Hootsuite instructions

Transcription

1 Hootsuite instructions Posting to Facebook Posting to Twitter Cross-posting Adding Twitter Stream Twitter Lists Twitter searches Replying and Retweeting Definitions Hootsuite video training Hootsuite is a social media dashboard that allows you to monitor various social media platforms at the same time (ie. Facebook, Twitter). It gives the office the ability to monitor both the office Facebook page and the Twitter stream (you don t have to have an office or personal account to monitor Twitter). You will also have the ability to post to your office Facebook page via Hootsuite. You can either make your post immediately or schedule it in the future. On Twitter you can search for the latest weather related news and information. The tabbed layout makes managing the different social networks very easy. For Twitter you can create streams of related tweets and easily search Twitter for users or keywords you are looking for. Once you have found the tweets you are looking for it is easy to make those into additional streams. That all sounds great, so let s get your office Hootsuite account started. Posting to the office Facebook Page (back to top) Posting to Facebook from Hootsuite is simple. First, login with your office social media address and password. Once logged in, there are several things you can do. You can post links or status updates, either right now, or schedule them for later. You don t have to be in the Facebook Pages tab to send a status update to Facebook. In the box next to the Compose Message, there is a box that may either have an icon or two in it or it may be blank (and if blank, it will be labeled Click to select a profile ). You need to ensure only the Facebook icon is in that box. If the box is blank, click in it and scroll down to the Facebook icon (has a flag) and select it. If something besides the Facebook icon has already been selected, click on it and it will be removed from the list. Of course, if the Facebook icon is already there, you are ready to go.

2 Now click in the Compose message field to the left, type your message, and click on the send now button and it will immediately be posted to the office Facebook Page. And now as you can see it has been posted to the office Facebook page.

3 Posting a link is a similar process. To post a link, find your way to the Hootsuite compose section. Now type in the message that you want to accompany your link. After you have finished your message, cut and paste the link into the compose section at the end of the text you just typed. After the link is pasted, Hootsuite will try and generate a preview page. You can now delete the link address from the compose window. You don t have to do anything else, simply click on Send Now

4 The link and text posted for me no problem, but the associated image did not. I think it is a limitation of Hootsuite and I m not sure if it will be resolved anytime soon. Finally to post an image to Facebook via Hootsuite, the process is very similar to the regular post and link post. This time in the compose area click on the paper clip icon. When you click on the paper clip the attachment window will appear. Click on the attach photo button and navigate to the location of the image.

5 Once you select your photo, it will show you a thumbnail version of the photo. In the compose area, you will see an ow.ly link to the image. You can either delete the link or just check the Hide URL when posting to Facebook check box. Then add some text to explain the picture and click on Send Now and it will be posted to Facebook. If you want to schedule a message to be posted at a future time or date you can simply do that through the same Hootsuite compose field. As we did above, click in the compose field and type in your status update or information on the link you are sharing. Now this time though

6 instead of clicking on the Send Now button, you will click on the little calendar button. This will drop down the schedule message window. Now simply choose the time and date of when you want the message to publish, and then click on Schedule Hootsuite will hold on to your message and post it at the time you requested whether you are logged into Hootsuite or not. If you want to delete your scheduled post or change the text or the time when the post will be sent out. Click on the Publish icon on the left hand side (hint it looks like a paper airplane) and then modify or delete the post as you fit.

7 One other note; Hootsuite can shorten links for you. By cutting and pasting your link in the field with the word Shrink next to it and clicking the Shrink button, Hootsuite will shorten your link with one of their url shorteners. Only use the owl.li links to shorten urls, not any of the others like ow.ly or ht.ly. For the office Facebook page this won t be an issue since we have more character space to work with. Posting to the office Twitter account (back to top) To make a post to Twitter is almost identical to making a post to Facebook. First, choose the Twitter account to post to. In the box next to the Compose Message, there is a box that may either have an icon or two in it or it may be blank (and if blank, it will be labeled Click to select a profile ). You need to ensure only the Twitter office account icon is in that box. If the box is blank, click in it and scroll down to the Twitter office account icon (has the little bird) and select it. If something besides the Twitter icon has already been selected, click on it and it will be removed from the list. Of course, if the Twitter icon is already there, you are ready to go. Now type your message in the Compose message field (remember you are limited to 140 characters) and click on the send now button and it will immediately be posted to the office Twitter account.

