Twitter – a social networking platform where you can communicate in 140 characters, which amounts to relationship building in a literal nutshell.
Take a good a look at the third word in that opening sentence – social.
How can you automate being social?
Social is relationship building, spontaneity, conversation and all those things you need to be present to do.
And yet people still profess that automating your Twitter usage is the way to go – but why?
The Pros of automated tweeting
Those in the ‘pro’ camp will try to convince you that automating your tweeting will:
- Save you time
- Give a constant presence
- Give your followers a stream of tweets to keep you in their mind
- Provide your followers with timely offers
- Help you plan your strategy to target potential customers
But there is a problem with that. Sending out random tweets isn’t always constructive. Plus, some people who automate will schedule the same tweet to go out at weekly or monthly intervals. They may think it saves them time, but it’s not long before their followers get fed up with seeing the same message. And that type of repetitiveness highlights the fact that you’re an absent tweeter.
The cons of automated tweeting
So, that brings us to the cons of being automated:
- There is no engagement with your followers
- Your tweets can appear random and disjointed
- If you’re not there, you can’t respond to replies or RTs (retweets)
- There is no conversation
- You can’t react quickly to someone else’s tweet
The ideal strategy
I am no Twitter guru, but I have been using it for a while now.
For me, the best strategy is to be there in person when I’m tweeting. The only automated tweets that go out are those showing my latest blog posts when they are published – everything else is me. That way I can react to other people’s tweets, join in with conversations and offer help and advice when needed.
Over to you
What’s your take on this?
What strategy do you use?
Leave a comment below and have your say about the pros and cons of automated tweeting.
Sally Ormond – Copywriter
4 comments ↓
Hi Sally – funny you should post this today – have just had twitter chat with various people about sponsored tweets and auto-tweets.
Except for your example of an auto-tweet for a new post, I am firmly against both auto and sponsored tweets.
Both auto and sponsored tweets seem deceptive – they are pretend engagement. Sponsored tweets also look like spam (spamsored?).
If a company really wants to promote an event they should engage with their followers and ask for RTs the same as everyone else. They would have far more credibility if they did.
Sponsored tweets and auto-tweets destroy brand equity. May as well invest the money in building a real social media personality. The long term payback will be worth the extra effort.
Best wishes
Huw
Hi Huw,
Thanks for your comment, I agree completely, the key to social media is to be real and to interact – automation is the total opposite to that. Sadly, there are many companies out there who still think social media is a quick way to sales – the truth is, their activities only swtich people off them and their brand.
Thanks again.
Sally
There are many different potential ways to tweet automatically. I do some real-time engagement on Twitter, but I also schedule many of my tweets with Hootsuite.
I look at the return on the investment of my time. Checking Twitter many times a day to interact with others takes me away from my paying writing projects.
I was just tweeting about this the other day. You can identify the robo-tweeters when big events are happening. Your twitter stream is 90% about the Oscars Telecast or the presidential debate or some other major event, and some killjoy is piping in every 20 minutes with tips on search engine optimization, killer landing pages, grammar tips, etc. It’s a real turnoff.
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