Is it cheating to pre-schedule tweets? - Social Media and You Blog - Virtual Assistant Forums

VAF Newsbot · #1 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Twitter users are divided on the issue of pre-scheduled tweets. Do you use*SocialOomph or*Twuffer to set up messages that will post sometime in the future? Or do you view such tactics as heretical, diametrically opposed to what Twitter’s all about?The beauty of Twitter is its emphasis on the here and now, with authentic, nearly real-time communications [...] Click here to read the rest of this post at the Social Media and You Blog.

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intercovbc · #2 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Cheating? No. Not necessarily. If you have a huge following, and a huge web presence then it's not all bad. As long as you don't pretend that you are tweeting live, because in the end you will get busted, and I've found that not being genuine on twitter is suicide.

For the normal Joe, if all you are doing is posting pre-recorded tweets and not interacting then you are not getting out of twitter what you can. And it is pretty much a waste of time, or effort.

Even those that are doing it "right" monitor their pre-recorded accounts so that they can offer feedback.

1vneasie · #3 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

HELLO

Not at all. I am just as many others are a wife, a mother, and trying to develop and educate others on this concept on a very tight budget crunched on time. With the many hats you must wear, scheduling is a very big part of being organized and assisting others with their business. Keep doing what you are doing, it all adds up to something beneficial.

RebeccaT · #4 (**permalink**) 03-04-2010

I don't think it is about how big your following is. If you are on there to "get a big following" you are missing out on interacting. I use Hootsuite and some of my tweets and my clients are scheduled. I use scheduling in moderation. I think that typical things are ok scheduled (quotes, articles, blog posts, etc). Even if I am going to Retweet what someone else said and I just did one...I may schedule the next to go out in an hour or so, so I don't lose where it was or what I wanted to say about it. I don't generally like to do more then 1 or 2 Retweets in a row.....but that is just me and my opinion.

Robin_Holstein · #5 (**permalink**) 03-04-2010

I use a crockpot to fix dinner sometimes. Does that mean I'm not cooking? what if I use it every day for three weeks? Sure, dinner would be boring, but am I still cooking it?

leedrozak · #6 (**permalink**) 03-04-2010

I'm with Rebecca in the use with moderation category. I will schedule if it is an announcement, quote or sometimes RT. It is about building relationships and if you are not there to participate in the conversation what is the use?

PamH53 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-04-2010

I think Robin said it best, "dinner would be boring". So if you are going to automate your tweets, make sure you mix it up with live tweets.

vainparadise · #8 (**permalink**) 03-07-2010

I am in complete agreement with what everyone has said on here. I manage several accounts on Twitter. While I am researching tweets for a client I might find a few for myself, in that case instead of putting them all out there back to back I will schedule them.

I think there is a big difference vs. scheduling tweets and exclusively using say Twitterfeed to feed through your RSS feeds.

Robin love the crockpot comparison!

BrightBooks · #9 (**permalink**) 03-07-2010

I use HootSuite to post all my social media in one place (Twitter, Linked In, Facebook). You can also schedule tweets/posts so that you still have a web presence even when you are handing 25 other things during the week.

Caliber Virtual Services · #10 (**permalink**) 03-07-2010

I agree. I see nothing wrong with scheduling tweets for quotes, inspirational thoughts, business tidbits. But sure come in, interact with other twitterers, re-tweet, and personalized as well. It all works!

TargetStars · #11 (**permalink**) 03-07-2010

I do not see anything wrong with scheduling tweets as long as it is done in moderation. Honestly, I love scheduling the information that I would like to share because then I can spend more time engaging with others while online. The less time I have to spend searching for information allows me the opportunity to have more time to interact with people.