8 If you are including a link in your post, it is usually a good idea to shorten the URL to save some precious characters. You can use a URL shortening service like Bitly or Hootsuite can shorten them for you. To have Hootsuite shorten your link. Type the full URL in the Shrink field just below the compose filed. Once you have typed in the address just click on Shrink and Hootsuite will automatically shrink the link and place it in the compose field. You can then add any hashtags you need and then click on Send Now and the tweet will be posted. Finally, like for Facebook posts, you can schedule tweets so that they will go out at a later time. Type your tweet into the compose field, but this time instead of clicking Send Now you will click on the little calendar icon just below the compose field.

9 This will drop down the schedule message window. Now simply choose the time and date of when you want the message to publish, and then click on Schedule Hootsuite will hold on to your message and post it at the time you requested whether you are logged into Hootsuite or not. If you want to delete you scheduled post or change the text or the time when the post will be sent out. Click on the Publish icon on the left hand side (hint it looks like a paper airplane) and then modify or delete the post as you fit.

10 Cross-Posting to Twitter and Facebook (back to top) If your office has both an office Facebook account and an office Twitter account, there may be occasion when you want to post the same message to both services. With Hootsuite this is possible, in one easy to use place. Log in to Hootsuite as normal. When you have both the office Facebook account and the office Twitter account linked to Hootsuite you will be able to post to both platforms at the same time. First in the are just to the right of the compose area you may or may not see the two icons for the office Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you see them great, if not click in the blank space and click on both of them to get them to show up in that blank space. Once both icons are in the blank section you can click in the compose section and begin to write

11 you post. Once you have finished typing in your post (keeping in mind the 140 character limit for Twittter). Hootsuite will generate a Facebook preview page. You can add some additional information in the Facebook preview page compose section, but keep it short as only a few lines will show up in your Facebook post. Once you are happy click Send Now and it will post to both the office Twitter and Facebook accounts. Adding Twitter stream to the office Hootsuite account (back to top) Log into the office Hootsuite account. Select the tab you want the stream to appear in then click on the Add Stream button just below the tabs. Once you click on the add stream button the add stream window appears. Make sure Twitter is selected on the left hand side and then on the right hand side select the Search tab.

12 Now type in what you want to search Twitter for. Let s try this search, type in tornado OR hail OR flood (This search will return all the recent tweets with the word tornado or hail or flood in them). Then click on the create stream button at the lower right hand corner of the Add Stream window.

13 For examples of how to search Twitter you can click on the show examples link. The stream has now been added to your dashboard. You should now see the latest 30 tweets that contain either the word tornado or hail or flood.

14 What you say, these tweets aren t very relevant to your area, true true. Let s fix that to try and find some tweets from near you. In the upper right hand corner of your dashboard click on the downward point error to reveal a new menu. Then click on preferences. Now the edit streams window appears. Add the following geo location info to your search criteria geocode:31.8,-106.4,150mi Change the first two number to your appropriate latitude

15 and longitude. The third number is the radius in miles from that lat. long. point Twitter will search. Then click save changes Now you should see some more relevant tweets. It won t be perfect but it will be better than it was. To add further streams click on the add stream button in the upper left hand corner of the dashboard and repeat what we just did. On final thing. In the upper left hand corner next to the Add Stream button, is a down arrow

16 button. Click on it and a little drop down menu will appear to allow you to adjust how often Hootsuite will search Twitter. I would suggest every 2 or 5 minutes. You can set up a keyword search, which is similar to a regular search. Click on the Add Stream button, but this time select the Keyword tab. For each keyword search stream you can have Hootsuite search for three keywords. I would suggest for your first time to do a keyword search on the state weather hash tags. In the blank type in #XXwx (where XX is your state two letter abbreviation) and click on add, then repeat with two other nearby state hash tags (if you want). Finally click on the create stream button. Now Hootsuite will do a search and return all the tweets that contain one of those state weather hash tags you entered. Twitter Lists (back to top) One of the cool ways to organize information in Twitter is through lists. You can create, manage and populate the office s Twitter account s lists through Hootsuite. Log into your office Hootsuite account. Click on the add streams

17 The add stream window will appear. Be sure Twitter is selected in the left hand column, then click on the Lists tab to the right. Let s create three lists that we will be populating. Scroll the add stream page down by sliding the slider bar on the right down to see the bottom of the page. Select the radio button next to Create a new list Fill in the blank below it with something like EMs. Don t worry about adding something to the list description (unless you want too). Make sure to select the private list radio button and then create stream.

