As For Auto Posts I Take It Back. Almost - Brass Tack ThinkingI popped off the other day a little bit of a snarky comment in the midst of my annoyance at automated online presence.

Here’s me, enjoying the sunshine and warmth of a beautiful Mother’s Day, lingering in bed with my kiddo and flipping through a magazine and the internet. Then my peace is broken by a bunch of obviously auto-posted links to yet more articles about social media stuff and getting more clicks or money or something. So I tweeted:

“It’s okay to take a day off from trying to get clicks, for crying out loud. The stream of auto posts just makes me nuts sometimes.”

Yeah I know. There I go being all crabby and preachy again.

So let’s back up for a second. Here’s what I consider “automated” stuff:

  • Sharing a constant stream of links through something like Triberr
  • Using Buffer or a similar tool to schedule posts
  • Using a cross-posting tool to post the same thing to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Pinterest, whatever…simultaneously
  • Auto-posting stuff from the RSS feeds you read every time they publish a new post

But as with anything else, I need to rein myself in a bit here and apply a bit of temperance and context. [I can be a little hotheaded. I know you’re shocked.]

Automation has its uses, times and places, and it’s not inherently evil.

I understand and have experienced the difficulties of trying to, say, scale a corporate team of people responding to customers, sharing content, and doing it all masterfully. I also know that sometimes we as individuals have day jobs, but we don’t want to forget to share that amazing article on neurology that we ran across during our insomniac reading at 2 a.m.

So here are my points of qualification.

I think scheduling has it’s place in the world, so I need to retract my absolute blanket statement of distaste. I’ve used automation myself, with care I’d like to think. So I’m a hypocrite but I do have a point here.

Matt and I might find a bunch of articles that we think are relevant to our clients and audience, but we don’t want to bombard everyone with fifteen tweets in a row, so we’ll go ahead and use something like Buffer or Tweetdeck’s schedule function to distribute them throughout the day. That makes sense to me.

We’re also not trying to be everywhere at once. We know what social platforms we’re focusing on and to what degree, so we’re not panicky about PUT ALL THE THINGS EVERYWHERE because we know that’s not an effective strategy. We’re a B2B, higher end consultancy and we’re just not going to get a bunch of relevant traction by blasting the internet full of link-laden holes. Volume isn’t our game, and never will be. The point is to spread out focused content, not just to keep bombarding the web with stuff to click on.

Individually, for every hundred or two hundred tweets I post, one might be an article I schedule because I want to remember to share. I never feed my tweets into Facebook or blast out a bunch of duplicate content to all the networks. If you see me on the web, it’s me, and the chances are 99% that I’m right there, typing.

It goes back to intent. Again.

The key for me, personally, as to whether or not I give my rubber stamp of approval to occasionally flipping the auto-post switch is whether it’s balanced by a deliberate, purposeful presence that demonstrates some kind of intent to be responsive and personally involved.

Occasionally, I want to know that you – the human – is on the other end of the keyboard, whether you’re an individual or representing a brand. I want to talk with you about the article you posted. I want to banter about whether my Bears are going to lose this week, even if that’s a short conversation. I want to say hi and see what’s new with you and your business.

There are also times when automated stuff just comes off a little funky. On a holiday. In the midst of a national disaster or a sobering crisis, or even a major happy event. It’s at those moments when cranking out the “8 Ways To Make A Better Pinterest Board” stuff just reads out of context and — dare I say it — oblivious or insensitive. There’s an off switch to these things, and you need to sometimes use discretion about when to flip it.

Yes, this is just my taste. Yes I can unfollow people (and do) to apply my own filters when it gets to be too much. So there’s no right answer for everyone, and I’m sure many of you can argue with me about why automating your links gets you more clicks and better exposure and more availability to do other things that are important to do with your time.

I think that’s great, but know that there are people out there like me that are really hoping that you’re still out there somewhere, clacking away on your keyboard, ready to reply and chat. Maybe that matters to you. Maybe it doesn’t, and you’re in it solely for the end game. But for me, if it’s important to do, it’s important enough to do personally.

After all, how else will I know how truly charming and fascinating you are?