How to use Hootsuite.

This is not meant to be a definitive guide, rather it is meant to give you some insight as to how versatile the program can be, even at the free level.

Today we will be discussing some basic, and some advanced functions and features of the program, Hootsuite.

https://hootsuite.com is where you should go to get started.

The First thing you should do is to set up an account.

After you’ve selected from the 3 options (Free, Premium, and Business)
it’s time to continue.

The next step is to add Social Networks. There are a few options listed for you, ( Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare)
Add as many as you would like, Really the more you add the more options you have, I personally have added my Facebook account, My Facebook Fan page, my Twitter account, my Google +, and my LinkedIn.

As a free member you only get 5 Networks to manage, but this is plenty for now.

The Dashboard.

You will learn to love this feature. It allows you to keep track of almost everything you can imagine in regards to S.M.
 The dashboard allows you to monitor the feeds across one or all of your networks.
Furthermore, you have to options to add inboxes, sent messages/tweets, Home Feeds. It allows you to filter certain words or phrases and tells you who is talking about them. It allows you to add friends and message them directly from the dashboard, you no longer even have to call up the webpage to respond to your messages.

Let’s get started with some basics.

The dashboard is composed of a few essential areas.

1 the Tabs:

These guys let you organize your streams, so you know where everything is at all times. Each tab allows you to hold 10 streams. And you can have up to 20 tabs, so you could follow up to 200 sources of information.

2 the Streams

This is the Meat of Hootsuite. The Streams that you can set up are incredibly useful.
Just for Facebook, you can add your Newsfeed, statuses, photos, videos, wall posts, events, Search and Scheduled.

You get basically the whole Facebook experience right there in one place. Tab over and all your twitter. Basically like a mini internet browser focused on only your Social Media.

This gets even cooler, Instead of simply choosing from the big green Add a stream, you can actually click the Add a stream button underneath the tabs, for a more advanced method of using Hootsuite.

From this menu we are able to get into one of the coolest parts of Hootsuite. Search and Keyword.

• Search allows you to look for Phrases or topics people are talking about. Simply select the Network you wish to search, and enter the term you wish to find.  This opens a new stream that displays everyone who is talking about that topic.

• Keyword allows you to find up to 3 particular words you wish to search for. *NOTE unlike Search if you wish to look for a cluster of words, you must “Place them in apostrophes” or it will only see the first word.

This is very useful with twitter. Being able to see who’s talking about what you’re interested in. and being able to interact with these people allows you to grow your brand that much further. It also allows you to find your target audience/ market.

Surprisingly, this works very well with Facebook as well.

3 The Sidebar.

This houses some very nice tools, some of which are only accessible to premium members.

• Streams is your Dashboard, It hosts all the tabs and streaming content.
• Publisher is an area that shows your upcoming scheduled posts. More on this in a bit.
• Analytics allows you to view data on your social media profiles, such as, who’s viewing, from where, when, and multitudes of other information useful to tracking traffic.
• Assignments, this is definitely a pro feature for the very serious. This allows you to assign and carry out tasks as a team. Allowing you to have multiple users of your Hootsuite account.
• Contacts Lists your Friends or followers in your Social Media, and the lists you want to make for content dispersion.

4 the Message Bar.

Here is one more awesome feature that Hootsuite does, that I haven’t talked about yet.

Hootsuite allows you to post updates / tweets / statuses across all your content simultaneously! You can post on your twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts at the same time! On top of that you can schedule your posts to be released at certain times of the day, on whatever day you want!

To clarify, if today is July 11, 2014, and I want my post about the effects of fertilizer washed into the ocean, and the direct effects on jellyfish overpopulation to be released on July 18, 2014 at 10:30 am, Hootsuite can do that. Even at the free level.

To do this, first select the Social Media you want to post to. Then begin to type the message in the Message box. 

After you are satisfied, note the bottom of the message bar.

• The first thing you will see is a super useful Link Shortener. Very handy especially when posting on twitter. 
• Next to that is the attachment tool, but I honestly rarely if ever use it.
• The Next button is your Scheduler.  This is the area where you can decide to turn on Auto Schedule, which posts your content across all your media in 5 minute spacer gaps.  Also it posts material every half hour.  Meaning your first post is sent, 5 minutes later it’s posted on your next chosen social media, etc. Once that is done, it waits a half hour, and will post your second posted content on your first S.M. and begin the cycle anew.  You also have the option of Posting at a specific time and date, and it will post to all your S.M. pages at once.
• Next to the Schedule button is Add Location, really mostly used for twitter, it allows people to sort posts by location.
• The next button is targeting options. Used only by Twitter, this allows you to post to specific countries.
• The Last button is privacy settings, Used by Facebook and Google+ this button allows you to share content with certain lists of friends.

Well that’s the quick and Dirty of What Hootsuite is, and how Best to use it. I hope that you found this helpful. Please feel free to comment, send me an email, or contact me on any of my social Media.

Thanks for reading!

To your many successes,

Andrew Halliday.