Can you still automate X (formerly Twitter) marketing?
Short answer: yes, but not the way this article described it in 2021. X closed free API access in 2023, so anything that reads mentions, timelines or search results now sits behind a paid plan. The workflow ideas below still hold, and lists, saved searches and Slack notifications are still the backbone of a sane setup. What changed is the price of automation and the number of tools allowed to do it.
What changed since this was written
| 2021 | Today |
|---|---|
| X, renamed in 2023 | |
| Free API for reading mentions and search | Read access requires a paid API tier |
| Automate.io as the cheap Zapier alternative | Shut down; Zapier and Make carry these workflows now |
| Third-party clients pulling the timeline | Cut off in early 2023 |
| Hashtags as the discovery layer | Replies, lists and the algorithmic feed do that work |
Read the rest as workflow patterns rather than as a tool list. The trigger, the notification and the human reply are the parts that matter. Which service moves the data between them is the cheap part of the decision.
Take control of your Twitter (now X) account by applying some smart tricks to create automated workflows. Do Twitter Marketing nicely.
Twitter (today called X) is your friend. You’ve been trying to convince yourself about it every time you click on the app icon to start or get back to a conversation.
But let’s be honest, keeping the rhythm of this social platform can be exhausting. Twitter can become excessively demanding and that’s definitely not cool. All that dependence…maybe not for you.
Fortunately, technology, if well implemented, can be your best ally in the fight for winning the algorithm. There are ways to make your life easier, so why not making the most out of them?
If you want to automate Twitter and live to tell the tale, here’s some practical advice and tools you may want to test – and love.
Pss, an important note here: use tech wisely. Don’t be spammy, don’t annoy the Twitter automation rules, and above all, don’t mess with your audience’s patience. Your weapons can quickly turn against you, so let’s keep this all about friendship, shall we?
Before anything, you gotta find your perfect tool, the one you’ll use to implement your workflows.
Some great examples of workflow automation are:
Once you’ve made your choice, it’s time to take action and develop your Twitter automation ideas. Ready? Let’s see some examples of what you can do.
Creating a workflow to do sentiment analysis of your brand mentions as a part of Twitter Marketing
Do you want to know what does your audience thinks about your brand? What’s the general feeling when someone finds your company hanging around on Twitter?
Creating a workflow to do sentiment analysis of your brand mentions can be a useful way to improve the customer experience, and to make sure that your messages are reflecting the vibe of what you want to show through your work.
You can file the results on a Google Sheet classifying both the positive and the negative results, and then separate them as references of what are the highlights of your products/services and what you and your team can improve to get better.
Positive results can work as testimonials. You can use them for your website or share them in your social media accounts to build trust and to create conversations around the topics your company stands out for.
Negative results should help your support/product/communication team rethink all those details that aren’t working. Active listening is key to digest the feedback. Sometimes a bad critique can become your best excuse to take your work to the next level.
Start conversations with your best-fit prospects
Looking to start conversations with your best-fit prospects in just 280 characters? Yep, you can use Twitter for that too.
The account-based marketing approach has never been easier and more efficient. You just need to create a workflow that will notify you every time an interesting conversation jumps to the spotlight. This is how.
First, make a Twitter list of your prospects/qualified leads. Be accurate, and go with those who are really in your interest.
Get notifications on Slack every time a prospect posts a Tweet that contains a specific word or sentence. This will be your trigger signal, it’s time to take action.
Engage with the posts from your list, but leave this part to the human in you. Don’t over automate; each interaction needs to feel natural, this is valuable work that you can’t delegate to a bot.
All in all, you’re on Twitter to enjoy human interaction on interesting topics, right? Riiiigth??
Use Twitter lists to classify users
Twitter engagement wouldn’t be the same without hashtags. To make the most out of them, make sure that you are following those who are especially relevant to your niche or that are into trending topic threads interesting to be up to date on certain topics.
Then you can create separate public or private Twitter lists, and classify the users that include your marked hashtags into their tweet conversations.
