Scheduling Tweets
Hello Fellow Linked In Members!
I'm evaluating different apps that schedule tweets. I want to hear from all of you ... what one do you use? Pros vs. cons?
Thank you!!
Good Answers (9)
Kris K.
Head of Corporate Relations (US & Canada) at BT Global Services
Best Answers in: Public Relations (1)
Corporately we use HootSuite. As noted, it is web-based so you can login anywhere.
I have to disagree with those that are against scheduled tweets. There are opportunities for scheduled tweets (if you know an article is going to be published or you are highlighting a recent press announcement).
Even with HootSuite, I still go in and have "spontaneous" tweets based on something that I have read (seen in Twitter) so is it not stale.
I do agree that the companies that continuously re-Tweet the same information or have multiple Tweets on the same topic with no new input does get old and I then have the option to Unfollow.
For my personal Tweets, I use Tweetdeck.
Links:
I've had good luck using CoTweet for scheduling tweets. Simple to use and never had any misses for the scheduled tweets.
Thanks!
Sam
Links:
Justin T.
Digital Account Executive at Weber Shandwick
Best Answers in: Business Development (1), Web Development (1)
HootSuite is a good choice as well. It's simple to use, has multi-platform support, and is web-based.
Cheers!
Links:
Kay P.
Public relations consultant & writer
Best Answers in: Public Relations (2), Professional Networking (1)
I use SocialOOMPH. (Hate the name.) Fairly easy to use. I don't tweet often so it lets me spread them out.
Links:
I too like HootSuite. I don't recommend automating all your tweets -- you want to allow for interaction. However, I've found that it is very useful to schedule strategic and how-to tweet that are helpful without being self-promotional. That allows you to create an overall strategy for your tweeting.
Tonja D.
Social media strategist, content creator, editor and community manager.
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Public Relations (1)
Another vote for Hootsuite. Being on the East Coast, I sometimes find things fairly early EST and want to post them when others in the West are actually awake. Scheduling is convenient.
I disagree that automation is categorically inauthentic, and agree with Kris here. There are definitely times when scheduling a tweet comes in handy - just like scheduled blog posts, which most professional (as well as common folk) bloggers do.
For instance, if you want to announce something at a certain time and you're going to be in a meeting, on vacation, etc., automation can make your life 10x easier.
I use Hootsuite and have used automated tweets successfully. Because I have been an avid Twitter user for a few years, I know what times of day certain groups that I need to communicate will be online. Moreover,I'm on the east coast, so I retweet three hours later for Pacific time tweeters. Therefore I use automated to retweet a tweet i pitched earlier, if I know the tweet will be viral again at a different time. I also use it to alert my stream if a client of mine will appear on a television broadcast or will be on a mag cover.
Alan E.
Web Writer and Editor at E-Messenger Internet Consulting, Inc.
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I use Tweet-u-later, but I only use it when I know I can't be online or mobile to do it live, or when I won't be in a place to do a live tweet justice. For instance, if I need a tweet to go out at a specific time on a specific date and I don't want to miss it or there's a chance I will be unavailable, Tweet-u-later will allow me that flexibility. Tweet-u-later allows you to "book" a tweet any date or time well into the future and you can easily change it at any time. I used it over the holidays and late nights, while in meetings, or while on trips for announcements, for instance.
I would never use Tweet-u-later as a substitute for good, honest, open communications or to avoid Twitter. And note that Twitter won't let you make the exact same tweet twice, so if you want to do multiple tweets of the same message, you'll have to enter multiple tweets with varied wordings.
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More Answers (9)
I am not into tweets yet... I think they are way overrated... By my opinions have been known to change... I remember I thought cell phones were bad and now I feel "naked" when I leave my cell phone at home...
I've been using twitterfeed.com and while it works reliably the interface is a bit slow and cumbersome. If they streamlined the interface I'd certainly recommend it. Otherwise, look around at other tools for now.
Vincent A.
Vincent Amari, Internet Marketing Strategy, Competitive Analysis, Corporate Consultancy, Foresight & Scenario Planning
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I would prefer more control to that given by the sites that offer this as a service.
Therefore I use and suggest to others either a plugin that works with your current site, or setup your own blog to do this.
Wordpress has a great plugin called 'WP to Twitter' (see link below), that works with scheduled posts so you can set these to Tweet at same time as the post goes live.
I like this plugin in particular because it allows you to chose between using a URL shortening service or your own blog URLs.
The same type of plugins are available for Website content management systems (Joomla, Drupal, etc.).
Hope that helps.
Links:
Erica F.
Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon
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Cons are - it's spam. There are no pros.
Don't Automate, Communicate.
Cheers,
Erica Friedman
Yurikon LLC
Social Media Without Delusion
http://socialoptimized.blogspot.com
http://www.visualcv.com/elfriedman
Cyrus A.
Public Relations, Editorial and Social Media Consulting
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I agree with Erica. If you think of tweets as part of your daily, interactive communications stream and then think about how much we all appreciate the various attempts that have been made to "automate" communications, to me, there's little value.
There's a well known communications executive who sends out tweets at all hours of the day and night, many of which are repetitive. Anyone with any level of knowledge about social media knows that he's sending out automated tweets and the whole thing just looks canned beyond belief, especially for someone who's built a business purporting to educate others on communications from a marketing perspective.
In all forms of communications, including tweets, it's not about quantity, but quality. To me, most shouldn't have a need to be automating tweets and should think twice about the dangers of doing it.
HootSuite is a great social media tool, however.
Sahar A.
Diversity& Inclusion|Leadership training|Social Media Marketing|Social Media Training|Public Speaker|Culture Competence
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I use tweetdeck and social oomph which I use more as you n schedule all day and repeat whatever you want on time as many times s you want so at least you are set for the day and can always add during the day what you want as extras
Amena Z.
Digital Marketing Professional | Facebook Apps | Social Media | Website Design
I agree with Mr. Afzali. Honest and Quality communication cant be automated.It comes through as fake , just as no one believes that the CEO's actually write the stuff which they mail.
But I guess you can use tools as reminders to plan your work.
Chuck B.
at Viking Machine & Tool
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Lately, the real question is...
Does anyone pay attention to tweets, regardless of when they are scheduled?
I maintain that eventually the stream is going to be turned on/off "by channel" at the end user's need... Do I need to know which restaurants have tables available? Turn on "munchies." It's rush hour - turn on "parking lot."
And so on...
Of course, maybe, and just maybe, it won't turn into a spam morass...
