.

• It unifies teams and gives access to UGC tools. 

6. Wordstream

Wordstream is a treasure trove of resources for any social media marketer. And the best part is that all these resources are free for marketers. They can also be used in conjunction with the tools listed below to create social media posts. Here are some of the tools that can support marketing for social media:

• The Free Keyword Tool offers hundreds of keywords with volume and CPC data.

• The Facebook Ads Performance Grader tool is among the best social media tools. It can unlock valuable insights into how an ad campaign is doing and how it can be improved.

Challenges of Generative AI For Social Media Marketing

Artificial intelligence in social media has its upsides for many businesses. But it also has a few challenges and raises some concerns.

Quality Control

Misinformation is a major concern with AI, with multiple legal suits filed against ChatGPT. There is a possibility of algorithmic bias.

However, this challenge can be mitigated with user discretion and a set legal framework.

Intellectual Property

Most generative AI applications might infringe upon the copyright of other creators as it does not "create" anything but uses a combination of the data available online. However, there are tools like Google Clips, where the AI shoots fascinating clips on its own as original work.

User Perception 

AI tools, like chatbots used to engage with users on social media, could create a false sense of connection among users for many businesses. If not used correctly, AI tools can also affect a brand's credibility and make it look "inauthentic." Personalizing AI-generated assets and giving detailed prompts can help resolve this.

Best Practices for Using Generative AI in Social Media Marketing

There is a five-point approach to best practices in generative AI applications. 

Select high-quality data for training.

The data quality used for training determines the quality of the results. Without high-quality data, even the most robust AI machine-learning algorithms will not be accurate, reliable, or unbiased.

Establishing clear guidelines and standards for content.

Carefully reviewing the content of the automated system regularly, running the generated data through plagiarism checkers, not feeding confidential information to an AI tool, and determining the percentage of AI content in the copies are some guidelines your organization can set.

Incorporating human oversight and quality control.

Human oversight ensures AI does not cause unwanted effects and undermines the human economy. Certain governance mechanisms, like human-in-the-loop (HITL) or human-in-command (HIC), can be used to exercise control.

Balancing automation and personalization.

Aligning AI with your brand and the brand's voice is especially important. Be creative, update your AI tools periodically, and seed conversations to achieve that balance.

Complying with legal and ethical standards.

AI and social media are constantly evolving, which means the regulatory and legal frameworks should develop simultaneously. Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI by the European Union or the USA's Principles for the Stewardship of AI Applications are good examples to set data standards.

Harnessing the Potential of AI in Social Media Marketing

When used responsibly, AI can bring more engagement and value to social media campaigns. From content creation to influencer marketing to sentiment analysis, it can assist in improving the efficiency of a variety of tasks.

If AI evolves in alignment with the best ethical practices, it could help increase human productivity by conducting certain mundane tasks in jobs rather than replacing those jobs. As such, it is important for social media creators, marketers, and platforms to know how to do it right. 

FAQs

How is AI used for marketing in social media?

The applications of AI in social media channels are vast. It can generate text for captions and copies, voice-overs, videos, KPIs to track, hashtag ideas, analyze comments and visuals, make a content calendar, edit videos and images, and much more. 

What is an example of AI and social media?

Using automated voiceovers for Instagram reels, content creation, or creating copy for social media using tools like ChatGPT are some of the ways of using AI. Social media platforms also use AI for customer service agents, personalized recommendations, and ads.

What is the most common use of AI in social media?

Marketers most commonly use AI to personalize ads through actionable insights for users. By creators, it is largely used for creating voiceovers and videos and writing captions for social media posts.