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Author Mary Waibel on using Tweetdeck to manage Twitter

Helena Fairfax
helena fairfax, tweetdeck, hootsuite, mary waibelTwitter is a great asset to authors – a place to find out and share information, as well as to tell the world about our books. The trouble is, it does take quite some dedication to make the most of it. And we can’t be on Twitter all the time, because when are we actually going to do any writing?
Last week I finally signed up for Hootsuite, which is a social media management tool – ie, it helps you organise yourself on FB and Twitter. I’d been a little reluctant to sign up – yet another thing to learn! – but within half an hour I’d got going on it. Luckily I’d already put my followers into lists on Twitter (RNA members, romance authors, book reviewers, etc) so it was relatively easy to make “streams” with Hootsuite, meaning I could follow their conversations and join in much more easily.
It’s also possible to schedule Tweets with Hootsuite, so you can set up all your Tweets in the morning – or at the beginning of the week – and get on with writing. I haven’t managed to work this out yet, but today Mary Waibel has very kindly come forward to explain how she schedules Tweets with Tweetdeck, a similar package.
Thanks for joining us, Mary!
Scheduling Tweets with TweetDeck
Guest Post by Mary Waibel
Have you ever wished you could take a few minutes a day (or week) and schedule some tweets to post at specific times when you know you won’t be able to tweet them live? Well, you can. 

There are multiple ways of scheduling tweets, but I’m going to talk about how I schedule mine with TweetDeck.

I’ve found TweetDeck to be very easy to use. You can view multiple accounts at once, and choose various columns to display to keep your tweets/DM’s/mentions, etc. all easy to access. (I’m currently displaying one account with four columns, but have displayed two with six columns before.)
So, how do you schedule a tweet?

First, you click on the “quill” icon and compose your tweet (green arrow).

.

Now, before you click “tweet”, you need to click on the “schedule tweet” option (green arrow).

This will open a calendar up. Pick the day you want your tweet to go live, and then the time. (red circle) [HINT: Toggling between AM and PM will make the ‘tweet’ button change to ‘tweet on date/time’.]
When you have the date and time you want, click on ‘tweet on date/time’, (green arrow) and that’s it.

You can schedule multiples at a time. I’m not sure how far into the future you can choose to post, but I know you can go at least a week out.
My goal this year is to use 20-30 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday morning to schedule tweets about upcoming blog posts, review, shout outs for my friends’ books, etc. [Hint: I’ve made a chart of tweets to copy and paste (including shortened links (I use tinyurl.com) and hashtags) for my books and my friends. This way, I can drop in, choose some tweets, schedule them, then I’m ready to go. There is quite a bit of time involved in setting this up (I took a month to do it and am still tweaking it), but once you’ve got it, it’s a huge time saver.]
And that’s a quick overview of scheduling tweets with TweetDeck. I’ll be happy to answer any questions in the comments, as well as hear how you use the scheduling options to save time in your daily routine.

About the Author:
YA author Mary Waibel’s love for fairytales and happy-ever fill the pages of her works. Whether penning stories in a medieval setting or a modern day school, magic and romance weave their way inside every tale. Strong female characters use both brain and brawn to save the day and win the heart of their men. Mary enjoys connecting with her readers through her website: marywaibel.blogspot.com

Her recent release Faery Marked, from BookFish Books, can be found at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Faery Marked

When Callie Rycroft wakes to find purple flames flickering on the ceiling, she believes she’s still dreaming. But soon she’s forced to accept that she has magic―a special magic that grants her entrance into the Faery Realm.

For centuries humans have been banned from Faery, but dangerous times call for dangerous measures. Declared Champion by the Faery Queen, Callie is assigned a Guardian, and tasked with finding the Cordial―a magical elixir needed to keep the portal to the Faery realm a secret from humans.

The upside? Reece Michaels, the boy she’s been crushing on for years, is her Guardian. Callie hopes that, by spending time with Reece, he’ll start to see her as more than just his best friend’s sister.

The downside? She’s in a race not only against time, but against another Champion, and a rogue Guardian―a Guardian who stands to threaten her developing relationship with Reece.

Magic, mistaken identities, and hidden agendas are the least of Callie’s worries when she learns that the Cordial requires a sacrifice. Will Callie be willing to risk everything―even Reece―to complete her task as Champion? Or will she let the portal open, and doom both realms?

* * *

 Thanks so much for the explanation, Mary. I love the screenshots with the green ink! That’s so useful!

(And I also love the sound of Faery Marked. Your heroines are fabulous!)

Do you use Twitter? If so, how do you use it? And what do you like/dislike about it? If you have any questions for Mary, or have any comments/tips on using Twitter, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!

14 thoughts on “Author Mary Waibel on using Tweetdeck to manage Twitter”

  3. Mary, what a complete and precise explanation. Thank you. I believe you were one of the first two people who welcomed me on Twitter.

    Best wishes for Faery Marked and all the best to you.

    Susan

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  4. Hi Mary and Helena, I joined Twitter way back when it first came on the scene. I received some weird messages from strangers, so I promptly dropped it and never went back. Now I’m sure it’s quite different, and I have been online longer knowing more about having a presence online in cyberspace. I like doing Facebook, blogging, Pinterest. So taking advice from others, I am just doing the social media I enjoy and not trying to be in everything. There may be a future in twitter for me, and I may be missing the boat on promotion without it, but just not ready to” get out there.” Mary, your screenshots are great and make the explanation clear. Thanks so much for sharing the info.

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    1. JQ- I totally agree with using the Social Media that works best for you. In case you didn’t know this already, you can also schedule posts in Facebook and in Blogger. I’m not familiar with Pinterest, as I don’t use it (see- using what works for you :-))

      Glad you found the screenshots helpful. If you do decide to try twitter again, you can find me at @mewtweety14

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      1. Hi JQ, I don’t use Twitter as I should. Like you, I prefer FB and blogging. Some people really swear by it, and so I’m trying to use it more productively. Pinterest is another area I don’t use a lot, although I’ve found many interesting pins from others. There’s so much to learn; you’re both right in that we should stick to what we enjoy the most. Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment.

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  5. Though I mostly live tweet, I do love my Tweetdeck. I travel a lot and it is so nice being able to pre-schedule tweets knowing that while I’m sitting in a car for six hours, things are still getting done! I also use it when I want to add a msg of my own to a retweet. Great post ladies.

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    1. Those are great uses for scheduling tweets. Of course, you don’t want to schedule all your tweets, as the real reason to use Twitter is to engage with your followers, but for those times when you’re away, or have something you want to get word out about while you’re sleeping/working/traveling, scheduling a tweet is a great way to do it.

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      1. Hi Mary, that’s a really good point about engaging live with Twitter. Programs like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite are great for that, too, because you can divide the people you’re following into streams. I love that part of it. It makes it much easier for me to join in the conversation.
        Thanks for dropping in, Kai, and your comment!

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