Easy Social Media Management with Hootsuite

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1 Easy Social Media Management with Hootsuite Hootsuite is the largest social media integration and management platform on the Internet. It has sent over 700 million messages to date and has over 3 million registered users. It manages a wide range of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Google+, Mixi, WordPress, and more. Hootsuite s features include: Easy view of all your contacts. Hootsuite will display their follower and following count, as well as their Klout score all in one screen. Schedule messages to be sent days or weeks in advance. (This is one of the best features of Hootsuite!) Create a wide range of different feeds and view them all on one screen. You can create feeds from mentions, retweets, direct messages, and more. Share your Hootsuite account and social media accounts with different members of your team. This makes execution of a complex social media strategy much easier. (Requires paid subscription.) Hootsuite is used by many world- class organizations. It s used by The Gap, Facebook s own social media team, the South by Southwest conference, and more. Here s how to use Hootsuite to manage your social media. Step 1: Sign Up Go to Hootsuite.com. Start by filling in the signup box on the front page.

2 Step 2: Add a Profile Add a profile. To add a Twitter account, click Add a Twitter profile. Click Connect with Twitter to create the connection. You can also choose to add other social networks from the list on the left. Hootsuite needs your authorization before it can link up your accounts.

3 Step 3: Browse Your Feeds To browse your feeds, select the social media account from the top subnavigation bar. The various feeds associated with that account will be displayed. You can drag and drop these feeds in any order you like.

4 Step 4: Adding a Stream To add a new stream, click Add Stream in the upper left corner. Then choose what kind of stream you want to add.

5 The new stream will be added to your dashboard. Step 5: Publishing and Scheduling To access the publisher screen, click Publisher in the left sidebar menu. Hover over any symbol on the left to make the menu popup.

6 Click Compose a Message to begin scheduling messages. The message box and the scheduler will pop up. Just write your message in the box, then choose when you want the message to go live.

7 Step 6: Analytics and Reports To create a new report, click Analytics from the left sidebar. Once you re in the reports tab, click Create New Report.

8 Then select the type of report that you want to create. Some reports are free to create, while others require a premium account (Pro account: $9.99/month). You can then brand the report yourself, so that your name and your company s logo appears on top of the report.

9 Step 7: Contacts To access your contact list, click Contacts from the left navigation bar. All your contacts will be listed, along with their follower count, following count, and Klout score.

10 Now you know how to use Hootsuite to view multiple feeds, schedule posts for the future, generate branded reports, and browse your contact list. Hootsuite is free for the most part, with only a few features requiring payment. If you ve never tried it before, why not give it a shot?

11 Overview and Current Pricing Levels Hootsuite is a social media promotion and management tool that allows you to manage many different social media accounts all in one place. Let s say you have accounts in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You run a growing business and have to monitor the buzz and social sphere regularly. Instead of having to log into each network separately, Hootsuite will aggregate all your feeds for you in one place. In addition, you can also post messages to all these different social networks all at once. You can even schedule to be posted at specific times. Here are some of the main features of Hootsuite, as well as details on its pricing structure. Note: These prices are valid as of September 2011, prices are subject to change. Monitor Mentions When people are talking about your brand, service or product, what are they saying? Are they recommending it or complaining? With the monitor mentions feature, you can easily see who s talking about you and what they re saying. Update Multiple Networks Hootsuite allows you to update multiple social media networks all at the same time. No logging in and out or managing different tabs. The whole process of posting to five different social networks can take as little as 10 seconds.

12 Comprehensive Mobile App Hootsuite has a comprehensive mobile app that allows you to view streams for each of your social networks, as well as send messages while on the go. Customizable Streams and Views Want to view a stream of just Facebook photos? You can. Want to view just a stream of mentions on Twitter? You can. Your panels and views are fully customizable. You can add streams to monitor or delete streams you re monitoring with the click of a button.

13 Schedule Your Messages You don t have to be at the computer every time you want to send a message. In fact, you can batch upload all of the week or month s updates all at once with the scheduling feature. Track Statistics (Pro Subscription) Want to know how many people are clicking through to your links? Hootsuite has its own analytics system and can also integrate with Google Analytics.

14 Team Member and Task Collaboration (Pro + $15 / Member) If you have a social media team that needs to work together on product launches or brand management, Hootsuite can support that with its team tools. Hootsuite Pricing Structure Hootsuite has two primarily price levels: Free and pro. The free version gets basic analytics, 5 social profiles, two RSS feeds and has to view advertisements. The pro version sees no ads, can connect to unlimited social media accounts, has unlimited RSS feeds and a much higher level of analytics.

15 Furthermore, Hootsuite also has an enterprise level solution, meant for large businesses with large brands they need to manage. These are the main features of Hootsuite and its prices. Ready to get started?

