Add some user options to Auto Scheduler
I like the Auto-Scheduler concept – I try to only post to our social network accounts about 3 times a day, however, and my first two “auto-scheduled” posts have been scheduled to go up within 45 minutes of each other.
Perhaps a customized setting where a user can specify a minimum time period between postings?
Tom
shared this idea
We’ll be looking at implementing this in the future. Please leave your suggestions for specific “User Options” in the comments below. Thank you!
134 comments
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photomom86
commented
I would also suggest that the option of picking a specific day be added. I've noticed that when I use auto schedule sometimes the post doesn't go up that day and there is no option to pick a specific day. I think it would be awesome if I could pick the specific day/date I want a post to go live and then "auto scheduler" picks the best time for that day/date.
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Markus Isgro
commented
I would also need to set the Auto Scheduler for certain Social Media Profiles. I have Twitter Channels for Europe, Asia and America, so I need to Schedule my tweets in at least 3 different timezones. I would be awesome, if I could assign different Auto Scheduler settings to specific Social Media Profiles.
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Shaunty Linton commented
Also thumbs up to the person who said that they would like to select a day and have hootsuite pick the time on that day. That would make it so that I could select the day before an event and schedule a reminder type post at the time when it is most likely to be seen. It would be useful for the same reason in scheduling important date based announcements.
It could also be a way to allow me to manage the number of posts per day. Once I feel I have all the posts I need for a particular day I can switch to a new day. Setting up 3 posts for a particular day and then clicking "schedule" might allow the algorithm to be more effective for that option.
Once you give me that cookie, my glass of milk will be wanting to view a line up of the weeks posts, move them around to different days and then say "schedule".
The napkin would be being able to pick a general time of day on a day and have hootsuite select an exact time from there. For instance I always want to post cheery pics in the morning and recipes in the afternoon. The autoscheduler does not make it easy for me to accomplish that. =/
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I read this thread as requesting a way to configure some of the limitations on post timing in the algorithm the autoscheduler is using. The two that would be most useful to me are max number of posts per day, and minimum amount of time between posts.
The more helpful one, to me at least, would be allowing me to set a max number of posts per day. HootSuite often wants to autoschedule more than eight posts. That's a lot of work for someone running 4-5 blogs. I'd be able to manage my time much better if I could say "no more than 5 posts per channel per day". As it is I generally do a lot of dragging to another day just to keep the number of posts manageable...which actually prevents the algorithm from doing a lot of what it should to help me.I know that that will vary from HS user to HS user, if I wasn't the sole content creator I might feel differently.
I would love to be able to select a minimum amount of time between posts so that my users don't get bombarded at a certain time of day. This seems to have improved recently(I rarely see it trying to post within fifteen minutes of itself on the same channel) But it would be nice to be able to say "I don't want to post more than once per hour." If I had the ability to manage max number of posts per day and this part of the algorithm took that into account and gave a more even spread across the day instead of concentrating more than a third of the posts at a specific time of day.
Maybe a couple of algorithms we could choose between? The "smart" option where all trust is with hootsuite and an "even spread" where the hootsuite algorithm is still used, but ensures that there is always a steady stream. This option would be even more useful if it allowed us to "link" some channels. For instance a lot of my twitter followers for a particular brand are probably also facebook followers. If I could link those two so that the buffer applied to both channels that would be awesome, but unlinked channels should not have the buffer apply because it is probably an entirely different audience.
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Denyse
commented
I have just come back from Buffer to Hootsuite and am frsutrated that after autoscheduling my posts of all five SM sites, they will all be going out today, within 5 minutes of each other, or sometimes even at the same time!!!
I loved the possibility in Buffer to adjust the recommended times for posting on each SM site and would like to be able to automatically spread out my posts once I have set them up. I usually only spend one hour in the morning reading and posting, but now I need to spend more time rescheduling to spread out all my posts over the day.
When is this likely to change or do I just go back again to Buffer?! -
eric
commented
Options for the Auto Schedule feature.
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Teresa Armelles Biotess commented
Some specific User Options could b to configure a maximum tweets per day. It's a feature Buffer does very well and it would be very useful! :)
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Tina Lussier
commented
YES! This is the one major fail of Hootsuite! The Auto-Scheduler doesn't seem to work properly! When I use it via the Hootlet - it schedules EVERYTHING on the same day! I want to be able to go into an auto-schedule settings area and manually select the times for EACH of the Social platforms.
As one other commenter on here said: that option is available elsewhere - but Hootsuite offers much more than them.
Hootsuite: This is a very big problem in my opinion. If they can do - you can do it!
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Rickie
commented
Yes, would love the time period option too!
(sorry flagged as inappropriate by accident! -
Russ Alman commented
I would like to see this feature implement as a way to choose what day to post, and then have Autoschedule pick the times on that day.
For those of us that manage social media calendars, this would be extremely useful. With the current feature set, I can only use Autoschedule to post updates as they happen. Most of the posts I create are schedule for specific days.
BTW, everything I've read suggests that for Facebook (and I would venture to say LinkedIn and Google+, 1-2 posts per day is optimal. More than that and you become annoying. Less than that and people forget about you.
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Anonymous
commented
It would be great to be able to schedule things in the future using an AutoSchedule tool that chooses the "best times" for different days. Especially since a competing system already offers this feature.
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Dan Dlugos
commented
The ability to see when Auto Schedule will post your content before submitting it.
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aria
commented
I would LOVE some options for the autoscheduler. Minimum 3 hours apart, maximum 3 per day, pick the day but let autoscheduler pick the time, etc. It would make it so much faster to control the timing of content!
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Anonymous
commented
I would love to be able to set the maximum number of posts per day as others have said. It would be highly useful!
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Anonymous
commented
Yes, have a max posts per day option so posts automatically roll-over to the next day after max posts have been scheduled.
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Nikki Navta
commented
I agree that I want the ability to spread out my posts over a few days rather than having them all go in one short time period.
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Mike Morabito
commented
I love the autoschedule feature. But yes, I would like it to have an option to be limited to 3 times a day. I have a requirement to post 3 times a day for my job. It would make it easier if it would automatically roll over to the next day after 3 posts. I'm more confident in HootSuites ability to choose the optimal time than my own! Without the posts per day limit, I have to guess what would be optimal.
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Xenion
commented
Please make they auto scheduler work like Buffer does, it's the reason why we migrated away from Sprout. Over there you could only make very basic settings as well, like "Number of postings per day". However it would be nice to limit it to specific days, just as buffer. For example, the weekdays, 2 times per day, the weekend, 1 time per day. How long will it take to implement this? It's been almost a year now!
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AnBe
commented
I think a time range for auto-scheduling is very nice. P.e. Auto-schedule between 8:00 am and 9:00 p.m. or two (or more) time blocks per day
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Corianda
commented
Adding this now: specifically being able to choose how many tweets go out a day is important. We manage a high-volume account, and seeing that autoscheduled tweets often go out more than 24 hours later is very frustrating.
