Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool, promising to revolutionize the way brands connect with their audiences. However, as with any transformative technology, AI brings both opportunities and challenges to the table.
Does AI-Generated Content Engage on Social Media?
One of the most pressing questions for social media marketers today is whether AI-generated content resonates with audiences. The initial data reveals mixed results.
Decrease in Reach and Engagement
AI has significantly increased the length of social media posts by 28%. Content created by AI has been found to have 30% less reach, 55% lower engagement, and 60% fewer clicks compared to human-generated content. The ubiquity of AI-generated hooks, such as calls to action, which are now used 16 times more frequently, has diminished the uniqueness and effectiveness of these posts, leading to a decline in attention.
Performance of AI-Generated Images
AI-generated images perform poorly in terms of clicks, with a 70% reduction compared to human-created visuals. Similarly, AI-generated comments result in four times fewer responses from authors and five times lower overall engagement.
Impact on LinkedIn Profiles
Profiles that heavily utilize AI tools for content creation have seen a 20% increase in network growth but a 15% decrease in responses to personal messages. LinkedIn profiles using AI report a 40% increase in reposts, but these posts typically see a 25% reduction in comments, indicating broader reach but shallower engagement.
Time and Effectiveness of Profile Optimization
AI reduces the time spent on profile optimization by about 30%, but the resulting improvement in search outcomes is only 5%. For non-job-seeking profiles with specific functionalities, human optimization is still faster and more effective.
Automated Contact Requests
Automated contact requests, which predate AI, result in a 15% increase in network size. However, there’s a noticeable decrease in meaningful interactions (40%) and accepted invitations (85%). LinkedIn’s strict stance on automation tools further complicates their use, often leading to account suspensions.
Increase in Content Creators
AI has enabled approximately 16 million LinkedIn users to create their first post, with over 15% of existing content creators increasing their posting frequency. This surge in content often results in more texts for the sake of posting, leading to a saturation of generic and typical AI-generated texts, which users tend to overlook. There is a possibility that platforms may start to limit or label AI-generated content to prevent an overwhelming amount of monotonous content.
Note: Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the commencement of testing AI avatars on Instagram, created using Meta AI Studio. To avoid misleading Instagram users, a warning will be available, indicating that the real influencer is not responsible for the AI-generated responses of their virtual copy.
Why AI-Generated Content Struggles
The key reason for the underperformance of AI-generated content lies in the human element. Users often fail to leverage AI’s full potential, making them the bottleneck in the process. The focus should be on being AI-powered rather than AI-first.
Importance of Human Touch
No AI tool should replace the critical role of a human PR professional. AI should be viewed as an assistant, with all content undergoing thorough human review before publication. This involves:
- Ensuring the content is factual and unique
- Adding personality and brand voice
- Checking for plagiarism
- Fact-checking and citing sources
- Enhancing the content with granular details, examples, and quotes
Effective use of AI in social media marketing hinges on prompt engineering—communicating effectively with AI systems to extract the desired information and interactions. This emerging field is crucial for harnessing AI’s capabilities.
LinkedIn AI tools
Here are some AI-powered tools for LinkedIn that can help you optimize your profile, enhance engagement, automate outreach, and generate insights:
1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Function: Advanced lead and company search, CRM integrations, and real-time updates.
- AI Features: AI-powered lead recommendations, insights on prospects, and relationship tracking.
2. Crystal
- Function: Personality insights and communication advice.
- AI Features: Analyzes LinkedIn profiles to provide personality insights and tailored communication strategies.
3. Meet Alfred
- Function: Multi-channel sales automation.
- AI Features: Automates LinkedIn messaging, connection requests, and follow-ups with AI-driven personalization.
4. Dux-Soup
- Function: LinkedIn automation for lead generation.
- AI Features: Automates profile visits, messages, and connection requests with AI-driven targeting.
5. Zopto
- Function: LinkedIn lead generation tool.
- AI Features: Automates engagement, including views, likes, and comments, with AI-driven personalization and targeting.
6. Phantombuster
- Function: Automation and data extraction.
- AI Features: Automates various LinkedIn activities such as connecting, messaging, and scraping data with AI-driven workflows.
7. Salesforce LinkedIn Integration
- Function: Integrates LinkedIn data into Salesforce CRM.
- AI Features: Leverages Salesforce’s AI (Einstein) to provide insights and predictive analytics based on LinkedIn data.