16 How to Use Hootsuite: Reading Updates, Posting & Scheduling Updates and More Hootsuite is essentially an improved way of viewing and posting to your social networks, all in one place. Using Hootsuite, you can schedule messages to be posted at different intervals. That means that you don t have to spend time every day posting messages if you want to post messages every day. Just set it up once and Hootsuite will do the rest of the work for you. You can also monitor all your social media activity from one place. All your feeds, customer feedback, responses from your posts and so on can be monitored in one place. Here s a more in- depth look at to use Hootsuite. Step 1: Select Your Social Media Account If you have multiple accounts setup, start by selecting which account you want to view. Step 2: Viewing Streams The first screen you ll be presented with is your streams screen. Each panel consists of a different stream of information. In Twitter, your Home Feed is the tweets of the people you re following. You ll also have panels of direct messages, mentions and sent tweets. In Facebook, your News Feed is the main feed, followed by a photos feed, your wall posts and an events feed. Each social network has a few different kinds of streams.

17 Step 3: Adding a Stream Adding streams allows you to customize how your Hootsuite dashboard looks. To add a stream, click the +Add Stream button in the top navigation bar. Then select which social network you want to add a stream for. Finally, select what kind of stream you want to add and click Create Stream.

18 Step 4: Posting a Message To post a message, click Compose Message. Type your message in the expanded message box. To add a link to your posting, click Add a Link.

19 To schedule your message to be sent at a later time, click the scheduling button. A scheduling menu box will appear. Schedule the time you want to send your message and click Schedule. To choose which profile(s) to send your message out to, click the Click to select profile box. Then choose one or more profiles that you want to send your messages to.

20 Congratulations! You now know how to view updates, view different streams, add streams, post messages, schedule messages, and send messages to multiple social media accounts at once.

21 Demonstration of the Mobile App Hootsuite has a mobile app that allows you to do just about everything you can do in the online version, on a phone. You can view feeds, post messages, schedule messages, and even set up new social media accounts. Here s how to use the Hootsuite mobile app. Step 1: Login The first thing you ll be asked to do upon opening the app is to sign in. Step 2: Select and View Feeds The first thing you ll see upon logging in is the feeds screen. You ll be able to see all the various feeds you re subscribed to.

22 Click a specific stream to view its posts. Step 3: Writing and Sending Messages To send a message, first click the compose button in the upper right corner.

23 Write your message in the box that pops up. To choose which account(s) to send the message to, just click one of the account icons. The message will be sent to all accounts that have a check mark. To access more options, click the More button.

24 In this menu, you can schedule the post for a future time, add a photo, shrink links, add a location and more. Step 4: Adding an Account If you want to view streams from another account or send messages to another account, first click Settings in the bottom navigation bar. Click Social Networks.

25 Then click Add Social Networks. Choose what kind of account you want to add. Finally, give Hootsuite the authorization it needs to connect with your account.

26 That s how to view messages and streams, post a message, schedule a message and add a social media account all using the Hootsuite mobile app.

27 HootSuite Adding Social Media & Usage HootSuite helps to manage several social media applications. In this section of the tutorial, we will show you in more detail how to add and manage several popular programs including Facebook, Twitter, and Linked in. How To Add Social Networks There are many social media networks that can be added in HootSuite; however, in the free addition, you are only allowed to add 5 accounts. If you need to manage more than five, you can subscribe to the paid option, which is very reasonable. In this tutorial, we will be adding Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to HootSuite. Step 1: Log Into HootSuite Create your account and log in at Step 2: Navigate to Add Social Media After you create your HootSuite account, you ll need to add your social media programs. To do that, navigate to the social networks tab. Click the owl in the top left of your screen to get a drop down menu. Hover over the Settings tab and click on the Social Networks tab when it appears. You will be taken to a new popup.

28 Step 3: Choose Social Media Networks On the settings menu, click Add Social Media Network. Step 4: Add Twitter Click the Twitter button, uncheck any options you don t want to include and click the connect with Twitter button to add info about your Twitter account. Add the Twitter user name or associated address and the password. Click allow. When you ve added the account successfully, you will return to the settings screen. The new account will be listed there.

29 Step 5: Add Facebook Click the Facebook button, uncheck any options you don t want to include and click the connect with Facebook button to add info about your account. Add the Facebook user name

30 or associated address and the password. Click allow. When you ve added the account successfully, you will return to the settings screen. The new account will be listed there. Log into Facebook, if asked. Click allow to grant HootSuite specific permissions.

31 When you have successfully added Facebook, you will see the option to like HootSuite. Click finish after you ve made your choice. This account will show up on your settings page under the title Facebook. Step 6: Add LinkedIn Click the LinkedIn button, uncheck any options you don t want to include and click the connect with LinkedIn button to add info about your account. Sign into your LinkedIn account and allow access when prompted.

