Are you active on Twitter? Are you always online or on Twitter when you should tweet? No? Then scheduling at least some of your tweets is the answer. Twitter scheduling can solve many of your Twitter marketing problems and take your results to the next level.
But there are some things you should know about Twitter scheduling before you jump right into the next best tool and set up endless numbers of tweets and let your Twitter run on autopilot.
You can automate almost all your Twitter marketing. But just because you can do it does not mean it will give you the best results.
What is Twitter scheduling?
Scheduling a social media post means you create posts at one time and use a scheduling tool or the scheduling feature that some social platforms like Pinterest and Twitter offer to publish the post at a later time. This allows you to create multiple posts at one time but spread out the actual posting over a longer time.
There are various social media scheduling tools for all the major social media platforms. Many tools can even be used for all of them.
The scheduling tools vary in their features and the offered ways to schedule.
In addition to this simple scheduling method, some scheduling tools for Twitter allow you to batch upload tweets, use recurring queues, or re-schedule tweets you already sent.
For Twitter, most scheduling tools can schedule text tweets, tweets with images, and multi-image tweets. Some tools can also schedule videos and some tools are able to schedule Twitter threads. Before you choose a Twitter scheduling tool, make sure it can schedule all the types of posts you want to use.
Why should you schedule tweets?
Manual activity on social media platforms seems to be the most intuitive way of posting and showing up in person is the way to go to build community. So why should you still consider scheduling your tweets? There are several good reasons for Twitter scheduling:
#1 Consistency
Most of us can not be active on Twitter all day long. Our routine and other tasks often result in a couple of minutes for Twitter activity several times a day. That often means we send a couple of tweets in bulk once or twice a day. The time we then send these tweets is due to the time we are active on Twitter and can vary from day to day. Some days you will simply not find the time to tweet at all and then your Twitter account is silent.
This is not ideal. You want to send your tweets at the best times when your audience is online and you want to spread them out over the day – no matter how your daily schedule looks.
Twitter post scheduling helps you to send the tweets at exactly the time when they should go out. With tweet scheduling, you can avoid inconsistencies in your tweet schedule.
#2 Independence of time-zones
I am based in Germany. My audience is worldwide, most of them in the US. That means my daylight time and working hours are not necessarily when my audience is online and active on Twitter.
Scheduling my Twitter posts allows me to still reach my Twitter audience with my tweets – even if I am sleeping. See below for an overview when my audience is active on Twitter.
#4 More productivity, better time management
Setting up each tweet may only cost you a couple of minutes. But if you have to make a couple of minutes several times per day, this is going to eat a lot more of your time than just the time for tweet creation.
Sorting your thoughts and opening graphics tools and uploading everything to Twitter several times per day can add up to an overwhelming task.
Through scheduling your Twitter posts you can create your tweets in bulk, but send them at different times. You can create tweets days, weeks, or even months in advance. By focusing on one task at a time you can tremendously improve your productivity (Image Source: SocialPilot).
#3 More time for engagement
Being more productive with your tweet creation will give you back more time that you can then use for engagement. Instead of creating tweets several times per day, just hop on Twitter and join some relevant conversations.
When you schedule tweets: which times should you set?
The day has 24 hours or 1440 minutes. That are many time slots to choose from for your tweets.
Does the success of your tweets depend on the times you send them? It sure does!
Just think about this:
The halflife of a tweet is 23 min. in 2022. What if you send your tweet when your target audience is sleeping, at school or in a business meeting and cannot read your tweet? The chances are low that they will find your tweet hours later when they have time to check their Twitter.
So, what can you do to find the best times to tweet?
Start with your target audience. Who are they, where are they located, how do they spend their day and what do you think is the best time to reach them?
Now, use a tool to check when your followers are active on Twitter. From the list below, for instance, Circleboom Twitter can do this. They will provide you with a graphic that shows you when your followers are online.
In the example of the best times to tweet from my Twitter account, you can also see, why I have to rely on scheduling for my Twitter marketing. My audience is mainly not online when I have my work hours. And while I can choose when I want to work, this means that during at least some of the best times to tweet for my Twitter account, I am asleep…
You can also see that often, the simple schedule: tweet every x hours will not yield the best results for all of your tweets. Instead, you should rather send more tweets when your audience is on Twitter and you can stop tweeting when they are not active anyway.
How to schedule tweets on Twitter: The Twitter scheduling feature
The easiest and cheapest way to schedule tweets is the scheduling feature on Twitter.
Simply start creating a tweet. Once you are finished creating your tweet, click on the little scheduling symbol below your tweet.
A popup opens. Here you can set a date and time for your tweet.
This is also where you can find a list of your scheduled tweets.
The Twitter scheduling feature does not work (exist) for mobile. If you want to schedule tweets on Twitter with this feature, you have to do it in a web browser.
Why you should consider a Twitter scheduling tool
One reason for using a scheduling tool could be that Twitter’s scheduling feature does not work on mobile. But there are more arguments for a scheduling tool:
- The Twitter scheduling feature cannot schedule Twitter threads.
- Re-using tweets you have scheduled and tweeted in the past is not an option in Twitter’s scheduling feature.
- Without a tool, you have to manually create each tweet on Twitter.
- Tools offer more scheduling options like recurring queues and storing your tweets in a library
Different ways to schedule tweets for Twitter
The tools in the list below can all schedule tweets. But the way they schedule varies between the tools. There are mainly the following basic scheduling tactics the tools offer:
- Manual creation and scheduling of one tweet at a time: This is similar to the Twitter’s scheduling feature. You manually create each tweet but instead of sending it manually, you put it in the calendar of the scheduling tool so that it will tweet later.
