A myth: “Scheduling posts to Twitter is impersonal, everyone hates it.”
A truth: “It is important to engage with your followers, interact with them on Twitter so that they know you are a real person, not a “bot”"
Twitter: @TraceTV @freelancesocial
Here’s the deal:
Twitter is a “stream of consciousness” situation. People from all over the world are popping on and off of it at all hours of the day, from home or office, but mostly from mobile devices, because it is QUICK.
They scan down the “feed” with their eyes for something interesting while they wait for their food in a restaurant, kill time before a meeting, and then they are off.
If you only post at 8 am each day, few will see your earth shattering 140 character masterpiece, even if you have a large following. If you want to reach a larger audience you have to be tweeting more and regularly each day, and who has time for that? Not me, that’s why I schedule tweets.
How do I do THAT?
This post is about the WHY, not the HOW, but there are several free (and low cost) options for doing this including Buffer, Tweetdeck and HootSuite. I primarily use Buffer, because I find it works well with my schedule, how I conduct my business. I suggest you try these and find what works best for you.
The Social Freelancer
Social Strategy: Facebook is your Newspaper, Twitter is Radio
Also, check this excellent post from @Flowtown for more:
5 Reasons You Should Schedule Your Tweets
What about engagement?
It’s the other, equally important, aspect to using Twitter productively. People want to hear from you directly. They feel more comfortable and will mention you and engage with you AND spread links to your websites around to their followers, IF they know you are REAL. If they see the same tweet over and over at varying times of the day, with no real interaction, they will assume your account is not being monitored at all, that it’s just a scheduled stream of tweets, BORING.
Nothing of value was built without WORK
Engage, schedule, review, create new posts, repeat. That’s how you grow a Twitter following, and it doesn’t happen overnight. All of it takes work, but it doesn’t have to take up your entire day, every day.
Think I am lying?
I didn’t come up with this, so don’t shoot the messenger! I have spent a lot of time reading blogs, experimenting with different methods of engagement on Twitter and, most importantly, OBSERVING what people with HUGE audiences on Twitter are doing. You should do the same, and see if you disagree with me. Follow Mark Schaefer, Ann Tran, AR Karthick, Chris Voss and Blair Semenoff to start, you will see what I mean.
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Related Posts: RT Please?
(click on titles to read the articles, thank you.)
Focus on What You CAN do, Not What You CAN’T
5 Sites for Learning about and Coping With Social Media (highly recommended!)
The Beauty of Blogging and Twitter
Social Strategy: Facebook is Your Newspaper, Twitter is Radio
Why Social Media Matters and How Marketing Doesn’t Change (“Old Media” vs NEW)
Who Gives a Twit about Twitter? A lot of Folks…
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Tracy Ready is a Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Vocalist and Media Consultant based in Dallas, Texas USA – contact tracy@traceproductions.com
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Great post. I have a question. Do you repeat a tweet? Maybe send the same link to your blog article throughout the day?
This is a really good post – it took me a while to get the hang of scheduling and engaging at first, but now I find it really valuable. I spend 10 minutes at the beginning of the day engaging and putting the day’s tweets into Hootsuite, then check back after lunch for a little more interaction – doesn’t take too much time but gives me a good presence on Twitter.
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[...] Why You Should Schedule Tweets AND Engage. Yes. It Matters [...]
[...] Why You Should Schedule Tweets AND Engage. Yes. It Matters [...]
[...] Why You Should Schedule Tweets AND Engage. Yes. It Matters [...]
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