Schedule and Automate Social Media

Should you? – That is the question?

I have seen a few people ranting recently on video blogs, social networking groups, forums and in person, about the many people that schedule and automate their social media activity.

This post was originally posted as a private post on my blog so that I could gauge peoples thoughts and respond to each one. After being inundated with comments I think it is fair to say that there is a very mixed bag of opinion.

I can see that most of the people in business need to manage their time more effectively and scheduling helps. The comment from Carolyn shows a way that we can structure our time and plan the content that we want to provide of value to people, whilst Gail operates on an adhoc basis. Neither is wrong.

As mentioned in the original post, and confirmed by Mike in his comment “As with everything, there is a time and place for both” - I believe there is a balance between the Automation and Human action that needs to be achieved, whether you are a one man/woman band or a corporate using social media.

As indicated by Andy, I don’t think that you can automate everything, but there are very good reasons for thinking about scheduling and automation.

And Michelle… I’m with you on the Churchill quotes!

In reflection
(I didn’t want to do a Jerry Spinger style ‘final thought’…)

Automation has it’s place. misty mountain . But not too much please. Let the spammers spam those that are silly enough to follow them. And if you get spammed, just hit the unfollow button.

Syndication of automated or scheduled content seems to be an OK thing. An RSS feed or auto posting from your blog, a feed from a trusted friends blog, news… this can always seem to be of interest to those that choose to follow you because you have sent it out, but never loose that human touch.

Thanks for those that took the time to comment – and those that have commented after this post was scheduled.

Speak soon!

Ant

About the Author

Ant Hodges is a seasoned Internet marketing professional and mentor for small businesses and start-up's. Having been successful, and not so successful at times, Ant now runs a busy SEO and Internet marketing company called HodgesNet and helps to serve start-up businesses with his expertise and experiences to get the right foundations in for success.

  • Bex Lewis

    I think you’re entirely right that there should be a balance between the two.TWITTER: I chose to download Hootsuite to enable me to allow me to continue to Tweet when I went to France for 3 weeks, and didn’t want my Twitter account to be “dead” (wasn’t going to be near the internet, and wasn’t going to pay the extortionate data charges abroad). I have found it handy since then to set up SOME tweets that way, if it’s the appropriate content. I would definitely prefer that someone would space out their Tweets, than tweet 50 tweets in a row!FACEBOOK: I don’t think you can automate anything? So I don’t – although my blogs are fed through with Networking blogs.BLOGS: I work for a number of different organisations, so write for quite a few blogs, and have to work for them in blocks of time. Therefore, nearly all my blogs are timed to publish at particular points during the week – it depends, again, on the content contained within. Otherwise, content for the UK audience is likely to be written late at night & seen only by the rest of the world. Very important to think about it, and to post ‘live’ where possible. I’ve had a go at ‘live-blogging’ at conferences, essentially posting ‘notes’ only…

  • Mike Samuels

    As with everything, there is a time and place for both. I schedule tips each day but would find it impossible to guarantee posting. It is also important to maintain a presence, which having this option does, however, it is important to maintain active postings as often as possible too.

  • NAPP_News

    Maybe it’s because I’ve been using Twitter since before the rise of Hootsuite or Tweet Later but I don’t schedule anything… Mostly because I simply do not have the time to sit down and automate or schedule a presence that I grew the old-fashioned way to begin with.Does that help or hurt my presence? That I can’t tell you, but I’ve built a strong core of followers by just being myself and putting stuff out there when there’s something I want to say so I guess I’ll stick with that for now. =)

  • careerconnect2u

    I definately think there is a need to schedule in you social media activity as a sole trader working from home you can easily be led to keep going on to scocial media, and spending time away from what you should be doing. I use it maybe for a couple of tweets a day to vary what time my messages go out.What I do object to and it becomes mundane and tireing is the constant quotes coming though from the same people over and over again, such as motivation quotes from Winston Churchill etc, which has no relevance to your day, it does not motivate me it pretty much irritates me, unless it is funny! I think there is a line to cross when you are constantly scheduling often 100 tweets in a day, which I feel is over the top, it actually makes me think that the business person doing it who claims to be a guru at their trade has actually got no business and really has not got anything else better to do!I like people who mix a bit of fun and casual, with some business related informative facts linked to important issues and some selling of their services or products, so I don’t become bored of them.Thanks Michelle

  • voiceoverartist

    In principle, I have no problem with scheduled tweets, as long as they are only a very small percentage of your actual tweet rate. The odd one talking about something to do with your business, no problem at all, as long as you actually respond regularly to mentions and engage properly with your followers etc…..

