The Pros and Cons of Automating Tweets
In today’s world of smartphones and laptops and business on the go, it’s more popular than ever for people to be active on social media. Users are reading and posting Tweets at all times of day—and what all this online activity means for you, and your business, is great opportunity for influence, if you can find a way to tap into that network.
The only problem? You’re busy. Who has time to Tweet?
Enter Twitter automation. Whether you do it through HootSuite, Twitter Feed, Tweet Adder or something else, automating your Tweets provides a way to be on Twitter even when you’re not. But will it seem authentic? Is automating your Tweets savvy or sloppy? Should you do it?
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest advantages and disadvantages of trying this strategy!
Advantages of Scheduling Tweets
Schedule your Tweets ahead of time, and you have these benefits to gain:
Greater Social Presence:
The reality about social media is that you get the most value from it when you’re consistently active. This is true of blogs and Facebook fan pages as well as Twitter profiles. And by using a service to schedule your Tweets, you can set up your profile to post regularly so that
Time Savings:
Automating Tweets means cutting down on the amount of time you need to be logging onto Twitter and posting an update—your scheduled posts will continue working for you while you’re pursuing other things, making them a passive source of social media activity.
Increased Exposure
: There are certain times when Tweets can have the maximum impact, because of higher traffic times during the day. By automating Tweets, you can capitalize on those times by setting your updates to post in the times when they’ll be best seen.
Goodwill among Followers
: You don’t have to be on Twitter long to experience the back-to-back(-to-back) updates of some users. They may only log on at certain times, but, once they do, boy, oh boy, do they let you know. By scheduling your Tweets, you avoid being this kind of annoying Tweeter by spreading your posts out a little bit. Your followers will thank you.
Quality Posts
When you’re not in a rush to post something quickly, you can take more time to come up with thoughtful and valuable updates, which helps you get the maximum value out of Twitter. Look to post content that contributes to your larger goals instead of just Tweeting to Tweet.
Disadvantages of Scheduling Tweets
There’s a reason some Twitter users are adamantly against automating their Tweets—actually, there are several reasons. Here’s what you need to consider before scheduling your updates.
Less Real Time Engagement:
When your Tweets are posting automatically through a third-party service, that means you’re usually not around when they go live, nor when other users respond to the things you post. Every time you don’t respond to someone’s message to you, you miss an opportunity to build connection.
Insensitivity:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small food blogger or a Fortune 500 company—scheduling your Tweets ahead of time means risking that they’ll be irrelevant, or worse, offensive, when they post. All kinds of world events hit Twitter and affect what your community is talking about. And if you launch in with a “take a look at 10 reasons why X product is so awesome!” while everyone’s discussing a shooting in New York, you may turn your followers off.
Less Genuine Feel:
The truth is, scheduled Tweets can often come across as inauthentic and forced, just be nature of being planned ahead of time. You can combat this, through careful planning and thought, but it takes effort.
Scheduling Tweets: To Do Or Not to Do?
Looking at the pros and cons of automating your Tweets, what do you think? Does it make sense for you to do? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Why or why not?
