Every Wednesday, PR Daily and its sister site Ragan.com host #RaganSocial 's Twitter chat. Among the topics covered last week was sometimes controversial issue of scheduling posts and whether it's a good idea. The majority of participants thought it was OK as long these precautions are taken:

1. Stay abreast of the news.

Make sure you know what's going on in your industry. Be aware of breaking news and trends, and adjust your scheduled posts/tweets accordingly.

2. Don't write and run.

If you schedule posts in advance, make sure you continually monitor for comments and reply to any questions, concerns or conversations.

3. Maintain balance.

When you can, post live. Be creative, engaging and spontaneous.

4. Stay organized.

Use an editorial calendar to make sure your posts align with your brand's message and news cycle. This also helps when scheduling posts about contests and sales.

5. Be human.

Appeal to people's emotions, use humor and have fun with your scheduled posts.

6. Know your industry.

A couple of chat participants mentioned that if you're in the health care industry it's crucial to know what you can and cannot post/schedule, and when to take conversations offline.

7. If you mess up, fess up.

If a scheduled post doesn't fare well, be ready to respond and explain yourself.

If you opt to schedule posts, chat participants suggest the following tools:

• Buffer App
• HootSuite
• Dynamic Tweets
• TweetDeck
• Facebook's post scheduling feature

Any others?

Join #RaganSocial this Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 4 p.m. ET. And for more information and conversation, join our #RaganSocial Facebook group.

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