Pushing out links automatically via Twitter as content is published using services such as Feedburner has been become accepted practise for Twitter users.
But there’s a new game in town: scheduling Tweets using services such as Hootsuite to be published when you’re busy or on holiday.
It’s a form of automated networking that inevitably limits the opportunity for conversation. I asked people in my Twitter network for their view:
“Personally, I do not. However, I can see how schedules and ‘windows of opportunity’ may not have their openings align.” @briansolis
“No, I don’t schedule tweets. […] seems to be a growing practice; don’t like [it] myself. Something almost mechanical and remote about it turns your own Twitter handle into a marketing channel. Only valid for tweeting from a handle that actually is your marketing channel.” @jangles
“Looked at it once but it seemed too unreliable; what if there was an issue and a schedule tweet went out? I’d look like I was either paying no attention to what’s being said online, or just really inappropriate. [I] would rather do it in real time.” @vikkichowney
“Hate it – it’s mercenary, manipulative marketing at its worst. It’s a social network, not an automated one. People are the beating heart – millions of conversations prompted by an emotional response to a real-world incident or real-world tweet.” @paulfabretti
“Nah can’t be bothered. [I’m] better off saying that I am out for a bit and haven’t got a connection.” @r_c
“I don’t no. Why? [In the] fast moving pace of the network, something written in advance, might not work at a future determined time.” @litmanlive
“It works from a one-way perspective. I do it to keep hits ticking over while I’m too busy or on hols. [You] can’t interact, of course.” @CMRLee
“I don’t – only point I can see is if embargoed news. I auto-publish articles but that’s it. Scheduling seems to go against grain of Twitter.” @JoshHalliday
“Wouldn’t completely rule it out but haven’t felt the need to. My tweets are not that important.” @stedavies
That looks like a pretty overwhelming NO to the auto-tweet then. As Vikki has said, if I automate something at an inappropriate time, it looks like I’m not paying attention or even care about what people are saying – and isn’t that the whole point of being on Twitter?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh Halliday, Stephen Waddington, Paul Fabretti, Chris Lee, Petya N. Georgieva and others. Petya N. Georgieva said: Interesting points of view: Scheduled Tweets break social norms http://bit.ly/ca10jl via @wadds [...]
Indeed. I find it pretty encouraging that we largely agree…
Well known social media agencies do it, in a lot of cases to try and capitalise on the US audience by scheduling them late at night I suspect.
My personal irritation is when blogs auto-tweet and then the blogger manually tweets the same link to the same post.
Little things I suppose. I guess there’s more important things to worry about . . . like the future role of PR agencies.
Interesting discussion, with a surprisingly one-sided response…
Surely what lies behind this is what followers are comfortable with, rather than anything else. @Jangles gets it spot on I think. If the Twitter channel is already used as a marketing one giving time-sensitive information then I think there are times when scheduling tweets is totally valid – e.g. a live event starting in 30 mins, or a discount about to end.
But “personal” tweets (and by that I include marketing channels in which followers expect and are used to dialogue and conversation with a brand) as well as tweets from people are a different thing entirely… Auto-tweets and auto DMs get a big thumbs down from me if that’s the case…
[...] Scheduled Tweets break social norms (says network) | Wadds’ PR Blog – in my conversation with Wadds he had differentiated between syndication of content (putting your blog’s RSS feed through Twitter) and services like Postling [...]
[...] Lee writing on Run Marketing has come to the defence of schedule tweets following my post last week. He makes the case for scheduling tweets in the case of a media property. “I […] want to keep [...]