8. HubSpot LinkedIn Integration
- Function: Connects LinkedIn with HubSpot CRM.
- AI Features: Uses AI to analyze LinkedIn engagement data and provide insights for lead scoring and nurturing.
9. Octopus CRM
- Function: LinkedIn automation.
- AI Features: Automates connection requests, messages, and profile visits with AI-driven targeting and personalization.
10. LinkedHelper
- Function: LinkedIn automation tool.
- AI Features: Automates messaging, connection requests, and endorsements with AI-driven customization and targeting.
11. Lusha
- Function: B2B contact enrichment.
- AI Features: Uses AI to find and verify contact information from LinkedIn profiles, enhancing lead data quality.
12. Aeroleads
- Function: Lead generation and email finder.
- AI Features: Extracts LinkedIn profile data and finds email addresses with AI-driven accuracy.
13. TexAu
- Function: Growth automation.
- AI Features: Automates LinkedIn tasks such as connecting, messaging, and scraping data with AI-driven workflows and customizations.
14. Shield Analytics
- Function: LinkedIn analytics tool.
- AI Features: Provides AI-driven insights and analytics on LinkedIn content performance and engagement metrics.
15. LinkedIn Elevate
- Function: Employee advocacy platform.
- AI Features: Uses AI to recommend content for employees to share, increasing organic reach and engagement.
16. LeadFuze
- Function: Lead generation.
- AI Features: AI-powered search to find leads on LinkedIn and other sources, enriching lead data with accurate contact information.
17. Reply.io
- Function: Sales engagement platform.
- AI Features: Automates LinkedIn outreach and follow-ups with AI-driven personalization and multi-channel communication.
18. Inlytics
- Function: LinkedIn analytics.
- AI Features: Provides AI-powered analytics and insights on LinkedIn profile and content performance, helping to optimize engagement strategies.
These tools can significantly enhance your LinkedIn strategy by leveraging AI to automate tasks, personalize outreach, and provide valuable insights.
AI Linkedin photo
When it comes to AI tools for LinkedIn profile photos, there are several options available. These tools can help create, enhance, or optimize profile pictures for LinkedIn. Here are some AI-powered options for LinkedIn profile photos:
- PhotoAI: Generates professional headshots using AI. You can upload a few photos and the AI will create a studio-quality headshot.
- Aragon: Offers AI-generated professional headshots. You can customize various aspects like clothing, background, and pose.
- Playground AI: A general AI image generation tool that can be used to create professional-looking profile pictures.
- Midjourney: While not specifically for LinkedIn, this AI image generator can create professional-looking portraits.
- DALL-E 2: OpenAI’s image generation tool can be used to create various styles of profile pictures.
- Photosonic: Generates AI images, including professional headshots suitable for LinkedIn.
- Fotor: Offers AI-powered photo editing tools to enhance existing profile pictures.
- RemoveBg: Uses AI to remove backgrounds from photos, which can be useful for creating professional LinkedIn profile pictures.
- HeadshotPro: AI-powered tool specifically designed for creating professional headshots.
- Profile Picture Maker: Uses AI to help you create the perfect LinkedIn profile picture from your existing photos.
When using these tools, it’s important to remember that LinkedIn and many professional environments prefer authentic photos. While AI can help enhance or create a professional-looking image, it’s generally best to use a real photo of yourself for your LinkedIn profile. Also, be sure to check LinkedIn’s guidelines on profile photos to ensure your AI-generated or AI-enhanced photo complies with their rules.
Democratizing Creativity
AI democratizes creativity and accelerates the generation of creative content. As Dentsu notes, the ability to produce content on a large scale will revolutionize marketing and communications, similar to how the internet transformed distribution. However, this raises questions about how brands will stand out in an AI-saturated world.
Conclusion
Opponents of using artificial intelligence in social media seem to overlook that AI is not just a trendy fad but a revolution in content delivery, which, unfortunately, comes with job losses that unions can’t solve.
Our perception of AI, whether hostile or accepting, can significantly impact our lives. The phrase “glass half empty or half full” is commonly used as a rhetorical question to determine one’s worldview towards a situation as either pessimistic (glass half empty) or optimistic (glass half full).
Let’s consider our glass half full. This optimistic outlook allows us to understand that AI is a fantastic tool for creators, easing their workload and opening new avenues for creativity and efficiency. By embracing AI, we can leverage its potential to enhance our content strategies, improve engagement, and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
