Take it or leave it, artificial intelligence (AI) has come to stay in the digital marketing space. In search engine optimization, Google and other search engines now offer an AI overview that provides brief answers to queries.
Email marketing platforms are incorporating AI to help marketers get better results with their email campaigns.
Content marketing tools are at the forefront of incorporating AI features to remain competitive in an era where many content creators and marketers utilize ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini in their daily tasks.
Social media platforms are not left out. They are rapidly integrating AI.
Facebook has its own AI tool, which you can use to create images and posts. The same is true of Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X.
All these point to the fact that AI is making a huge impact on social media.
So in this guide, I shared with you how AI is changing social media marketing and how any brand with a huge social media presence, that doesn’t want to be left out should adapt.
What is AI In Social Media Marketing?
This simply means the use of advanced computer programs and algorithms to carry out tasks that ordinarily a human intelligence should do. It can be recognizing patterns, learning from datasets, understanding natural languages, and making rational decisions.
In social media marketing, AI helps brands create more unique content that is tailored to their audience, optimize and automate marketing with the aim of connecting with ideal audiences who are interested in their products and services.
Major AI Technologies Used In Social Media Marketing
Let’s look at the major AI technologies that are currently being used in social media marketing.
NLP (Natural Language Processing): NLP enables AI to understand and create human language, moderate content on social media, do sentiment analysis, and empower chatbots.
Predictive Analysis: Leverages historical social media data to predict future trends, campaign outcomes, and behavior of a social media user, which helps brands make informed marketing decisions.
Machine Learning: AI enables social media platforms to learn from how users interact with content and other users. This helps to improve user experience, content recommendation, and better campaign performance for brands that run ads.
How Social Media Platforms Are Integrating AI
On Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta, AI is used to deliver targeted and personalized ads that boost conversion rate, an outcome that many brands that engage in Facebook and Instagram ads need.
It’s used to rank content on the feed of users so they see only content that interests them. I have also seen users generate content with AI on Facebook.
For example, on Facebook Messenger, I asked Meta AI to generate an image of popular dog breeds in the United States.
Below is the outcome:
Let’s assume I’m a brand that sells dogs on social media, above is an attractive image I can use to market my products and services.
I can even ask Meta AI to create me a short ad copy I can use to run a campaign that will promote my business.
On TikTok, the algorithm leverages AI to recommend content. Once I open my TikTok page, I only see videos related to the previous ones I watched. The aim is to boost engagement.
X, formerly Twitter, uses AI to detect trends on its platform, personalize tweets, and filter spam.
It recently launched Grok, its version of ChatGPT that generates content and which users can tag to verify information without leaving the platform.
On LinkedIn, where I hang out often, you can create posts nowadays using AI tools.
AI recommends posts on my feed, and it’s mainly from LinkedIn connections whom I engage their posts.
Recently, the platform started using AI to suggest jobs.
Let’s assume I applied for a social media marketing job on the LinkedIn job board.
AI will recommend more social media marketing jobs to me.
All these are happening because social media platforms have invested in artificial intelligence, especially when it comes to monitoring and tracking the behavior of every active user on their platforms.
Ways AI Is Changing Social Media Marketing
Now you understand how social media platforms are integrating AI, let’s see how AI is transforming the entire social media marketing.
1. Content Creation and Personalization
Using AI to create content on social media has an impact that everyone can testify to. Before now, brands hired content writers and graphic designers to create social media posts and graphics for them.
AI has changed that. With AI generation tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy AI, you can generate quality social media posts and captions that will make your audience stop scrolling and engage with your post.
For images and infographics, Ideogram has become the go-to platform to generate realistic images for social media.
I see such images pop up on my Instagram feed, and it takes someone who uses AI tools to detect them.
Also, AI tools can now generate videos that brands can post on social media, with the possibility to repurpose your video content with AI on different social media platforms.
I have seen brands using UGC videos that are AI-generated to promote their products and services on Instagram and TikTok.
Social media platforms acknowledge this, that’s why Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, etc. have integrated AI in their products.
Users can now create posts and images using AI for free while on their platform.
This is a way of enhancing user experience while ensuring they remain relevant in this AI era.
Talking of content personalization, AI is focusing much on user engagement to tailor content to users.
A user who spent time watching your video on Instagram and sharing it with their friends enjoyed it. That’s the behavioral data that artificial intelligence uses to tailor content to such users. They are likely to see such content on their feed.
For brands that want to grow their presence on social media via organic or paid promotion, AI helps you target only the audience that’s interested in your content.
It recommends your content, product, or services to users who are likely to engage it and take action based on their previous interactions.
Instead of creating content for everyone, brands can leverage AI marketing agents to deliver content or ads that speak directly to their potential customers. This boosts engagement and conversion rate.
2. Customer Service and Chatbots
Brands now use AI-powered chatbots to deliver customer service to customers on social media platforms. They respond to inquiries, answer FAQs potential customers have, and even guide users to make purchases.
