Scheduling Tweets or Tweet Scheduler
Did you know that there's such a thing as a tweet scheduler? Apparently, you can pre-schedule your tweets so that, even if you're busy or even if you don't have access to your Twitter account at the moment, you can still tweet. Your scheduled tweets will automatically be sent or tweeted depending on the date and time you specify. Super useful and cool, isn't it?The problem is that there are way too many applications that offer this awesome feature. Well, that's a good thing too, so you can have lots of choices, but with so many to choose from, how do you know which one to pick? There are free ones and paid ones and ones that have both a free and paid version. Even the free ones are aplenty, and, aside from trying to pick the best, there's also the matter of security to consider.
For instance, some of the apps I've checked out so far (note: I'm talking about the page you get to where you can authorize an app to access your Twitter account) say that they can:
- Read my tweets
- See who I follow
- Follow people for me
- Update my profile for me
- Post tweets for me - this is the only thing that a tweet scheduler should be allowed to do
Needless to say, after seeing all that, it made me think twice about letting some app access my Twitter account. I mean, the only thing a tweet scheduler app should be doing is posting tweets for me, right? So, how come they can do all those other things as well? What does any of that have to do with pre-scheduling tweets? Does anyone know of an app that lets you schedule tweets for free, but that doesn't try to do things it isn't supposed to do (like updating your profile for you)?
Twitter Ads Tweet Scheduler
I also heard about Twitter ads while I was researching about tweet schedulers. Apparently, Twitter ads has this feature too. I've heard that the tweet scheduler is free (if you only use the organic or regular tweet and not the promoted tweet), but can anyone confirm this for sure because Twitter ads is supposed to be for people who want to promote their tweets (you have to pay money to get your tweets distributed to other Twitter members)?Twitter TweetDeck
I also found out about Twitter TweetDeck, which is apparently part of Twitter now. It's got a tweet scheduler, but it also has other features. Aside from a web app, there's a Chrome app, and you can also download a Windows and Mac version as well. Does anyone know anything more about this? Is it free? Have you tried this?What do you think?
So, what about you? Do you use a tweet scheduler? What free app can you recommend?Edited to add: as mentioned in the comments below, I've decided to go with Buffer. It's free, but they also offer a paid version. Their customer service is excellent. And it's pretty easy to use.
Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:
MsBiz wrote on February 4, 2015, 4:06 PM:
I've heard of some of these programs, but am wary. I thought Twitter was supposed to be about conversations. It seems like it would be easy to fall into "all posts, no responses," but maybe I'm wrong...
FreyaYuki replied to MsBiz on February 7, 2015, 9:55 AM:
I'm wary because of some of the things these programs are asking for or what they can do like being able to follow people for you, etc. I think this can be helpful every once in a while like you can't always be on Twitter all the time, so if you're lacking time or if you're going to be busy, then you can try to pre-schedule your tweets.
JeanC wrote on February 4, 2015, 4:50 PM:
I use Buffer to schedule my tweets. I haven't upgraded to the paid version, so i am limited to 11 buffered tweets at a time. It also posts to my google+ account, I have been very happy with it.
https://bufferapp.com
FreyaYuki replied to JeanC on February 7, 2015, 9:58 AM:
Thanks for the suggestion. I've seen Buffer too. It was actually one of the apps I saw that was asking for all the info I mentioned in my post. I found their Twitter account, so I asked them about this. How is the app then? Is it following people for you or doing things it's not supposed to?
melody23 wrote on February 4, 2015, 6:14 PM:
I use socialoomph and I really like it, another popular one is hootsuite. You can save draft tweets and shorten your links directly in socialoomph and it also has a cool tracking statistics page which takes a bit of tweaking to get right but is a very useful feature (you have to use the correct link shortener, there are two but only one tracks). These apps need these permissions to do all of the other stuff they can do, rather than schedule tweets and although you might never use the other features you need to allow that access to use the app at all if that makes sense.
FreyaYuki replied to melody23 on February 7, 2015, 10:16 AM:
Have not heard of socialoomph. Will look into it. Thanks for the info about it. I heard of hootsuite, but I thought it was a paid version only. Ah, I see. I will look into all this further. I found the Twitter account of Buffer app who also asks for all the things I mentioned and I sent them a quick tweet asking why they need all those things.
BarbRad wrote on February 4, 2015, 7:05 PM:
I used Tweetdeck when I first started on Twitter, but it used so many resources on my computer I stopped using it. I don't think it could schedule tweets back then anyway. I most often use the free version of Hootsuite, since they don't limit how many tweets I can schedule and they allow me to handle all my twitter accounts in one place. I recently added the free version of Buffer to make it easier to have photos open in the feed. Hootsuite's free version won't do that, but Buffer's free version will only work with one account.
So I use Buffer to supplement Hootsuite with my main account. If you use any of these, be sure to get the apps that let you add links from your toolbar. In Hootsuite, it's called the Hootlet. It lets me share a link to several accounts at once and auto schedule them or to share separately to different accounts at any time I choose. If you want to attach a photo, though, you have to do it from within Twitter itself if you want it to open in the feed, or you can use Buffer, but that limits you to just one account.
FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on February 7, 2015, 10:32 AM:
Thanks so much for the detailed info 😃. I will look into Hootsuite. I heard about Buffer, but this was one of the apps asking for too much info. I did find their Twitter account, so have asked them about this. Both these apps seem very useful though.
BarbRad replied to FreyaYuki on February 8, 2015, 1:18 PM:
I have used Hootsuite for years, and whatever they may have asked for, I've never seen any abuses of any permissions I may have given them.
FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on February 8, 2015, 3:39 PM:
Thanks. I've decided to go with Buffer for now. I asked them about the permissions their app wanted and they actually took the time to respond. I appreciate the good customer service.
MelissaE wrote on February 4, 2015, 8:15 PM:
I tweet, but I don't use a scheduler. I get on Twitter about once a day. I don't know that I want to use a scheduler.
FreyaYuki replied to MelissaE on February 7, 2015, 10:36 AM:
I'm also on Twitter about once a day, but there are days when I can't tweet, so I thought about using a scheduler for those days.
bestwriter wrote on February 5, 2015, 12:49 AM:
I have an account but no followers. I have lost interest there.
FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on February 7, 2015, 10:37 AM:
I'm pretty new there so only have a few followers so far. And I'm not always there either. I thought I'd try to be more active there.
MelissaE wrote on February 7, 2015, 11:16 AM:
I've actually made some friendships on Twitter. I try to retweet and reply often.
FreyaYuki replied to MelissaE on February 8, 2015, 3:46 PM:
I try to retweet a lot too. But I find it's not easy to find interesting stuff to retweet since I'm new and only following a few people so far.
allen0187 wrote on February 11, 2015, 10:33 PM:
I use Twitter daily and have heard about these tweet schedulers. I have not used any of these. Anyway, it seems like a good idea to have one or two of some of the apps mentioned in the comments below. I guess I'll check Hootsuite and Buffer.
FreyaYuki replied to allen0187 on February 12, 2015, 10:23 AM:
I suggest going with Buffer. I just joined, and, while I'm having a few issues with it, their customer service is excellent and they're very helpful. Plus, I asked them about all the things you're supposed to authorize their app to do and they gave a satisfactory response about it.
*Notes:
- This was previously published on Persona Paper on February 4, 2015, 3:53 PM
- Twitter pic is by Prylarer (CCO Creative Commons) from Pixabay
