I had a question over on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and a variation popped up again by email earlier today…
What’s your thoughts on scheduled tweets?
The question on Facebook continued:
I use scheduled tweets to keep engaged with people (which then auto post to my FB wall as well) I do try and vary them but I don’t want people thinking I’m just pushing the business all the time.
My Thoughts on Scheduled Tweets
It all depends what you are tweeting 
Scheduling is great, but make sure you do check your Twitter feed so you can reply to any questions or say thanks for sharing etc. Twitter, like any other social media is all about the social part and being human.
Which brings us to the marketing part!
If every tweet is promoting your business then people tune out. Get a good mix of “interesting” non-selling tweets and selling tweets. Share your own content and other peoples – I use bufferapp.com to schedule articles I’ve read around the web that my followers may find interesting. I also have my blog re-tweeting old posts and Marketme sharing tips and videos.
Find a mix that works for you.
Use a tool like Tweroid to discover when your fans are reading and sharing most, and use these times to schedule your offers.
Think about your own Twitter use, would you follow someone who was obviously just using scheduled tweets or sent out sales messages all the time? If you want real people following you, then you need to be real too. I’m the first to admit, I’m not a huge Twitter conversationalist – get me on Skype or email if you want to talk to me! I do check Twitter daily though and have email alerts for direct messages.
Tweeting to Facebook
As for posting tweets to your FaceBook – well I personally avoid it. It can be over kill.
Tweets have a much shorter life span than Facebook posts so it makes sense to tweet more often. Also if you have a conversation on Twitter, it can totally overwhelm your newsfeed with one half of a conversation.
The other problem is auto posts on Facebook usually do not have the “share” option and do not appear high in peoples news feeds, they’re often buried. I would post your offers manually for best visibility and ask people to share too.
It’s finding the right balance that works for you – check your insights often.
Time is a big problem for many small businesses and automating parts of your social media marketing is necessary. When you automate to the point of no longer being human online, then it is not good for you or your business.
What do you think about scheduled tweets and automating social media? Share your thoughts below.
Image by Toolmantim
.png "I Support IEC")
I like automation for bread’n'butter announcments, which frees-up my social media time to read what others are saying & respond; ask my Followers/Likers questions & respond to them; find new people to Follow; and RT/Share useful content from others.
Hi Mhairi, I agree with automating your “bread and butter” announcements, it saves so much time! Thanks for popping in and sharing your thoughts
Couldn’t agree more. There’s a tendency to confuse ‘scheduling’ with ‘being boring’ which couldn’t be further from the truth. Scheduling interesting tweets is much better than flooding your followers’ feeds with 10 tweets in one go, and let’s face it we none of us sit at Twitter all day long (or we shouldn’t!). Scheduling to Facebook can result in lower Edgerank though, although the jury’s out on this one.
Ginny Carter recently posted..Facebook ads versus Google pay per click
You mean you don’t sit at Twitter all day Ginny? lol
Thanks for calling in and sharing your thoughts
I agree with what you’ve said about finding a balance and checking your feed if you do use scheduled Tweets. I also agree with making the scheduled Tweets valuable, not just promotion of your stuff. I use scheduled Tweets because it’s an awesome time saver, but I Tweet tips, quotes and other info as well as my blog posts. Then I go onto Twitter (or Hootsuite) and RT other people’s posts, respond to people, etc. Like you, I’m not really interactive on Twitter, but I want to do more of that.
Leanne Chesser recently posted..Online Time Management: Get It Together With Trello