How to: Stop flooding your twitter followers timeline
by Leo Widrich on Mar 29, 2011 • 12:29 pm 14 CommentsFor all the love I have for Twitter, it was a tough struggle to find out how this amazing service will give me both joy, but doesn’t consume all my day’s time. Playing around with it and testing many tools, has finally helped me to come to a sustainable and healthy usage of this service. If you have ever had a similar issue, please read on now.
Doesn’t work: Putting my Twitter account on a blast
There were several approaches I tried. One was tweeting blog posts automatically as they were posted by bloggers or as I discovered them. This put my twitter account on “blast mode”, overwhelming my followers with way more information than they could bear.
Doesn’t work: Spending hours and hours on Twitter
Another one was spending hours and hours on Twitter posting the great posts I read, manually. So they are well spread out over the day. Not quite the right thing either as you can imagine.
Does Work: Buffering my tweets out
For several weeks I have now started using a new Tool called Buffer which finally allows me to breathe a little easier. You simply throw a few tweets in your Buffer and the App in return schedules these tweets for you throughout the day. That’s it. This allows you to tweet more frequently, however at well spaced out times during the day so your followers can catch up one tweet at a time.
The power of the Twitter Buffer
The full power of Buffer comes into play when you start using what I like to call it’s “Killer” feature. It is that in addition to the web App, it also comes with a browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). This means you can add tweets to your Buffer from ANY page you are on.
Give it one click on the Buffer icon and this is what happens:
Timing of your Tweets
By default your Buffered Tweets will be sent out at Twitter Peak times. Of course you can go back to your home account at bufferapp.com and change these times to your needs.
Analytics for your Tweets
Another feature that comes in very handy is that once your tweets are sent via Buffer, you can go back and see how well they did. How many Clicks, Retweets and Reach have your tweets achieved? Buffer will tell you:
Conclusion
Using Buffer has made my life a whole lot easier. I can add all these great posts in at one point, jump in for the interaction and engagement and won’t be spamming my followers timeline. It is definitely something worth checking out. Of course it won’t be possible to use it instead of your favourite Twitter client, but it certainly enhances your experience. What is your take on Buffer? Let me know below, would love to connect with you.
14 comments
Casting Los Angeles says:
Mar 29, 2011
I love using Twitter to connect with people in my same area, and people that I wouldn’t have normally been able to talk to. But like you, I find myself spending hours on it. The thing I am afraid if is by using a buffer or service, that I would not seem as personal. Have you had a problem with this?
Leo Widrich says:
Mar 30, 2011
HI there,
Really glad to hear you are in a similar situation here. It’s very easy to then overspend one’s time on Twitter, isn’t it?
Ah, I can totally understand your concerns. I believe this is not really a problem with Buffer as you are always writing the tweets yourself still. The timing is automated, that’s for sure, so I like to see it this way:
Buffer helps me to create the action and frees me up to focus on the interaction and engagement.
The personal element isn’t lost, but just shifts to you engaging with your followers.
Hope that makes sense, many thanks for stopping by :).
Gabriele Maidecchi says:
Mar 30, 2011
It’s kinda funny as I started using Buffer just last week, and converted it to a paid plan the other day. I’ve been keeping in contact wit Joel and I can assure you he has pretty awesome plans for the future of the platform, so I am curious to see how it will evolve and if it will reach a critical mass of adopters to become a stable presence in the social media universe.
Very happy experience with it so far.
Leo Widrich says:
Mar 30, 2011
Hi Gabriele,
Really glad you have an enjoyable experience so far, just what we want really :).
Sure, this is our goal, to become an important player for Social Media. There is still a long road ahead, but with you and so many other people supporting us, I am sure we will get there 🙂
Gabriele Maidecchi says:
Mar 31, 2011
Meep, sorry, I meant you not Joel, sometimes my brain goes fried :p
Dana says:
Mar 30, 2011
Hem.. it seem buffer can be a big help to manage my twitter venture. I will take a look on it.
Leo Widrich says:
Mar 30, 2011
Hi Dana, Yep, definitely give it a go. Just like you said it will really help to make your Twitter venture a little easier, hope you enjoy using it :).
Purple'S Theory says:
Mar 30, 2011
very good stuff about Twitter, I agree with you about automatic tweets, I believe it is overload and I certainly don’t want to over do it with the readers. Keeping them interested is hard enough with information overload beside I like having the control over auto. thanks.
Leo Widrich says:
Mar 30, 2011
Hi there, yep totally agree.
If we have all our twitter accounts on automation, it won’t benefit anyone.
I feel Buffer is quite different fortunately. You simply add tweets and they are posted for you throughout the day. So it is still you tweeting the tweets, the whole process is just optimized – not automated I feel.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
janwong says:
Apr 6, 2011
Buffer looks like an awesome tool! Total automation puts people off and scheduling can be a pain at times. Been using su.pr for awhile now and their time zone conversion is quite a pain. Gonna give buffer a try for some weeks and see how it goes.
Leo Widrich says:
Apr 7, 2011
Hi Jan, thanks for your comment.
Ah right, yeah, the time zones problem is really quite a pain. Fortunately Buffer detects the time zone you are living in and makes it work for you automatically :).
Yes, indeed full automation tools can be quite a pain, however just like you say with Buffer you merely optimise and remain in the “drivers seat” of your Twitter account. 🙂
janwong says:
Apr 7, 2011
That’s what I like so far about Buffer! It solves my problem with the time zone conversion and the control remains with the ‘driver’ 🙂 Semi-automatic is the word I guess 🙂
Patricia@lavenderuses says:
Apr 6, 2011
Hi Leo
Good to see you over on Daniel’s blog. Buffer is getting a rap from lots of my blogging buddies so I’ll have to see how it goes for me. Once I get a minute. I don’t like automation but this seems different so worth a try.
Patricia Perth Australia
Leo Widrich says:
Apr 7, 2011
Particia, so good to see you here.
Oh, yes you are absolutely right, we had the fortunate situation of getting lots of blogposts written about us, it’s a real delight.
Yes, I think Buffer is quite different to other tools as you stay in control of everything, the only thing happening is that your tweets are delayed for a few hours, that’s it :).
Thanks for stopping by, hope to speak some more soon! 🙂