18 This will create a list for your Twitter account. It will also create a stream in your Hootsuite dashboard. For now we don t want this stream, so when you are taken back to the Hootsuite dashboard and can see the new stream for the list, click on the little down error in the upper right hand corner of the column and select delete stream from the options that appear.

19 Now repeat the process to create two more lists, one called media, and another called wx observers. Each time delete the created stream. By the time you are done your list of lists should look like this (try to say that three time fast):

20 Now return to your Hootsuite dashboard and let s create a home for your lists. On your Hootsuite dashboard click on the plus sign next to your tabs at the top of your columns. Hootsuite will load in the new tab, give it a good name like Lists and then click on the add streams button. Again in the add streams window make sure Twitter and lists are selected. Then select the radio button next to your EM s list name (it will probably look something like NWS EPZ/ems). Then click on the Create Stream button.

21 No repeat for your other two list. When you are done your Lists tab should be filled with three empty columns, one for each of your lists. Now it is time to populate your lists. Return to one of the other Hootsuite tabs, especially one that has searches that contain the tweets from people you are interested in. When you find someone you want to add to one of the lists, simply click on their name and their Twitter information window pops up. You can find out various things about the user in this window, I will let you explore it at a later time, for now click on the Add To List button in the lower right hand corner of the window.

22 Hootsuite will pop-up another window and ask you which list you want to add this person to, select the appropriate list and then click on save. Now if you return to your lists tab and look in the stream column of the list you assigned that person to, you should see their tweets filling the space. You can now repeat this and add up to 500 names to each list (you don t have to be following somebody to add them to one of your lists). Some other list gotchas to be aware of, list names cannot exceed 25 characters and each office account cannot have over 20 lists.

23 Twitter Searches (back to top) Sometimes you will need to do a quick search of Twitter. Now you can run off and do the search on the Twitter website, but Hootsuite gives you the ability to search Twitter without having to leave the dashboard. Perhaps it is a search for a term that you don t already have a stream for or it may be for a new hashtag that you saw pop up. To search Twitter via Hootsuite. Enter your search term(s) in the search field in the upper right hand corner of Hootsuite.

24 Once you have entered your search term, simply hit enter on the keyboard. Hootsuite will then pop-up a search result window. You can quickly scan the returned tweets. If you liked the returned tweets and want to add that search to your columns of streams, simply click on the Save as Stream button. Hootsuite will add the stream to the far right side of your columns (which may be off the screen to the right). Since you just did this search you may want to keep a closer watch on this stream. You can drag the stream to the left and slide it over a place where you can see it. You do this by hovering your cursor over the title bar of the stream you want to move. The cursor will turn into a four headed arrow. Then hold down the left mouse button and drag the column to the left. It may

25 take a couple of drags if you need to get it all the way over to the left. Replying and Retweeting to a tweet (back to top) Sometimes you may see a tweet in one of your search streams that may need some clarifying information. Someone may tweet that they had hail at their house, but you would like to know how big the hail was so you need to reply to their tweet. It is easy to do in Hootsuite. When you see the tweet you want to reply to, hover your cursor in the upper right hand corner of the box the tweet is in. A series of icons will appear, you will want to click on the arrow pointing to the left. When you click on the arrow, Hootsuite will expand the compose area and add the information. Then simply type in your question or comment, make sure the office

26 Twitter account is selected to the right of the compose area and then click Send Now. Remember now that you have asked a question you will have to monitor Mentions tweet stream to see if/when you get a reply to your tweet. Sometimes you will see a tweet from a trusted user that has some valuable information, such a road closer announcement from a local DOT. It is a good idea to retweet (RT) the tweet, so you can support your partner and help keep your followers informed on the latest information. So when you see a tweet you want to RT, again, hover your cursor over the upper right hand part of the box that the tweet is in. This time you will click on the retweet icon which is the arrow in the form of a squarish circle. When you click in the retweet button, depending on how your Hootsuite is configured it may pop up a menu to ask if you want retweet to your friends as is or to edit the tweet. I usually modify the tweet. The other way Hootsuite handles things is that when you click on the retweet button it will fill in the compose field with the proper retweet information. So if you modify the tweet or it just takes you to the compose field this is what you should see.

