Guardian staff 

Happy new year? When scheduled tweets go wrong

At the stroke of midnight on 31 December, eager social media managers set free their 2016 messages. There was just one problem …
  
  

It’s midnight so it must be 2016, right?
It’s midnight so it must be 2016, right? Photograph: Alamy

The dilemma: you’re a friendly, Twitter-loving organisation that wants to wish its followers a happy new year, but doesn’t want to be staffing a corporate social media account at the moment the party poppers start popping.

Scheduled tweets are your saviour. Just set a “welcome to 2016!” tweet for midnight on 31 December – or 00.01 to be on the safe side – and wait for the RTs to roll in.

Pro tip: make sure someone has the password in case a hasty deletion is needed. Happy new year!

Because 2015 fireworks look much like 2016 fireworks:

With credit for the swift catch:

A Eureka moment

This one fell a bit flat

When timing isn’t your strong point…

…and nor is history

You should definitely schedule tweets across all the accounts you manage

We might, when it actually happens

Technology is such a tricky beast

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

I wish it were still 2015

But if you’re thinking of trying again tonight:

With thanks to Nick Walker @nickw84 for spotting some of these.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*