For ecommerce brands that connect their stores to Instagram or Facebook, chatbots, when given a set of instructions, can recommend products to users, provide real-time data on order status, store hours, and return policy.
It even collects customer data and stores them in a CRM tool, which is useful for retargeting, personalized emails, or abandoned cart recovery.
Interestingly, modern chatbots integrate with social media platforms where your potential customers hangout.
On Facebook Messenger, you can get an AI customer support expert to set up flows for promotions, appointment scheduling, and FAQs.
On Instagram, bots are a big part of Instagram automation and can respond like humans to DMs that inquire about your products and services even while you sleep.
WhatsApp Business isn’t left out. Chatbots offer real-time assistance and even enable purchases within WhatsApp chats.
3. Social Listening and Brand Sentiment
AI can be your listening ear when it comes to getting real-time information on what users say about your brand and how they compare you to your competitors.
You get notified when your brand is mentioned, topics relevant to your brand are trending, and sentiment on your brand versus your direct competitors.
4. Collaboration With Social Media Influencers
Influencer marketing is still relevant to brands. AI has even enhanced it in a way that brands can easily identify social media Influencers they want to collaborate with.
For example, I used Semrush Influencer Analytics, which is powered by AI, to identify top-rated USA Instagram influencers in the fashion and beauty niche for a client I’m working with.
It took me just 5 minutes of research to identify an influencer they can work with based on their budget.
For brands that have been looking for a way to collaborate with legit and popular influencers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and LinkedIn, this tool got you covered.
It provides you with all the metrics you need to vet an influencer so you’re sure they can get you the desired result.
5. Automating AI and Tracking Performance
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have AI features in their Ad settings. It recommends suitable ad placements and adjusts bids in real time to maximize ROI while staying within your ad budget.
What I like about it is that it leverages best-performing ads to make recommendations on ad placements and bidding, thereby removing guesswork, which leads to flushing money down the toilet all in the name of social media advertisement.
You also track ad performance in real time. AI smart alerts notify you in real time when an ad is underperforming or when it costs you much to get a lead.
How Brands Should Adapt To AI-Driven Social Media Marketing
Now, you know how AI is changing social media marketing and how platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X are integrating AI to improve user experience and remain competitive, let’s look at how brands should adapt.
1. Invest in AI-Powered Tools
Investing in AI tools will help you remain competitive as a brand that wants to create valuable content on social media that will generate leads and sales.
For content creation, use Social Content AI by Semrush, ChatGPT, and AI content creation tool by Bulk.ly to create captivating social media captions, posts, and ad copy that will resonate with your audience and get them to engage your content.
For image generation, I use Ideogram to create realistic images for Instagram posts.
For example, I asked Ideogram to create a realistic image of a happy and pretty lady wearing a maxi dress and heels, and below is the outcome:
Let’s assume I sell maxi dresses for women on Instagram and TikTok. This is an appealing image I can use to promote it.
Apart from Ideogram, you can use Canva.
Recently, it launched an AI feature that generates unique images within Canva.
For those collage images you post on Instagram and TikTok, you can now create them in a unique way using AI. No more using generic images.
Consider social media management tools like Bulk.ly, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite that have integrated AI in their platforms to make social media management easier.
2. Boost Customer Experience With AI
Create the best user experience for your customers. Deploy AI-powered chatbots to handle FAQs customers ask on social media about your products.
Set a flow that can guide them to product selection and making purchases without human intervention. Have chatbots handle multiple conversations to reduce the wait time.
3. Let Your Marketing Decisions Be Data-Driven
Brands that pay attention to data will always win in this era of AI-driven social media marketing. Pay attention to reports from AI-powered social media management tools.
Turn on your notifications to get alerts and recommendations in real time from the tools you use. Track performance across different social media platforms to understand what is working and optimize for better results.
4. Train Your Team and Collaborate With AI Strategist
For brands that have lots of employees or team members, it’s time to train them on the use of AI in social media marketing.
Teach them how to use AI tools to create valuable social media posts, images, infographics, and even videos in your brand’s tone and style that promote your products and services to your target audience.
There are a lot of online courses on the use of AI in social media marketing, including free ones.
If you have the budget, hire AI specialists to coach them on how to use AI in social media marketing.
Your team is the backbone of your business. If they aren’t good with AI tools, it will impact your marketing efforts, and the result will be a decrease in engagement, leads, and sales.
Final thoughts on How AI Is Changing Social Media Marketing
Any brand on social media that isn’t using AI in their marketing is missing a lot. Your competitors who are doing so are far ahead of you.
This means you can’t boost your productivity, reach, engagement, sales, and improve customer service.
I have shown you how AI is changing social media marketing, how social media platforms are integrating it, and how you, as a brand, can adapt to remain competitive.
It’s over to you to start investing in AI tools, paying much attention to data-driven reports, using AI in customer service, and training your team on the use of AI to take full advantage of it in social media marketing.
