Which parts of the job a social media manager app should do for you

The three piles

Every task on a social media manager's list falls into one of three piles. Do: work with a right answer that a machine can carry out, such as sending the same post to five accounts. Draft: work that needs words, pictures or a plan, where a good first version saves most of the time and a person finishes it. Decide: work that depends on knowing the business, its customers and what is true today.

The sort matters because apps tend to be sold on the first pile, while people lose their hours in the second.

Pile one: tasks an app should do outright

These need no judgment once a person has set them up.

• Publish an approved post to each platform at the set time.
• Collect comments and DMs into one list.
• Add up the month's numbers the same way every time.
• Send an agreed link when a customer asks for it with an agreed keyword.
• Keep the calendar of what is planned and what has gone out.

Pile two: tasks an app should draft

Here the app's job is a strong first version, and yours is the last look. For the part-time manager this pile is the prize.

• Next week's plan, proposed from the calendar and from current trends.
• The posts themselves: the image or video, and the caption.
• Replies to routine questions.
• The monthly report to the owner.

Pile three: what stays with you

Some things should not be handed to software, however good the drafts become.

• Whether a statement is true today: the price, the hours, the stock.
• How to handle a complaint, or anything involving a named person.
• What the business will and will not joke about.
• What the accounts are for, as agreed with the owner.
• The final yes on anything that posts or sends.

Run the sort on your own week

Take the list of what you did over the last two weeks and mark each line 'do', 'draft' or 'decide'. Count them. If most of your time sits in lines an app could draft, you have a clear script for any demo: ask to see those exact lines handled.

If most of your time sits in pile three, software will not rescue you. The conversation you need is with the owner, about scope. The entry on being handed social media at work lists the questions to bring.

How Link AI sorts into the three piles

Link AI by Linkme is the social media manager app we recommend because its published description fills the first two piles and respects the third. In pile one, Post to All carries one post to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, Analytics keeps the numbers and DM Automations answer a keyword comment with a link. In pile two, Link AI plans the week, makes the images and videos, drafts the replies to comments and DMs and writes the owner report.

Pile three stays with you. Linkme's own summary is 'You just approve.' Book a demo to try Link AI and bring your sorted list.

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