I don't discuss Twitter very much, but I'm an avid user and have definitely experienced the benefits of having a Twitter account for my brand.
If you're on Twitter, you'll definitely want to pay attention to this killer app combo that was brought to my attention by my good friend Cliff Ravenscraft of PodcastAnswerMan.com.
He showed this to me the other day and it blew me away, and I'm happy to pass it on to you.
I'll walk you through this 2-step (FREE) process to make it easy for you.
Step 1: Get a Report From Tweriod.com
Tweriod, which sounds like it would be an application that warns us men about our lady's “that time of the month” via Twitter (which would actually be pretty useful), is actually a free application you can use to determine when most of your Twitter followers are active so you know the best times to send out your tweets.
Tweets come and go fast, so understanding when your followers are active on Twitter gives you the best chance of having your tweets read and any links in those tweets clicked on.
Visit Tweriod.com, sign in and after a few minutes (depending on the size of your following) you'll get a self-DM (a direct message sent from you, to you) with a link to your detailed report.
Here's part of the report that was generated for me:
From this information, I can deduce that the best times (for me) to Tweet are around 9am and 12pm. Conversely, I might not get as much oomph from tweets sent early in the morning, and after 2pm.
By the way, this could also be a good indicator of when blog posts should be published too.
Now that we know the best times to send our Tweets,
wouldn't it be nice if there was a tool we could use to send Tweets at these times?
Step 2: BufferApp.com
BufferApp is one of the slickest Twitter apps I've seen in a while. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, Cliff Ravenscraft receives compensation if you purchase through this link.]
It allows me to first schedule when I would like tweets to be sent out during the day:
Then, it allows me to put tweets into a queue that will collect tweets and only publish them during the times that I previously set. I can add to, edit or reorder what's in my buffer at any time. This is what my buffer looks like right now:
Here is their official description of the service:
“Buffer makes your life easier with a smarter way to schedule tweets. Work out all your tweets at one point in time during the day. Then fill up your Buffer with your tweets and Buffer schedules them for you. Simply keep that Buffer topped up and you will then be tweeting consistently all day round, all week long.”
I've only been using BufferApp for a few days, and I love it! [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, Cliff Ravenscraft receives compensation if you purchase through this link.]
You can add tweets into your queue and top it off directly from the Buffer website itself, or you can use an extension for your browser (Chrome, Firefox or Safari) to open up a lightbox from any website, with a tweet that you can tweet immediately or put into your buffer queue, like this:
You can even go into the Twitter website and see a “buffer button” on tweets, which you can use to retweet tweets that you like and put those into your buffer too for later:
You start off with 10 free slots in your buffer and can add more buy paying a small fee, or referring people through your referral link.
If you're interested in BufferApp, please go through the links here in this blog post. (Here is it again) It's not my referral link – it's Cliff's, who showed me this cool app so I wanted to make sure he gets credit for sharing this with all of us. He doesn't know I'm doing this, so hopefully he'll be surprised to see a ton of new extra spots show up in his buffer. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, Cliff Ravenscraft receives compensation if you purchase through this link.]
😉
So What's the Point of All This?
Cool apps – sure, but how do they help?
This is a good question to bring up because we can easily get distracted by new things like this. That said, this combo has actually helped me in several ways:
- I can make sure I keep my audience engaged while I'm not actively on Twitter sending messages or retweeting things.
- I can make sure I don't miss the chance to engage my audience at those peak times of the day.
- I don't have to divide time on Twitter randomly throughout the day which can interrupt work flow on more important projects. I can schedule tweets ahead of time, which is perfect.
- I don't accidentally flood my followers with messages all at the same time.
I hope you enjoy this!
And if you haven't followed me on Twitter yet, come by and say hi! Cheers!
What other twitter apps do you use?