Scheduling on social media

I think I’ve ranted before that scheduling should only be used on social media in  exceptional circumstances. Even then, it’s a good idea to warn people. If you’re going to the moon for a few  days (although they probably have wifi there, they do in the International Space Station) warn your readers.

Say “I’ll be away for a few days – I’ve scheduled some old posts while I’m gone”. Then if things DO go wrong, your followers will know why. I followed one person on Twitter who regularly scheduled tweets. She tweeted (by scheduling) “My new book will be published in May”. Having forgotten all about it, she tweeted (live) “My new book will be published in July” just a few minutes later. It was comical. No harm done really, except she looked foolish.

If you’re going to schedule without warning your viewers, just make sure that you won’t be tripped up. If you’re scheduling on Twitter or Facebook something like “A few photographs from our recent event” shouldn’t get you into any sort of trouble.

It’s not just the little guys who make mistakes either. Yesterday there was a concert due to take place in the evening.  There was a tragic stage collapse however and the event was cancelled. CBC News tweeted about the accident.

The promoters of the event also tweeted that the concert was cancelled. Unfortunately, they had forgotten a scheduled tweet that went out less than half an hour later.

Or, if they hadn’t forgotten, someone must have thought “Oh, it’s only Twitter. No-one will notice”. Oh really?

Yes, the tweet was deleted almost an hour later but it had been retweeted by that time – and you can’t delete your messages that others have retweeted. Plus, there are also some sad people (guilty!) who take screenshots. Then they write blogs about it…

I wonder what their excuse was? That their social media person had gone for the day? Social media people are never gone for the day. A social media person is always on duty unless they are in the shower, swimming, having surgery, scuba diving, parachuting, far underground in a cave, asleep or giving birth. Actually, scratch the last one. I’ve known tweets from women in the later stages of labor…