This system can give you a wide perspective on what’s the common denominator in different conversations, and ideas on what are the most accurate hashtags to generate engagement with your tweets. The perfect hashtag for each occasion isn’t written in stone, but hey, recording the most related to your interests can give you some genuine clues on people’s behavior.
Communicate with the new followers
A social network it’s never too informal to not being polite. Be warm, thank your new followers for their attention and take the time to give them a general welcome to your life.
You can automate a message for them and send it 2 or 3 days after they started following you. Make sure that you are directing this message only to those people that are still following you Give value to real humans, not just bots playing the follow/unfollow game.
Use Slack and Zapier to create an easy workflow that includes your team members
The same data can have different purposes and be directed to different recipients within the team.
If you need to work under two different perspectives at the same time including different team members, you can send your brand mentions directly on a specific slack channel and also save this list on a Google Sheet.
To connect Slack, use the Zapier integration. This provides you with an easy workflow that will keep everybody on the same page.
The more efficient and organized, the better.
Keep your competitors close
Competitors are also on Twitter. You’ve seen them while scrolling; some of them have made you stop abruptly, so you definitely need to keep track on what’s cooking there.
Start by creating a private list where you will include all of your competitors. Take your time, do it manually, and include all the companies that are worth exploring.
To make it easy to inspect, set up an automation to notify your team on Slack whenever there’s a post from your competitors in the tweet list that they need to check out.
Keep your friends close, but keep your competitors closer. The saying isn’t exactly like this, but it kinda fits this situation. Agree?
Integrate Google Sheets for tracking engagement
In the Twitter universe, engagement is king. Have it in mind as part of your daily tasks, and be especially careful with those who keep your company in their hearts: your brand advocates.
To engage with them, create a list (manually) on Google Sheets and include all your brand advocates. After, set up a bot from Google Sheets to Twitter and add each user to a Twitter list.
You can also set up the notifications on Slack for when there’s a new brand mention from any of the users of that list.
Engage and keep engaging.
Save Twitter chat participants details
Information is power, never forget it, and you never know when your data is gonna help you create your next successful campaign.
Save Twitter chat participants details in Google Sheets, and DM them about your brand news or next events – just if they are currently following you, don’t be spammy or annoying to those who decided not to follow you, there’s little chance that you’ll make them follow you back.
Use RSS Feed
Is there any new RSS feed? Let the world know about it on their favorite platform.
Automate a tweet to communicate that there’s a new feed item from the RSS feed, and keep your audience posted without the annoying conventional notification spam.
These are just a few examples, but there are countless combinations in which Twitter automation can be a powerful tool to make your social listening more effective. Test and let us know what’s working best for you.
Take the most out of your time, simplify tasks to be faster and more efficient, and remember that criteria and real engagement are hard to automize.
See you on X.
Cheers, Rohit Chavane, your thread inspired this article and we’re sure an entire community is in tears now, seeing some light after this read.
Go follow Rohit on X.
And don’t forget to follow me, as well. My Twitter handle is @linda_silva88
FAQ: automating X for B2B
Is automating X still worth it for a B2B company?
It is worth automating the listening, not the talking. A notification that tells you a prospect just posted about a problem you solve pays for itself in a week. An automated reply to that same post costs you the conversation.
Do you need a paid X API plan for this?
For anything that reads data, yes. Free access is limited to posting, so mention tracking, search monitoring and list exports run either through a paid tier or through a tool that already holds one and bills you for the seat.
What should never be automated?
Replies, direct messages and welcome notes to new followers. Those were already borderline in 2021 and today they read as spam within a line. The automation should end at the notification and the human should start there.
Are X lists still useful?
Lists are still the most useful free feature on the platform. A private list of prospects and a private list of competitors give you a clean chronological feed without an algorithm deciding what you get to see.
Related reading: LinkedIn marketing: how to build an audience and increase engagement, How to create a B2B content distribution plan, How to build brand awareness for your company.
This article is from the Funky Marketing blog archive. The work continues at Funky Enterprises: positioning, demand generation and commercial systems for B2B companies.
If you want to look at your own commercial system, book a 30-minute needs assessment. New conversations with people who build revenue are on the Funky Enterprises Show.
