Here at Intown Web Design we have several websites and clients whose social network marketing we manage. It's not the easiest thing in the world to keep up with Tweets and Posts all day, so we are consistently on the lookout for better ways to manage and automate our marketing.
We found MarketMeSuite when looking for a solution that could automate scheduled tweets. MarketMeSuite will do much more than just schedule Tweets, but we want to cover scheduling because it is what we primarily use them for (check the bottom of the article to read more about MarketMeSuite).
Getting Started Plans
MarketMeSuite will let you use all of their features for free, but you get limited access to these features. With the free plan you get 5 scheduled Tweets, which may be enough for some people. The websites we work with typically require much more than 5 scheduled tweets so we purchased the Pro account which gives you 100 scheduled tweets and upgraded to Unlimited tweets scheduled tweets.
How Scheduling Works
Scheduling Tweets or Posts in advance is one way you can guarantee you reach your audience at the perfect timing. Some marketing campaigns may require a count down to a day, for example. Say you're company wants to reveal a new product on May 31st. Using scheduling you can automate messages to go our May 28th saying, "3 Days Left Until Launch!".
Benefits
Scheduling gives you control and cuts out the need to constantly login and Tweet or Post from your account. For us, this means we can sit down and plan all of our Tweets or Posts for the next month in an hour. This allows us to focus your energy elsewhere knowing you have set yourself up for success.
How To Schedule A Tweet/Post
- Login to MarketMeSuite
- Click 'Scheduling' under 'Inbox' on the left column
- Click 'Schedule Message' on the top menu, just below the refresh button
- A window now appears
- Choose the profile you wish to post to (Twitter Account, Facebook, Facebook Page, or Facebook group)
- Write your Tweet or Post
- Use any of the tools at the bottom of the text area to send direct messages, shorten links, add pictures, or open micros
- Turn the switch to say 'Later' if it's not already there
- Choose a date and time
- Click Schedule
How We Use It
We use the scheduling tool mostly for Tweeting. Sometimes we will plan out dozens of Tweets for the next few months. The messages are usually announcing a new review of a product, an interview with an industry leader or an article like this one.
There is also an 'Import Messages' button which allows you to import dozens of tweets that are already scheduled. This function is very useful when a client sends you a list of Tweets on a spreadsheet. Simply change the dates inside of the spread sheet and upload it as a .csv file.
Pros and Cons of Scheduling
Pros:
- Automates the marketing process
- Cuts down time by scheduling messages in one sitting
- Precise timing for special events or days
- Easier to follow a strict marketing campaign timeline
Cons:
- Conversations may be lost or overlooked
- People may read the Tweets as sounding robotic if not written well
- Message may not be up to date contextually
Bottom Line:
For certain marketing campaigns, scheduling works great. Scheduling works best when it's only part of your overall social marketing strategy. You will still have to keep up with brand interactions with customers and clients.
We find it to be a great tool. Since a lot of our Tweets and posts can be planed out in advance, it saves us a great deal of time. This is partly because we do not spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook, so this allows us to still have a presence without hiring a social media marketer.
Other Features Of MarketMeSuite
Scheduling is what we use most. That's why we wrote this article. However, MarketMeSuite has a ton of other uses and we want to make sure you know about them.
- Manage All Of Your Social Profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin)
- Smart Inbox - An inbox which displays posts using filters based on social networks, profiles/pages, feed types, from (who posted), In The Last ('4 days', for exampled), read/unread, flags, and search terms
- Real Time Search - keeps a feed of posts based on keywords
- Leads - mark select messages as leads
- Flags - flag messages by type using a colored flag
- Other Tools - Follow Back, Find & Follow, Un-Follow, Auto DM's, Analytics, Manage RSS Feeds
Learn more about MarketMeSuite
