I know what you’re thinking. I’m a hypocrite!

I always talk about engaging, but here I am discussing the greatness of automated tweets. Well hold your horses. Let me explain myself.

Automated Tweets CAN be great

Automated Tweets can also be AWFUL

I like to think I approach automated tweets with the right frame of mind. This is how I do it:

 

The Do’s & Don’t’s Of Automated Tweets

Let’s first consider the issues of the everyday entrepreneur:

• Busy
• Stressed
• Multi Tasking
• Busy
• Constantly Communicating
• Oh, and did I say BUSY

You don’t need me to tell you this, I’m sure you’re well aware. We want to spend all day engaging with our customers, but we can’t. We have other work to do.

There’s ideas to be created

Meetings to be had

Work to be done

Yet engagement is vital. If you want to be a successful 21st Century Brand, you need to be human. You need to converse and provide awesome service.

That’s where Automated Tweets comes in, but if you do it badly,  you will fail. Here are 4 Do’s and 4 Don’t’s…

 

DO space out the love

If you’re anything like me, you read a great Blog Post and what pops into your mind is who to share it to.

However, I generally read in one large bulk. If I simply pressed Tweet, my Twitter feed would explode for 30 minutes and be dead for the rest of the day.

Let me introduce to you my best friend, BUFFER. Rather than press Tweet, I press Buffer instead. You can create your own schedule and space out the love. No more 60 minutes of heaven and 23 hours of dead space.

 

DON’T auto engage

Do you know what I hate? Receiving a welcome Twitter message when I follow someone. Seriously, I reconsider following them.

Automated Tweets can be great, but DON’T use it to respond and interact.

If you want to thank someone for following, do it yourself. If you want to thank someone for a Retweet, do it yourself. If you don’t have time to do this, don’t do it all.

 

DO share popular posts

Your popular Blog Posts are popular for a reason. Keep the momentum going and share these posts often. Social Oomph offers a great service. I picked this up from Michael Hyatt, and although I can’t justify the cost, yet, I will surely use it in the not too distant future.

At present I use Tweet Old Post, which posts a daily post from my archive. Not popular posts as such, but you can play with the settings so only certain posts are sent.

 

DON’T use hashtags

I often use hashtags in Twitter, but you need to be careful when it comes to automated tweets. If you use a service to send an automated tweet, advertising your product for instance, don’t use hashtags.

All you will end up doing is sending the same message to the same people, and they they will quickly hate you.

This is also something to consider if you utilise Triberr, as your followers will simply take over a particular hashtag. Kristen Lamb talks about this here.

 

DO keep track

If you use a service like Social Oomph, make sure you keep track of your Tweets. The world has seen some awful examples of Automated Tweets gone wrong. Don’t be the next faux pax tweeter!

Auto Tweet by all means, but keep a close eye on them. If you don’t you may replicate Live Nation. A Tweet that makes sense today may offend next week. You’ve been warned!

 

DON’T go overboard

Do not take what I’m saying as permission to fill your news feed with an automated tweet every 5 minutes.

Do not take it as permission to advertise your product 312 times each day

Do not take the Michael!

If you do you will quickly alienate yourself. Automated Tweets can be great, but if you abuse it, peoples will quickly catch on.

 

DO it yourself

Please do it yourself. Whatever you do, don’t get a 3rd party service to tweet for you. We recently saw Celeb Boutique make an awful error during the Auraora tragedy. All because they had an overseas company do their tweets for them.

I’m sorry, but this is no excuse.

You cannot be social if you get someone else to do it for you.

 

DON’T only automate

And finally, whatever you do, don’t only automate your tweets. Share some live ones, too.

SOCIAL media…the clue is in the name. Automated Marketing is great for helping your marketing, but it should never be all you do. Your followers want to hear from you. They want to learn about your Brand. You can’t do this by automating everything.

 

Automated Tweets can be a real time saver for a busy entrepreneur. However, you beed to be sensible and not abuse it. Social Media is social and Twitter is no different.

One final tip I will offer is to monitor your timeline throughout the day. If you think you can automate some tweets and let the world sort itself out, you’re wrong. If someone replies or shares your message, you need to be there to interact

Automated Tweets can’t (or at least SHOULD NOT) do this. This needs a personal touch. This needs YOU.

How do you Tweet?

Do you use automated means to make life easier?

Turndog Millionaire – @turndog_million