Significant changes to Twitter’s API early in 2018 affected the way brands use Twitter automation to manage their accounts. Following Twitter’s February 2018 announcement, in which it put forth new guidelines designed to reduce spam, automation has become risky for users of the platform. This crackdown on bots came after Twitter’s review of the social media use surrounding the 2016 US election.
We stand behind Twitter’s crackdown on bots and spamming, though it’s a shame the changes had to affect the way many of us used Twitter automation previously. Thankfully, there are still plenty of ways you can automate your Twitter management to still save on that all-important time. Here are our top three ideas to get you started.
To reduce the amount of time you spend on Twitter monitoring mentions of your brand, set-up Twilerts to get a full round-up of important tweets via email. Where you may have lost time automating Twitter broadcasting, you can make up for it by using Twilert to listen in.
This makes it easy to find out what people are saying about your brand on Twitter. It’ll capture tweets according to the criteria you set (including hashtags, handles, tweets that contain URLs, and keywords mentioned by verified users), and send them directly to your inbox in real-time or according to a schedule you set.
If you automate your Twitter management in this way, you’ll be free to focus on other things while Twilert listens and collects data for you. Furthermore, the advanced search tools make analysis of Twitter trends quick and easy.
An example of a new Twilert being set-up to collect tweets to @WordPress that contain the word ‘How’.
2. Get direct messages in Slack thanks to Zapier
Zapier connects hundreds of apps to help you automate your work, making it easy for you to integrate software and tick off tiresome tasks automatically.
You can use Zapier to automate your Twitter management in several ways. One of the most useful is a Zap (a reaction triggered by a set of conditions) that sends a direct message to you in Slack (or your messaging platform of choice) whenever someone new follows you on Twitter. This allows you to stay on top of what’s going on without having to check the app constantly.
You could also use Zapier to auto-follow back, though beware that you may end up following bots. Zapier offers plenty of other ideas for Twitter automation, including cross-channel posting, sharing new tweets from a Twitter list in Slack, and adding new followers to a Google spreadsheet.
Examples of integrations you can set-up in Zapier to further automate your Twitter management.
3. Use Twitter quick replies and welcome messages
In November 2016, Twitter announced two new features – quick replies and welcome messages. To be used in direct messages, these features were designed to make communication between businesses and people quicker and easier.
Welcome messages are a way for businesses to greet people as they enter a direct message conversation. Rather than seeing an empty chat box, the user would see a pre-set welcome message from the business that sets expectations for the conversation.
Quick replies help guide the resulting conversation, letting businesses prompt people with the best ways to reply. This could involve asking users to choose from a list of options or guiding them to enter specific text values.
Using either or both features could help you speed up and improve the way you use Twitter to deliver customer service. And, since it’s Twitter automation direct from the platform itself, you can ensure you’re working well within the rules.
Don’t let Twitter’s new guidelines hold you back. Find out how Twilert can help you automate your Twitter management today.
