Tweet automation isn’t exactly a feasible approach to managing Twitter activity. The recent hiatus of the Coca-Cola automated tweet generator was a prime example of why you should refrain from queuing or mass tweeting. Especially if you’re a large enough brand such as Coca-Cola.
But, “It’s so much easier to schedule tweets in advance”, you say. Never. Automate. Another. Tweet. Enough said!
5 Reasons Why I won’t Automate Another Tweet
Let’s take the gloves off for a minute here. Like everyone else out there interested in dominating the Twittersphere, I too at one time was guilty of this endeavor (sad, but true). However, Twitter has become significantly more human focused. Not only that but also more saturated and competitive making it difficult to navigate through. I remember when I first signed up back in 2009, there wasn’t as much clutter as today (wish I’d acted on that back then though). So, in order to stand out and be recognized in a noisy world, consider the following drawbacks to automation before scheduling another tweet.
#1 It’s Robotic and Inhuman
While ease of management may be a suitable option, in the grand scheme of things robotic tweets are something to deviate from. In the short-term it may seem like a viable option but in the long-term your audience will clearly be able to pinpoint the automation. There’s a lack of attention to detail in scheduling tweets in advance and eventually it’ll be easily identifiable by your audience. Something you want to steer away from regardless of circumstances.
#2 Plenty of Room for Error
Unexpected errors are bound to occur in the least expected times. For example, HootSuite malfunctions on multiple instances where it causes a failure in scheduled tweets. Other times, images associated with certain tweets will not display properly. Formatting and grammar issues also tend to occur quite often. Just a few reasons I’ve personally encountered in the past.
#3 Lack of Credit to Original Author
This one is probably one of the most common ones I’ve seen on Twitter. How would you feel if someone discredited authorship over one of your articles? Nobody likes to be cheated on or have their content stolen. There’s plenty of people out there though who will discredit the original author of a piece of content for the mere purpose of content curation or even co-branding it as their own. It’s extremely frustrating and I would strongly suggest that you refrain from such initiative.
#4 It’s Obvious (for the most part)
Twitter automation tools such as HootSuite or event TweetDeck have become widely recognized in the marketing industry. So commercialized that even certain dinosaur brands are cognizant of them. The point is, it’s obvious enough. Others such as TweetBot for example are even more obvious. So, for the sake of your brand, don’t be Captain Obvious and put in some manual tweeting work that invokes actual engagement.
#5 Multi-Account Distribution & Critical Mass
What really puzzles me is the fact that anyone would send the same tweet to multiple Twitter accounts. For example, your personal one and a company. This is so ass-backwards oriented, I wouldn’t even know where to begin explaining it. Does your personal Twitter account have the same voice as your brand? Probably not! So, why jeopardize reputation by mass distributing? It’s nonsense so do yourself a favor and don’t schedule a tweet for multiple Twitter accounts.
DISCLAIMER: No kitties were harmed in this notion! No preservatives were used in the creation of this article. No inflation, fluff, or B.S. was intended for the substance of this article.