How to Automate and Schedule Tweets Using Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is an awesome workflow automation tool that can be used to build complex workflows using your favorite apps without needing to know how to code (otherwise referred to as no-code). One of my favorite ways to use Microsoft Power Automate is to manage my social media eliminating the need for me to post content myself. Interested in learning how to do this? Well, this article will show you how to automate and schedule tweets using Microsoft Power Automate. If you're interested in exploring some other workflows that you can build using Microsoft Power Automate, check out these articles:

• How to Save Tweets to a Spreadsheet Using Microsoft Power Automate

• Automatically Save Gmail Attachments to Google Drive Using Microsoft Power Automate

What is Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft Power Automate is a tool that allows users to automate tasks across the most common apps and web services. Microsoft Power Automate is included with specific Microsoft 365 licenses is available in a free & premium tier. The free tier sets a cap on the number of flows (i.e. business processes) that can be run per month and also provides access to a limited number of standard connectors (for more information on what connectors are check out this article). Power Automate has a ton of useful pre-built workflow templates that can help you automate common and repetitive tasks very easily. It also allows you to create custom workflows where a template does not exist.

What Do I Need to Automate and Schedule Tweets Using Microsoft Power Automate?

You will require a Microsoft account and a Microsoft 365 subscription to follow the steps outlined in this article. Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Click here to get your Microsoft 365 subscription. You will also obviously need a twitter account. You will also need to create a Microsoft Power Automate account by registering here.

How to Automate and Schedule Tweets Using Microsoft Power Automate

To automate and schedule tweets using Microsoft Power Automate follow these steps:

Step 1: Open your internet browser & navigate to https://flow.microsoft.com & login using your account credentials.

Step 2: On the landing page, click “Create”.

Step 3: Click “Scheduled Flow”.

Step 4: Give your flow a name. This will be used to identify your flow in the list of all of your flows later.

Step 5: Enter the date & time that your flow should start & the frequency it should run. For example, start on March 29 2020 at 10:00 am and run every 10 hours.

Step 6: Click “Create”.

Step 7: On the workflow designer page, click “+ New Step”.

Step 8: Type “Twitter” in the connector search box.

Step 9: Select “Post a Tweet” in the Actions list.

Step 10: Click “Sign in” to connect to your Twitter account.

Step 11: A new browser window will open. Enter your Twitter username & password.

Step 12: Click “Authorize”.

Important Note: It is important to review the permissions that you are granting the Microsoft Power Platform. The image outlines some of the permissions that are being granted for demonstrations purposes only. You should always review these in detail before authorizing.

Step 13: Enter the content of the Tweet that you want to post automatically in the “Tweet Text” box.

Step 14: Click “Save”.

Step 15: After saving, click the “Back” arrow.

Step 16: Your flow is now set to run on the specified date, time & frequency. To view the flow details including run history, on the landing page, click “My Flows”.

Step 17: Find your flow in the list, and click on it to view details.

Step 18: Here is where you’ll see the flow details including the status (whether its turned on or off), the date created, modified, etc. You can turn off the flow by clicking “Turn Off”.

Step 19: This is where you’ll see the run history including whether it succeeded or failed on previous runs (i.e. executions).

And that is it! Your flow will execute on the specified date and time and as per the recurrence that you defined. You can use Microsoft Power Automate to create multiple of these flows and completely automate your social media posting on Twitter!

Are There Any Limitations with this Workflow?

Note that you are not able to post two consecutive tweets with the same text within seven days using Microsoft Power Automate. Restrictions of Twitter API is that the Search API searches against a sampling of recent Tweets published in the past 7 days. This is the case either by using flow for both tweets or manually entering the first tweet and then using Power Automate for the second. Note that this is a limitation of Twitter’s API. See here for more details.