Sensai, the first A.I.-powered social media marketing solution for small business, has announced†general availability of its flagship product to address the recent changes to the algorithms of social media platforms that have made it incredibly difficult for small businesses to reach and engage with their ideal target audiences.
Social media platforms are governed by complex, opaque and dynamic self-learning algorithms that are impossible for humans to comprehend, even among self-described social media experts
With Sensai, businesses can finally navigate the complex, algorithm-driven world of social media marketing, with practical guidance generated by “augmented intelligence,” a sophisticated and robust blend of†human experts and A.I.†Among 30,000 Sensai beta signups, active Professional-tier customers were able to accelerate their social media following by close to†200%,†compared with similar customers who didn’t actively use Sensai’s recommendations.
Sensai is coming to market at a critical time for small businesses. Initial findings from a new survey of small business owners — conducted for Sensai by ResearchScape — reveals business anxiety about the ever-shifting landscape of social media marketing. Key insights include the following:
- Social is King for 31% of SMBs:†57% of respondents said that social media is one of their most important digital marketing channels. In fact, 31% of small businesses said that social is their #1 digital marketing channel today.
- Social media is getting harder for SMBs: Although social is still important, recent changes have made it harder for small businesses to know how to reach and engage with their ideal target audiences. More than 46% of respondents said that “changing social media algorithms” are a top marketing challenge in 2018, and 45% said that “ads and content boosting” are a top marketing concern.
- SMBs are losing confidence in†their own efficacy at social media:†The constantly changing rules of social media marketing are leaving many business owners feeling lost: Only 28% said that they are “very confident about my strategy and success” for social, and 38% said, “I have a strategy but I’m not sure it’s working.” And 25% of respondents said that they are only “slightly confident” or “not at all confident” that they are making the right decisions to be successful at social media.
Sensai is intended to address all of these top-of-mind marketing challenges for small businesses. Sensai drives more effective results on social media while taking the mental work out of daily posting and engaging; it helps SMBs create more impact with their social media investments with less time, effort and spend.
Sensai lets businesses and creators maintain complete control over their social media accounts, while providing actionable recommendations, informed by A.I.-powered predictive analytics, to help nudge the SMB in the right direction and make better decisions. Professional-tier customers get a full social media strategy developed by experts assisted by A.I., personalized daily content calendars so they have something relevant to publish every day, direct guidance and recommendations on optimal time of day to maximize engagement, and hashtags to better drive discovery. Sensai also provides feedback on past posts to help the customer understand why posts performed well or poorly, so they can improve their knowledge and skills going forward.
Sensai is also piloting Luminary-tier service with several customers, in which they leverage A.I. and human expertise to produce social media posts including text and visual content optimized to the customer’s goals. The Luminary customer retains ownership of their brand, while outsourcing the hard work of content strategy and production, for a fraction of the cost of hiring a social media manager or agency.
“Through my work creating new markets with small businesses and creators in†Detroit, I saw that they were really struggling to navigate the new world of marketing on social media,” said†Angel Gambino, founder and CEO of Sensai. “Social was supposed to be a level playing field, but as the platforms monetized, the little guys found themselves competing with major brand budgets for attention. I decided to leverage my background in big media, social media, and tech entrepreneurship to help solve this important problem by creating an A.I. solution to better compete alongside the big marketing budgets, and help them build the businesses of their dreams.”