- Library of tweets: You can create many tweets and store them in a library of tweets. You can now fill your tweet calendar from the library. This comes with the option of using tweets several times.
- Recurring queues: You store your tweets in queues. The tool will send the tweets from a queue one at a time to Twitter. Once all tweets from the queue are used, it all starts from the beginning of the queue again.
Some tools also offer you the option to sort your tweets into categories that you can treat differently. This way you can keep track of all your tweets in a larger library of tweets.
A short list of Twitter schedulers and their pros and cons
I have to admit that I have not tested every one of the following tools. Some of the tools I have used for scheduling tweets, I used years ago. Their features and Twitter’s best practices have changed since then.
But there should be a Twitter scheduling tool for every purpose, every business, and every situation in this list.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links in the list below are affiliate links. That means I may earn a small commission if you use these links to sign up for one of the tools. This comes at no extra cost to you.)
Of course, Agorapulse is not “just” a scheduling tool but a full-blown social media management platform. In addition to the scheduling options, you also get reporting and monitoring options.
Agorapulse is also not limited to Twitter, you can use it for all major social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
Agorapulse allows you not only to create tweets and schedule them. You can also store your visuals or complete tweets for later use.
Agorapulse has a queue option. You can add your tweets to this queue and specify how often this tweet should be sent or give a date until this tweet should be used.
SproutSocial is another social media dashboard that can handle most major social networks (except for TikTok).
In addition to publishing and scheduling, SproutSocial offers features around engagement, social listening, analytics, and more.
For scheduling/publishing social media posts, SproutSocial allows you to organize posts across profiles, networks, and campaigns. If you are looking for a simple solution to schedule some tweets, SproutSocial may be a bit over the top. But if you are juggling multiple social media accounts and have trouble keeping track of what, where, and when, then SproutSocial could be an option.
Hootsuite is another full-blown social media management tool that you can use for all your major social networks like Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Similar to other social media management tools, Hootsuite comes with a lot more features than publishing and scheduling. You can manage incoming messages as well as monitor your activity and analyze your results across multiple platforms.
You can create posts directly in Hootsuite, and keep track of your scheduled posts in a calendar.
SocialBee is one more social media management tool for major social networks.
You can create posts directly on the platform, schedule them and publish them. SocialBee also provides analytics for your published tweets.
To help you to get more out of your efforts, SocialBee offers you some creative ways to expand the use of your tweets:
Through retweeting, you can increase the lifetime of your most important tweets.
You can sort your updates into categories, making it easier to handle the existing updates according to their purpose.
SocialBee also allows you to post one tweet multiple times and helps to handle Twitter’s anti-spam rules through changes to the tweet text.
Sendible is another tool that comes with the main features of listening, publishing, collaboration, and analytics for the major social networks.
Sendible allows you to use queues for your evergreen content to help you fill your tweet schedule.
Sendible comes with a Canva integration to help you design your tweet images.
Buffer was the first ever scheduling tool I used for Twitter. I used it mainly to schedule 10 tweets in advance every morning to keep my Twitter account active while I was working on content creation. This simple form of scheduling can now easily be done with Twitter’s own scheduling feature.
Today, Buffer can do a lot more. It can handle the major social networks and you can collaborate with your team on your social media updates.
Buffer helps you find the best times to tweet. You can repurpose your best tweets or re-share posts from other social platforms to Twitter.
Buffer comes with extensive analytics to help you figure out what works on your Twitter account.
I discovered Circleboom because I was looking for a tool to schedule Twitter threads – if you want to know why Twitter threads are so important read this article! But Circlebom can do more. You can use it to schedule posts for the major social networks and the analytics provide you with valuable information.
The best times to tweet screenshot above is taken from the Circleboom Twitter tool.
SocialOomph has been my goto-tool for recurring queues for Twitter. I am still not overly fond of their user interface, but the queue feature has always been a great help to keep Twitter sending traffic to my evergreen blog posts.
For recurring queues, SocialOomph is a simple and efficient solution at a very reasonable price!
You can use MeetEdgar to schedule posts for major platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
You can schedule tweets and track their performance. In addition, you can let MeetEdgar choose the schedule according to when are the best times to tweet.
Edgar keeps your tweets in a library so that you never lose a tweet. You can organize your tweets into categories. MeetEdgar can publish an endless stream of tweets by pulling updates from your library.
MeetEdgar can also help you to create up to 5 versions of the same tweet. This way you can tweet the same content in different versions again and again.
A warning about Twitter scheduling
Yes, I am aware that you can automate a lot of Twitter marketing. Just keep in mind that success with social media marketing largely builds on being social. And there is not much social and community building about a Twitter account that is running on autopilot.
Things have evolved with Twitter marketing. 10 years ago, we could get away with an almost fully automated Twitter account. It was still driving huge amounts of traffic to our website.
Today, people want more value and interaction on Twitter. The most successful Twitter account is not the one with the most followers or the one that sends the most tweets with the help of a scheduling tool.
The most successful Twitter account in today’s social media marketing world is the account that manages to build a community and engages with its followers!
Keep that in mind – and then happy scheduling!
2 Comments
Great benefits from Scheduling Twitter Posts. Thanks you
Thank you!
Yes, I have used scheduling for my Twitter for years now. And while I change my schedule from time to time, scheduling has always saved me a huge amount of time.
Best,
Susanna