24/7 social media coverage is not a luxury—it’s a necessity for global publishers. For the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Hong Kong’s newspaper of record, reaching an international audience that spans every time zone (especially in the US) is mission-critical. Their social media following had already grown 10x in 3.5 years, but their small, dedicated team faced a major challenge: how to maintain a continuous, high-performing presence without the manpower for round-the-clock staffing.
😩 The pain point: The impossibility of manual 24/7 global reach
SCMP’s mission is clear: to be Asia’s leading news publisher serving a global audience. This requires providing continuous, optimized content on platforms like Facebook and X, catering to readers across every geography and time zone.
Previously, SCMP used tools which required manual management of posts and timing. As Social Media Editor Shea Driscoll explained, this was inefficient.
The issue was acute for a lean team operating out of Hong Kong. As Shea put it: “We don’t always have the manpower for 24/7 staffing.” They desperately needed a system that could automate their 24/7 social media coverage.
🧠 The game-changer: AI takes the wheel for optimal timing
SCMP moved to Echobox to leverage its intelligent automation features, which were specifically designed to solve the global distribution problem. Echobox’s algorithms predict the exact best minute to share content for maximum traffic, eliminating all the guesswork and manual intervention. Learn more about the technology behind this success at echobox.com/social.
“Maximizing social reach for global audiences requires an appreciation for posting optimization that determines the best times to achieve high levels of engagement. Echobox’s algorithm and time slot functionality removes one variable from the equation – I don’t have to manually manage time slots, pushing stories back and forth in relation to each other, but instead can just post in a time period I’m comfortable with, and move on.”
“Timing optimization has been a real perk and something I now take for granted,” says Shea. The platform allowed SCMP to indicate a time window (the ‘Time Slot’ feature) and trust the AI to post at the absolute optimal moment within that period.
Furthermore, SCMP achieved near-full automation on X. Recognizing that manual ‘crafting’ of tweets wasn’t providing a significant lift, they chose to let Echobox curate the articles, generate the text, and post them at optimal times. This decision was a huge relief for the small team: “Given the small size of our team, we wanted to focus on areas where we could really move the needle, so Echobox automation helps to take a big load off.”
By using Echobox AI for optimal timing and automation, SCMP instantly ensured seamless, high-performing 24/7 social media coverage.
🥳 The big win: Traffic skyrockets
The results were immediate and massive, confirming the value of the investment:
| Key Performance Metric | The Improvement |
| Pageviews from Facebook | Increased by 56% |
| Pageviews from X | Increased by 50% |
| Editorial Time Saved Daily | 3.9 full-time employees (31 hours) |
The time savings alone were a phenomenal ROI. By letting Echobox manage the more manual aspects of publishing, the social media team saved an estimated 31 hours per day—the equivalent of 3.9 full-time employees.
This efficiency freed up the team to focus on high-impact areas like video content and A/B testing, further maximizing performance. As Shea concluded, “SCMP’s Facebook following in particular has grown 10x in the last 3.5 years… Echobox has been a part of that journey, helping us post our content in the most optimal way.”
🌟 Ready to achieve high-performing 24/7 social media coverage?
If your small team needs to cover a global audience and maximize performance across time zones, the SCMP’s success proves that AI-driven automation is the only way to scale high-quality 24/7 social media coverage efficiently.
Download the full case study for the details on their X automation strategy, and all the insider info on how they achieved a 56% traffic boost!
