One of the popular things to do on Twitter is sharing links to websites, articles, images and videos. In order to ease the sharing process and make sure they are sharing everything, many users are automating their Tweets. Services such as dlvr.it and twitterfeed or HootSuite provide ways to autotweet content and schedule Tweets. I used to do this for my blog posts as well.
There has been some really good examples lately of how scheduling can be go terribly wrong. Right after the Aurora shooting a Twitter account belonging to NRA Tweeted: "Good morning shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" According to Mashable this Tweet was most likely previously scheduled. Not good, huh?
Besides of the cases of scheduled Tweets going wrong, the automation can haywire otherwise as well. The most usual automation gone wild situation is when the automation service for some reason starts to flood the same old content in a repeat over and over again. I have seen it happen to others and it has happened to me as well.
The main reason why I don't like automation is it makes you seem like a bot. Instead of sharing actively, you are posting things without really giving it much thought. Easy. Lazy. Bad.
It at least looks like you aren't actually paying any attention on what you post on Twitter, as long as you post loads of links and other stuff. After a while it gets very clear you aren't even there writing those Tweets, cause they all look the same. As they all look the same, your followers will start to ignore them.
If you don't want to seem like a bot, stop automating your Tweets. I know the so called social media experts say automation is great, but it really isn't. It's only lazy.
Photo by D Sharon Pruitt under Creative Commons license.
Suomeksi (In Finnish):
Helpottaakseen erilaisten linkkien ja muun sisällön jakamista Twitterissä monet käyttävät erilaista automatisointia. Se on huono juttu monestakin syystä. Automaatio voi mennä pahasti pieleen. Ennakkoon ajastettu viesti voikin ajoittua pahaan saumaan. Tai automaatio voi mennä muuten rikki ja vaikkapa toistaa samoja vanhoja juttuja uudestaan ja uudestaan. Pääasiallinen syy on kuitenkin se, että automaatio saa sinut vaikuttamaan botilta. Et näytä välittävän pätkääkään siitä mitä Twitteriin suollat, kunhan vaan suollat kaikkea ja mahdollisimman paljon. Automaation vuoksi kaikki viestisi näyttävät käytännössä samalta. Vähän ajan kuluttua seuraajasi lakkaavat kiinnittämästä huomiota viesteihisi. Jos et halua vaikuttaa botilta, lakkaa automatisoimasta viestejäsi. Ajastus on laiskaa.
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4 replies for "Twitter Tuesday: Scheduling and other automation"
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