32 How To Tweet/Post and Schedule Step 7: Add a Message At the top of your screen, next to the owl, you ll see an area where you can type in a message. Click in the box to add your tweet. The box will expand to show more options. If you want to send the message immediately and from that account click the Send Now button. Step 8: Schedule a Message If you have more than one account or network where you would like the message to appear, select the accounts at the right by clicking on each account s photo or by using one of the buttons at the bottom. A green checkmark shows on the images that you have chosen to include. Note: When including Facebook, you have a total of 420 characters instead of the 140 in the Twitter network. You may want to post to Facebook separately to include more info. Click on the calendar icon to schedule your message to post at a later time.

33 When you click the icon, a calendar with dates and times will appear. Select the day and time you d like to post the message. If you d like to be notified when the scheduled post is sent, you may also check the me box. When you re finished, click the Okay button, next to the Cancel button. Your message hasn t been scheduled yet. Notice that the Send Now button has changed to Schedule. Click the schedule button to complete the task. Now that you know how to add social media networks, add messages, and schedule messages in HootSuite, there is no reason to shy away from social media. You can start socializing today!

34 Social Media Management Using HootSuite Social networking has become the phenomenon of this new decade; the norm in an online world. It can swallow time, create addictions and add to the phenomenon of information overload we're all so familiar with. Yet there's no denying it's a powerful even necessary part of marketing online today. So how can one make social networking work without being subjected to its universal hazards? Social media management that's how. What Is Social Media Management? Nowadays, people often mean "using a social media management application" but it can also mean finding other ways of making the most out of social media while investing minimal time and effort. We'll be taking a look at these other methods shortly, but in this first guide, let's get acquainted with HootSuite, one of the most versatile social media management applications. Even if you are planning to outsource your social media management (and we'll get to that too), using HootSuite will allow you to regularly help yourself to a quick overview of what your social media manager or company has been doing on your behalf across several platforms. HootSuite allows you to schedule individual or multiple updates to all your social networks in one action via desktop, web or mobile then track your results. You can add networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn the "Big Three." The free account allows you up to five social profiles. It also provides basic social analytics and allows you to add two RSS/Atom feeds. If your business relies heavily on social networking and you know you need more than five linked platforms, upgrade to the $9.99 monthly plan, which gives you: Unlimited social profiles "Enhanced" social analytics

35 1 free team member 1 free report Google Analytics integration Facebook insights integration Unlimited RSS feeds No promoted Tweets allowed Making the Most of HootSuite The real power of HootSuite lies in its extra features Did you know: You can also: HootSuite comes with basic, built- in streams It shows "Mentions," "Direct Messages," your Sent Tweets (and Pending Tweets) as well as your Twitter home feed 1. Build columns of information by using the "Streams" tab to build columns of information from your feeds, every time you add a network. 2. Follow topics and trends by adding streams containing keywords. Use the same form as hashtags: E.G. #keyword 3. Monitor your keyword as it trends, in real time Streams allow you to see at a glance what is going on across all your feeds and networks right at that moment. Adding a New Stream 1. Whenever you want to add a new stream, simply select the "+Add Stream" button in the top- left horizontal menu bar on your dashboard. 2. When you click on "+Add Stream", a pop up will appear. Within this pop up, in the "Add Stream" column on the left, you can select the social network originating the feeds you want.

36 In the section on the right, click on the little arrow under "Select the type of stream" to get a drop- down menu from which you can select the exact type of stream: Using "Search" to Find New Streams 3. You can find new streams to add either by entering your hashtag in the "Search" box or taking a look at promoted or popular Trending Topics 1 : 1 Promoted topics will be absent in the "Pro" version of HootSuite.

37 (When you find a Trend you like, select "Save as Stream".) TIP: Drag and drop to place your favorite streams in the center of your HootSuite screen. Quickly Connecting with people on Twitter via HootSuite 1. Click on the User Name to open an information box displaying their followers, updates, biography, popularity and interaction options. 2. You can also quickly Retweet, Direct Message, Reply, etc., by hovering over the message, which brings up icons for those functions that you can select:

38 Using HootSuite Analytics HootSuite also makes it easy for you to use your existing Analytics to create tracking reports. Just select "Analytics" in the left- hand menu sidebar, and select your preferred Analytics applications or programs from the drop- down list. You can track your results from your: Ow.ly shortened URLs Google Analytics Facebook Insights HootSuite even provides handy templates for all types of reports: ("Summaries" is a particularly handy way to get a quick overview of your material's effectiveness.) HootSuite is definitely one of the most powerful social media management tools available to you.

39 Assignment: It's important to put what you're reading into practice straight away. It won't take long! 1. Set up a profile on HootSuite 2. Add at least three social networks you use (or wish to use) the most regularly 3. Post a message across your networks 4. Pre- schedule three posts across your networks 5. Add at least three of your favorite or most useful streams 6. Remember to check HootSuite daily! Interested in learning more about Hootsuite? Enroll in HootSuite University. Normally $21/month (for Pro users; $30.99/month for free level users), you can save 50% using this coupon code: BACK2SCHOOL (valid through Oct. 31, 2012).