Confession: I Schedule My Tweets

People ussually us who scheduled tweets are spammer :( it requires a lot of efforts to do it. ~hugs~ thx for the post :)

I didn't know this was a controversial topic. As a teacher, I think it's a great idea to schedule tweets. If I spent my entire day replying to twitter feeds, when would I do my job!

Great post! I also agree ;-)

I have a confession... I automate some of my tweets.

But I believe in smart automation only. The only tweets I automate are from those thought-leaders that I know publish high quality content on a regular basis.

Am I pushing their work sight unseen? Yes.

Does it matter? Not really. Because I trust them enough to not put out crap posts. I've thought about scheduling some of my tweets too, I just haven't found the way that will work best for me yet. But I like the way you do it here.

These are 5 very good reasons to schedule tweets and I couldn't agree more. I also schedule tweets for all the reasons listed above and more. I also have "in-person" conversations on Twitter so Im not an automaton...there is a real person even behind those scheduled tweets.

Thats was a very cogent explanation Aaron, you made some excellent points :-)

I couldn't stop myself commenting here Aaron :D After reading your view point, I very much agree - if one wants spread his/her influential tweets or brand, it's important to schedule the tweets. You rock and this post too!!!! :)

For some reason, I feel bad about doing it. I do it because I try to spread information to multiple timezones and have friends, family and potential clients all over the world. I'm an American living in Asia, and previous to this job, I was working in Africa. I've lived in the South Pacific, Australia and both coasts of the US ...

So I feel legitimate in that my peoples are spread out — yet still, I feel guilty or that I'm abusing Twitter for some reason. Maybe because I have such a huge respect for the medium, and have such a low threshold for TweetBots. But — its great to see you put this all out there.

If we talk about it, it becomes less shady (even if its not actually shady at all). Thanks for great post.

Great commentary aaron. I too use some tools to schedule tweets. I like to drip a tweet every hour or so just so people have something to talk about. Many people who are doing it poo poo it at the same time. Rock on buddy!

Great post, Aaron! I have honestly considered setting up clocks on my wall set to the different time zones like they used to do in the 70s on the US national news broadcasts to remind me what time it is for my friends around the world. Your honesty is appreciated. It also helps explain logically why a reply may be delayed. :-)

Perfectly acceptable to me. I actually post tweets overnight to target Europe. I can't stop running my startup just to tweet for our European friends :)

I used to schedule my tweets and actually want to get back into the habit: there's no big reason why I stopped-just disorganisation! My reasons for scheduling are also to do with time-zones and not wanting to clog up followers' streams. Great post Aaron, you've motivated me to start scheduling again!

I agree. Scheduling tweets is very different from automating. It's content that you've chosen, not a bot selecting based on words. I'm always telling people who post 50+ posts in a row that I'd rather see their info spread out over time, otherwise I ignore ALL of them!

Scheduled or not you tweet great stuff and even after the confession we all still love you... :-)
Great post I love it.
Ps: You confessed months ago... :-p

Hi Aaron! I wrote a post around a year ago on the same thing. It was tough for followers when I used to turn out 50-100 tweets per hour. Scheduling some of them makes it easier on them and better time management wise for me. The one thing I do have to say: I never have nor would I have tweets go out if I wasn't actually at my computer. I'm always around if I have tweets go out. But that is me.

A totally honest post! Love it!

I am with you all the way Aaron. Everyone of us have only 24 hours in a day and managing our time well while connecting in a personal way is a great skill to have.

Confession: Me too!

But you already know that :) Still, thanks again for the tip.

Points agreed!

I love your candidness and honesty on this controversial issue! You're soooo right about the time zone differences ha ha! And you're so on target about connecting to people across the world and the ability to spread your tweets out via automated tweets. For me, the key is to balance it with periodic and meaningful engagement. A truly must-read post! ;D

I agree with all your points here =) I occasionally schedule my tweets primarily bec of time and because if i tweeted everything that I want to Tweet then I would most probably fill up the stream of the people who follow me. You rock!! :)

Thanks so much for sharing one of your secrets of tweeting success!

From afar, it looked like you simply never slept :) This sounds like a great strategy for being able to achieve a more even type of spread of tweets than would be achievable otherwise.

Good post Aaron. Perfect timing too. I'd like to schedule a few tweets as well for the 'time zone' reasons you mention above. Many of my fave people are up and spreading the good times while I'm fast asleep. I decided today it'd be a great way to be awake without losing sleep. And of course when I wake I can say a more personal hello if they've @'d my brains out while my eyes were closed. Plus the meeting new peeps in various time zones is also attractive.

I love love love this post! Thank you for writing about this controversial topic. I agree with you 100% !!! :)