  • Andrew Palmer

     What I really think stinks is Automated tweets i.e. Using a data feed to post your tweets. The whole point of social media is interaction. One cannot interact with an automaton and if you do interact with an automated tweet, who looks dumb, you or the tweeter? The message is simple, keep it live, keep it real. 

  • Andrew Palmer

    Oops meant to say using a feed to populate your tweets.

  • theresa coligan

    Personally with Twitter I use both. I send out about 8-10 scheduled tweets over 24 hours – 3 weight loss tips repeated twice; 2 about my newsletter and a few about my latest blog. This ensures I have a constant and consistent presence around the globe (I hope!). I then try to tweet several times a day with life stuff, engage with people as much as I can and retweet anything I feel is relevant to build relationships. Before I started scheduling I felt enslaved to Twitter and resented it as a result. This way I hope I’m getting the best of both worlds.With Facebook I don’t schedule at all, but I am still trying to get to grips with it from a business perspective. I find it very confusing!

  • Nigel_Morgan

    This has long been a source of conflict! We blogged about it back in March – http://www.morganpr.co.uk/Automatic-for-the-Tweeple Essentially you can schedule Tweets and updates – but do not forget the personal touch! Even scheduled tweets can be personal – providing you respond to those who reply and thank those who RT!

  • gail gibson

    As a fan of Twitter and Facebook and being a sole trader I did at one stage consider automating my updates. However to add my personality and to respond to “now” rather than planned updates, I post on an ad hoc basis. I have chosen to not allow T & FB to interfere with my day and only check either or both at random intervals.

  • Carolyn Page

    I do a mixture, recognising that I have strategic goals for my social networking which I need to achieve by planning certain things I want to talk about and be known for, and that this is supposed to be social, so essentially also spontaneous and interactive.So I do sit down, plan and draft posts and updates in batches, I ‘collect’ things I want to talk about and respond to, and use appropraite tools to pre-load and automate to an extent.This way I can also manage the different strategies I have for different sites – I don’t just link it all together and pump it out everywhere. My Twitter accounts, LinkedIn profile and company Facebook page are all trying to acheive slightly different thingsThis also saves me from the tyranny of being distracted by social media sites all day long when I am supposed to be working on and in my business! I have set times of the day when I dive in and see who’s saying what, talk about stuff which has just popped up, enter into conversations , retweet etc.And then in those spare moments which sometimes crop up during the day I tweet/post on my phone just for the fun of it.That said I am still trying to find a time efficient way to plan and load all my posts. I don’t find the drafting functions of things like HootSuite particularly helpful.We have created some checklists for oursleves so that we can wade through our posts and see how we are acheiving on our goals.Interested to hear other people’s views.

  • Dale Berkebile

    I have not read everyone comments yet, but would like to when I have more time, right now I will give you my two cents.Automation is a good thing, but only if it does not interfere with real people and their perceptions. The goal of social media is to be social and my point here is automation is not social.Here is an example. I am a leader of a group that meets weekly and I need 8 of the members to do certain work when it is their month to do it. This work rotates each month to other members. I created and email and set it up to go out all year, but only to the members that needed to do their work for the month in question. So basically this is a reminder to do your work or find someone else that can replace you and do the work for you that week. Mos of the members think I send this out every week and did not know this is automated, but commented on how well this works. And it has worked really well and the group is running much smoother than when the last two member ran the group.Now, on the otherhand, when I get a direct message from someone that I started following on Twitter. As soon as I start following them this direct message is not hey thanks for following, but more of a sales pitch then I instantly am turned off. I did start following you to be sold. I want to build a relationship and if once I get to know you and trust you you want to sell to me then that is fine. So this type of automation is bad.The key is in my mind anyhow, using the tool to help build relationships, not because you are lazy or think this might work better than cold calling or whatever. The way to be successful in social media is to be helpful. So you must look at things in a what can I do for you way instead of Me, Me, Me, what can you do for me. Hey do you want to buy my stuff, I’m great, great, great I tell you. Yeah, that never works. Automation is a tool like anything else when used correctly it is awesome, but when used in correctly is is a horrible thing!

