In a recent study of CMOs, Accentureused the term "Relevant experiences at scale" to describe the goal of social media marketing. I think this is an important term to internalize, because it hits on being relevant to the customer (most customers want Customer Care or deals from their brands, not to be #some BFFs), creating experiences that they want, and scaling it for profitability (social media marketing requires scale because of its inherent inefficiency).
HubSpot came up with this infographic, that demonstrates the need for social media scalability quite effectively. There is a limit to what a community manager or social media manager can do without (brace yourself) automation. I said it. Walgreens is an example of a business that weaves automation and human social media quite effectively, and one can imagine that the complexity of tools to augment social media engagement will continue to grows as these platforms (and our understanding of them) develop. As HubSpot so eloquently puts it: "You need the machine to power the love."
I'm curious to know your thoughts on this infographic, on how to give relevant experiences at scale and social media automation.