This is a guest post by Michelle Mangen.

HootSuite is one of the many great third-party applications you can use to schedule tweets for future dates and times. It also allows you to connect multiple Twitter accounts, including co-workers and agencies who want to give you access to their accounts.

Perfecting Scheduled Tweets

One of the first times I scheduled Tweets in HootSuite I utilized their “drafts” feature and had originally intended that in the following weeks I would only have to change the bit.ly link as well as the specific info for that particular week. Brilliant plan, right?

About 30 minutes into Week Two of scheduling tweets I found multiple flaws in my previously “brilliant plan.” The pre-saved drafts didn’t go as well as I had intended due to the fact that HootSuite saves drafts alphabetically – which isn’t the most efficient when you have updates you want to send to Twitter on a specific day and time.  Additionally if you have drafts for multiple accounts it is not easy to determine which tweets are for which account. It quickly became apparent to me that a Plan B had to be devised when I realized that I would have probably been just as fast by typing entirely new updates from scratch vs. using the drafts.

Plan B: Scheduled Tweets in 10 minutes

A better option than using the drafts feature is to type the tweets into a Word document. Now I can schedule a total of 14 tweets (7 for two different accounts) in 10 minutes by utilizing the following tactics to publicize two different podcasts:

• Change specific info for the upcoming week’s tweets (guest names, episodes, etc.)
• Create a new bit.ly link and then using the Find & Replace option I can update all instances of the previous week’s bit.ly link to the upcoming week’s bit.ly link in a mere matter of seconds.
• Copy and paste the tweets into HootSuite; Select the desired date and time; Select appropriate Twitter accounts; Save and Done!

By simply adjusting the method in which the drafts were saved (using a Word document instead of HootSuite’s option) the invested time was reduced from over 30 minutes to just under 10 minutes per week.

My philosophy for both myself and for the clients I serve is that a minute saved is a minute that can be “used” elsewhere so I am continually hyper-vigilant in “tweaking” my procedures and utilizing other programs to achieve the same end result in the least amount of time possible.

What are some of your favorite shortcuts to get more social media done in less time?

Connect with Michelle on Twitter (@MMangen) or at her website Your Virtual Assistant.

About The Author

Greg Friese has authored 47 articles for PIOSocialMediaTraining.com

Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is an author, podcaster, blogger, and advocate for emergency response agencies to use social media before, during, and after any incident. Greg is the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions, LLC. He is also the co-host of the EMSEduCast podcast and is a paramedic for a 911 agency in northeast Wisconsin

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