  • Mary Thomas

    Some interesting comments. In Twitter I use a combination of the automated and instant Tweets. It all comes down to why you are using the tool and who your audience is. I have used Twitter for the past 18 months to build the brand of Concise Training as a company who can help with IT applications and Social media. As such, I do automate two tweets a day with IT Tips which are followed by some of my followers. However these are scheduled at different times of the day and only Monday – Friday. I also jump in to conversations during the day. I have found getting a Smart Phone a tremendous help with this. I agree with Dale that social media is all about relationships – but ultimately there needs to be a reason for having a presence. If that reason is only relationship building (which is fine), then do scheduled tweets have a presence at all?I think what people have to be careful of is too many scheduled tweets – constant repetition of scheduled tweets and scheduled tweets that are clearly out of context (e.g. refer to Christmas when it is Easter).

  • Bob Hayward

    I’ve tried a variety of approaches to Twitter and Social Media profile status up dates. ~ Doing it all myself – one site at a time~Automated tweets & status updates using hootsuite – ping – tweetlater and others~Having someone else do it for me~ Making lots of replies and DM’s versus none~ Doing lots of retweets versus doing noneAgreed building relationship and trust is part of the mix and the goal – but the factors required have to more than personal dialogue. If my status on Facebook doesn’t change for a day or to someone usually sends me a message to ask if I’m ok… If I do more than 4-5 status updates per day on Linked In or Facebook someone writes to complain…I’m currently automating tweets at a different rate to Status updates over a 24 hour period and in my own interaction on-line going for replies to build conversations – If I retweet – I do my best to reply alsoRgds ~ bobhttp://twitter.com/bobhayward

  • tashacres

    I think that most people that use automated and scheduled messages are missing the point. For me social media is exactly that – social. So by pretending that you are open 24 hours when you’re a one-man-band is similar to pretending you have a ‘team’ working for you when you’ve just got a virtual PA.Social media throws back to a time when people bought from people because they enjoyed the experience – it’s about building relationships. So better to be up-front and honest that hide behind a charade. I much prefer to connect with real people. They can answer in realtime and I understand what they’re working on and their time pressures.Be social – not automated. In the words of a 70s sitcom – ‘Power to the people!’.

  • Dave Clayton

    I’m not a big fan of automation either. I like the human interaction, the debates, the retweets and feedback. Automated tweets just seem cold. There is a Facebook Status randomiser that a lot of people use, it puts out “funny” status updates and upon first reading you think “oh, i’ll respond to that” then you see it was just created by a status feeder. Then I think that person doesn’t have the personality to just be themselves and be funny. I like the real time of Twitter, if you schedule or automate how do I know its worth responding to, you may not check for 3 or 4 hours by which time the world has moved on and there are new things happening. Don’t be a Twitterbot – be a person and interact here and now.I’ve not got that many followers but I love the interaction I have with those that I follow and are followed by. In fact I have made some good friends by being ‘in the moment’ – I unfollow boring spammers or ‘over tweeters’.Just my opinion ;o)

  • Joe Burnham

    I think it all depends on who you want to see whatever it is you’re posting. I schedule blogs and then schedule follow-up tweets which also go to Facebook (thanks to Hootsuite & Tweetdeck) linking back to the blog at key times. Why? Because if it’s worth me taking a few hours to write it, then it better be worth taking some time to make sure a wide range of people read it.In other words, the more time I put into the piece, the more time I’m going to take in scheduling its delivery (note, this could also go for a carefully crafted tweet).

  • Pedro

    I agree with Joe, if we putting in time to create the content why not strategically tweet it. sometimes great ideas come at midnight, but they the response may not be as big then vs tweet around 3pm. I don’t think everything should be scheduled, but maybe product releases, blog post etc.Just my two cents

  • http://www.opennetworking.co.uk Matt Saunders

    I don’t think social media should ever be automated, for two very good reasons:

    - people prefer human interaction and are much more likely to respond (in whichever way is desireable)
    - whatever you’re plugging, you will see a better return by interacting.

    Social media is AT LEAST a two-way street. Those automated twitter accounts that belt marketing messages into the ether don’t perform as well as a well maintained account could.

    Unless you’re just spamming some MLM or affiliate product, that is…

  • Ant Hodges

    Automated – I totally agree Matt…

    Scheduling? Surely this saves time If I have written blogs and articles to go out over the course of a week and then I check each day for any engagement?

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