Ask 100 people in the social media profession this question, and you will most likely get 117 different answers. This question raises as much debate as "How often should I post on Facebook?"
Here are my thoughts on the hotly debated topic.
It depends.
Optimally, I would say "no" it is not okay to schedule or automate your posts on your social media channels. However, like many things, there are exceptions to that rule. Social media is a 24 x 7 x 365, content-eating machine. Like your Grandma's old Chevy—you can fill it up with gas, but it won't take too long before you're on empty again. While the majority of your posts should be in real time, there are exceptions to the "no" rule.
If there is ever going to be a place where you schedule posts, most likely it will be on Twitter. If one of your strategies is to have a constant stream of information going out, you're either going to have to drink a lot of coffee or take the time to schedule some tweets that are information driven. You're obviously not going to schedule conversation-type tweets, but rather links to blog posts or interesting articles that are relevant to your industry. Another thing to consider is the time that people read your posts. If you and your business are on the East coast, and you just stop tweeting at 5 pm because it's time to punch the clock, you're going to miss another 3 or 4 hours of prime tweeting time with all the other time zones. How well do you think posting in a Monday thru Friday, 8-5 EST world would work if your followers are primarily in Europe? Not very well at all. Don't alienate an entire audience because you are only physically in the office 8 hours a day. While many of us do check in on our social media accounts periodically,
Another time that you would consider scheduling posts is when you're going to be out of the office for a long time. Understand, by "long time" I mean more than 2 days—not just the first half of the morning. Facebook added the ability to schedule posts a few months ago, and it's a great way to ensure that you have a constant stream of posts going up for visitors to your Facebook page. You can schedule links, photos, videos, etc., and then select the date and time that you want to post it. This is also where you'd retro-post an item if you wanted to fill up your milestones.
Please understand that when I say scheduling items is acceptable in certain circumstances, it is not meant to be the only way that you post. Nothing can ever take the place of the community-building that comes with actually engaging with your audience. If you are going to be gone for an extended amount of time, you probably want to be sure that someone in your office is checking in on your social media sites to respond to any direct mentions, direct tweets, or any other response that may come in. Some companies go so far as to have a response "policy" posted on their site stating how quickly customers can expect to hear back from them on their social media sites. Only do this if you can live up to it—don't post that you'll respond to a tweet or post within an hour if you don't have the staff to handle that.
What are your thoughts on scheduling messages? Would you or wouldn't you?