The Pros & Cons of Social Media Scheduling Tools

Everyone can pretty much agree that humans don’t have eight arms–well, at least we can hope. With that being said, having eight arms would be pretty helpful considering there are so many social media services out there, you’d need eight arms to control them all. Luckily, there are now social media scheduling tools (such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social) to help people alleviate their workflow.

Social media scheduling tools won’t fix all your social media woes, though. Today, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of social media scheduling tools:

What are the benefits of using scheduling tools?

1. Having an extra hand. With all the available tools out there, it is tremendously easier to update any of your social media accounts and keep them active. Want to update your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin all at 4:52am? Done–and you don’t even need to be awake when the messages publish. All you need to do is schedule the time you want your posts to automatically publish and write your post.
2. Being able to add as many social media platforms as you’d like. If your business requires frequent updates on all social media platforms (daily or even multiple times a day), then you might go a little mad trying to update them manually. Publishing and scheduling your updates through a scheduling tool like Buffer can help you broadcast your message across all your social media accounts with one click of a button.

But, buyer beware with scheduling tools:

1. Don’t be surprised if you’re late to the news party. While automating your daily posts can give you ease of mind, publishing posts manually can allow for you to adapt to trends that are happening around you, so you and your business can stay relevant.
2. Too much automation can be bad. Related to the above (and to our previous blog post), overusing social media scheduling tools can make your business look robotic on social media and accidentally commit some social media faux pas along the way. Don’t forget to add your own thoughts when sharing articles through your scheduling tools (versus merely sharing the article title and URL), and if a world event, i.e., disaster, occurs, be sure to pause your scheduled posts from publishing so your business doesn’t come across sounding insensitive.

With all these pros and cons, people will have their reasons as to why they want to use scheduling tools. These sites are very helpful to people who need to free up their time, but don’t forget to stay updated on trends and add a personal touch from time to time.