27 You may need to cut the tweet down a little if it is over the 140 character limit because the RT information was added at the beginning. Again make sure the office Twitter account is selected then click on Send Now Definitions (back to top) At (@) - Used when referring to a Twitter user in your tweet. You can prefix their username to display their Twitter account name in the update. An example would look Direct Message (DM) A private message sent between you and a follower on Twitter. The person you are sending the DM to must be a follower of yours. Facebook A popular social networking site with over 700 million members. Users are able to post their status updates, pictures or links. The NWS has rolled out Facebook pages for all NWS offices. Fan Page - Special profiles pages on Facebook meant to promote a brand, a product, an artist, a web site or an organization. All of the NWS office Facebook pages are fan pages. Like personal pages on Facebook, you can post pictures, links and status updates on a fan page. Followers Someone who subscribes to receive tweets from someone else on Twitter Friends Someone you mutually know or have a relationship with on Facebook. Friends are able to post status updates on each others wall. Hashtag - Coding to help organize and make tweets searchable. It usually takes the form of #xxxxxx, an example might look like #tornado or #hurricane. They are included in the tweet and are related to the content of your tweet. You can include more than one hashtag in a tweet. Hat Tip (HT) - Used when you are going to completely restate or paraphrase a persons tweet. It is a convenient way to acknowledge a follower that shared pertinent information. Hootsuite A social network platform that lets you monitor other social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. Through the dashboard users are able to post tweets to Twitter or status updates to Facebook. They are also able to monitor Twitter using keyword searches.

28 List A collection of Twitter profiles that are grouped together. A Twitter account does not have to be followed to be placed in a list. Modified Tweet (MT) Essentially a retweet, but the person retweeting the tweet has modified the original tweet (usually only slightly). Many times you will see a MT when someone adds a hashtag or other important information. News Feed The list of status updates of all your friends on Facebook Post Same as a tweet or status update. Retweet (RT) When one Twitter user sees a tweet from another Twitter user that they like, they can send that tweet back out to their followers. This is called a retweet. You can tell a retweet from a regular tweet by the RT appended to the beginning of the tweet or it will say just below the tweet retweeted by peakwx. Status update An update feature for Facebook which allows users to discuss their thoughts, whereabouts, or important information with their friends. The status update is posted to their wall and to the wall of the friends. Timeline The area on a user s Twitter page where they can see their tweets and the tweets from the people they follow. Tweet A short post (140 characters or less) on Twitter. A tweet can include just text or links to other web pages or pictures. The tweets are posted to a user s timeline and to the timeline of their followers. Twitter A popular social networking site with over 200 million members. Users are able to post quick and short (140 characters or less) updates called tweets. The NWS has begun to experiment with using Twitter to receive severe weather information. The NWS is also developing several prototype office accounts to test. Twitter Handle - This is the name that designates someone on Twitter. When someone asks what your Twitter handle is, you would give them your username. URL Shortener - Free services that allow you to create a short URL that is placed in a tweet. The shortened URL will redirect to the full long URL when visited. The 140 character limit for tweets means that URLs should be as short as possible. URL shortening services like ow.ly and bit.ly, for example, provide you with reports and statistics on how many people have visited your links. Only use the owl.li links to shorten urls, not any of the others like ow.ly or ht.ly.

29 Wall The area on a users Facebook page where they and their friends post their thoughts, views, or criticisms for all their friends to see. (back to top) Hootsuite Youtube video training series (back to top) NWS Hootsuite training - Posting to the office Facebook page NWS Hootsuite training - Twitter streams and searches NWS Hootsuite training - Adding the office Twitter account and Twitter lists