Efficient Tweeting is something that took me very long to figure out. I tested many approaches. They ranged from “pure” tweeting where every tweet was spontaneous and I had to spend lots of hours on Twitter.
Or to the other extreme, a very automated form of tweeting where I would connect certain services to my Twitter account, which would then tweet for me, without me even knowing what the content was. Maybe you too have experienced this and for me, neither of these approaches was quite satisfactory.
Twitter’s element of “instantaneousness” simply drove me away from full automation. On the other hand, I couldn’t spent hours and hours on Twitter either.
For a period of time I have now used a new tool, which fits perfectly in between the two extremes. It allows me to both remain genuine, yet become super efficient and time-saving when tweeting.
It is called Buffer and allows for hassle free scheduling of genuine tweets.
What is Buffer? The functionality of Buffer is super simple. You put a few tweets in your Buffer and the App schedules these tweets for you throughout the day.
How can I use it with Google Reader? Buffer also comes with various browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. These extensions allow you to add tweets to your Buffer form any page you are currently reading.
And on top of that, it works inside your Google Reader too. So whenever you have an article open inside your GR, you give it one click on the Buffer icon and this is what happens with Lisa’s post:
When are these Tweets posted? By default Buffer tweets for you at Twitter Peak times every day. Of course you can always go back to your Twitter account and adjust these times, by adding more timeslots or decreasing them to your needs.
What is different about Buffer? The biggest difference for me is that I don’t put my Twitter account on a blast overwhelming my followers with too many tweets at once.
With Buffer I create very filtered news, which I have read beforehand and approved of. I also learnt this to be far more appreciated by my followers.
How well did your tweets do? Conveniently, Buffer also gives you stats about how well your Buffered tweets have performed and you can access these stats with one click on “Analytics” inside of the App. You will receive information about the amount of Clicks, Retweets and Reach of your tweets, here is also a set of recent stats from my account:
Wrap Up
Efficient Tweeting which is both consistent and appreciated by my followers is one of my highest goals on Twitter. Alongside my favorite Twitter client, which happens to be Tweetdeck, Buffer comes in very handy.
It allows me to add all those great findings of blogposts into my Buffer, without flooding my followers. Of course there are many ways to achieve efficiency on Twitter, this new one happens to work particularly well for me.
What about you? Have you had similar experiences with your approaches to Twitter? Which are the tools that help you most? Please let me know below :).
With the current lawsuit where twitter are suing companies for automating follows etc do you still think this sort of thing is safe?
It is so good to see you have encountered some similar problems like I have and feel that Buffer can now help you solve them. i have not pursued twitter as actively as i should and plan on doing so in the near future. Hopefully, I won’t jump out of your fridge though .
There is a Twitter application that is absolutely essential for bloggers who want to increase the web traffic of their blog: TwitThis. To share the link to the post you are reading directly from your Twitter profile. Have you tried it?
Just got signed up for buffer, but for me the question is will it get me followers that are interested in what I do? Maybe posting at twitters “peek times” will help.
I use automated tools for my twitter account also, but some are paid (monthly subscriptions). Is Buffer free? And do they offer automated random direct messages?
Hi Gustavo,
Thanks for your comment. Yes Buffer is free for one account.
If you want multiple accounts, there is a 5$/mo plan and a 30$/mo plan available.
AS for automated random messages, no Buffer currently doesn’t support such a service.
Hope that helped you out. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Twitter is good way increase traffic.
Your tips help me out.
Hi Suraj,
Really glad it helped you out! 🙂
it seems buffer is a very useful tool.I have used my twitter clients,but this is best of them all
Nipon,
thanks for your comment, glad you find Buffer useful.
In terms of Twitter clients Buffer really goes along very well with one of the big clients such as Tweetdeck (in my case) or hootsuite. On its own it is quite tricky I found.
In this 24/7 digital world, automation makes total sense! I sneakretly have automated my blog, twitter and facebook feeds… LinkedIn will be next 😉
Hi Dave, thanks a for your comment.
I couldn’t agree more with what you are saying. Automation in order to be efficient is truly crucial. I also think that it is sometimes quite easy for me to overdo automation and getting the balance right for engagement and automation is key I found.
How about you, have you had a similar experience?
Ti, Wow, what a great comment, thanks a lot for taking the time to wording out your thoughts for me.
It is so good to see you have encountered some similar problems like I have and feel that Buffer can now help you solve them. It is exactly how I felt and Buffer made a big difference.
Exactly, especially now that you are in the making of your new website it is key to be very careful and work super efficiently. Simply throwing some tweets in your Buffer every now and then should really guarantee for you to achieve that!
Thanks again for stopping by,
Best
Leo
Wow Leo,
This is a great post.
Yesterday I was reviewing all the social marketing methods I was using:
Facebook
Youtube
Twitter
I was sitting starting at my twitter account thinking…
“How can improve my effectiveness on twitter while building my following?”
Although I have a twitter account, I hardly use it because, as you mentioned, it’s EXTREMELY time consuming.
Like you, I have tried MANY different automated software to help with keeping my status updated, but they were not as effective as I’d hoped.
I’d also tried allotting blocks of time to just “tweeting” and socializing on twitter, which didn’t yield any results either. I always felt like I was wasting time doing this when there were so many other things I could be doing.
I just started a new website and don’t have much traffic yet, or pages built for that matter. However I am diligently working on it’s development.
Buffer seems to be a good tool that will allow me to continue to work on developing my site, while furthering my twitter efforts.
Thanks very much for this post and sharing.
Regards,
Ti Roberts
Leo, I am scared I will see you jumping out of my fridge one day. Where ever I go, there you are. And I have to say that it still amazes me how can you write so many fresh posts on Buffer.
If I agree with you here I will be repeating myself for the 50th time, so I will just say that I am glad I see you on Lisa’s blog 🙂
Brankica! So good to see you here :).
Haha, yes, I am trying my best to be as present as I can on the web and making posts fresh and clear is what I thrive for :). I can always improve I think!
Hopefully, I won’t jump out of your fridge though ;). Ok, thanks a lot for your kind words, I hope to speak to you some more soon!
this tool seems quite promising. i especially like the analytics feature that allows measurement of effectiveness. i have not pursued twitter as actively as i should and plan on doing so in the near future. currently, the tool that has helped me most is the sync between facebook, twitter and my blog. this ensures each time i publish a post, my FB and TW following is also updated. it has its limitations, but works for now
Hi Sunil,
Thanks for your comment. Really good to hear that you think the Analytics feature can be helpful for you.
Yes, I know exactly what you are talking about, I found it quite hard to get into the full spin on Twitter myself, yet eventually I managed and I am having more fun than ever! 🙂
Oh right, yep your tool seem to be quite handy, there was one I used once for similar purposes but I kind of stopped using it becaus the nature of FB updates is quite different to my Tweets, maybe that’s just me.
Thanks for stopping by again Sunil 🙂
Over the years many different Twitter apps have came to the market, but it seems like there is always one that stands out from the rest..hope this be the next one..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Wow, that is so great to hear, many thanks for your kind words :).
Indeed there exists a ton of different Twitter Apps and I hope Buffer can be one of those that really stands out.
Hope you give it a spin for yourself too, would love to hear what you think about it 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
@Richard –
Twitters lawsuit turned out to be mostly a nonevent. It made big news but then it fizzled out and dozens of programs have filled in the spot of the few that were affected. Basically, I wouldn’t worry about automating twitter because apparently Twitter doesn’t really care all that much.
It was just a big “Look at us stopping spam” moment. A lot of companies are having those with Google’s updates and other little fits.