Twitter Tip: Random Tweets That Aren’t Random …

What makes for a truly terrific Twitter feed?

There’s no one answer to that question. It really depends on what you’re looking for, what you’re hoping to see and share yourself.

For me, the best feeds share a mixture of great curated content shares, carefully crafted images, responses to industry queries and questions, and smart, savvy – and often snarky, off the cuff thoughts, ideas and musings.

I often post these seemingly random thoughts to my own feed, and they get a pretty good response, most of the time.

Wait a minute? Did I just say “seemingly” random? Yes. Yes, I did!

My random tweets aren’t 100% random!

Don’t get me wrong, I do come up with my snarky sayings and what I deem witty repartee on the fly.

As I’m scrolling through my stream on Twitter or through my Facebook feed, I’m often presented with ideas for off the cuff posts. However, I don’t spend all day trolling for tidbits.

Because I have paying clients and a to-do list that holds a whole lot more than surfing social sites, I limit my feed-fodder scrolling to a couple of times per day. Yet, I’m often presented with dozens of random and relatable snippets during each scroll.

What’s a girl to do?

Schedule Your Random Tweets!

Twitter is absolutely the social media platform upon which I am the most active. I chat, engage in discussion, share, retweet and curate, all with a little blue bird benevolently watching over me.

I leave the native Twitter interface open pretty much all day. From just after my before crack of dawn walk with the dog to right before lights out. Because conversation and interaction can’t be scheduled.

That certainly doesn’t mean I can’t schedule those little golden nuggets I glean from my Facebook feed forays. I can enhance my productivity and create more time for conversation by smartly scheduling the thoughts the pop into my mind.

It’s Not Random If It’s Scheduled!

Au contraire, mon frere!

My random tweets are, INDEED, random. The process by which they pop into my busy little brain is completely random. Whether I jot them down in a notebook or pop them right into my Buffer queue, the means by which the inspiration strikes is not something I can schedule.

I can, though, schedule them for sharing and, hopefully, the creation of some discussion amongst my peers.

Me choosing to hold onto them rather then drop them all in a storm of social suckitude (that’s another name for fire-hosing your feeds … never a smart choice), is simply smart. It doesn’t stop the little gems from being garrulous, genuine and a gift of random inspiration!

If It’s Time Sensitive, You’ve Gotta Schedule It SOONER!

Occasionally one of your random musings is going have an expiration date. Especially if it’s regarding a holiday, specific event and/or specific time of year. Of course you can’t just pop these anywhere into your scheduling app. That’s a no-brainer.

But plenty of our random thoughts are evergreen in nature. They’re ideas and musings that have been lurking in the back of our mind for days, weeks, months. Maybe even years. They just need a trigger. You never know what quick read will ramp up a random thought that MUST be shared.

Must Be Shared Doesn’t Mean Must Be Shared This Minute!

The good stuff is still good whether you share it today, tomorrow or the third Tuesday of the month.

If it’s not time sensitive, schedule it for a time you know you can monitor your mentions and engage in discussion.

Tweet Timely, Schedule Smartly!

I’m known to repeat the following mantra:

[clickToTweet tweet=”You can schedule posts, links and images. You CAN’T schedule interaction.” quote=”You can schedule posts, links and images. You CAN’T schedule interaction.”]

Filling your feed with terrific talking points won’t get you anywhere if you aren’t going to monitor mentions and carve out the time to keep up with conversation generated by your shares.