Managing Facebook And Twitter Is A Lot Easier With More Than A Little Help From Hootsuite
Note from Diane: Hootsuite is probably my favourite Social Media Dashboard to schedule Tweets, share content, manage any mentions and direct messages,reply to people and get an overview of what is going on in Twitterville and on Facebook.
As an entrepreneur I value my time and anything that saves me time and makes my online life easier is a winner for me. Before I used Hootsuite I used Socialoomph for scheduling up Tweets and sharing content and still use it’s awesome Direct Message software.
I also use Tweetdeck and Tweetadder for different Social Media tasks but for today’s post I am going to focus on the fundamentals of my little owl friend Hootsuite.
Feature Article: Tips On Managing Facebook And Twitter With Hootsuite
When I first started out online I thought some people never slept! How on earth did they manage to write all that content, Tweet every couple of hours and still have time to build a business?
Then I discovered how … software! How to be in two places at once and still not be in either!
Some Of The Best Features Of Hootsuite Include:-
So first things first SIGN UP for your Hootsuite account …
Then go to the HOME PAGE symbol (the house in the top left hand corner) then => SETTINGS => SOCIAL NETWORKS
This will open up a new window that will look something like this ..
Add ALL the Social Media accounts you want to manage on TWITTER and FACEBOOK including FACEBOOK PAGES that you Admin. You can add these other Social Media accounts at the time of writing :-
If you are just starting out I would recommend using Twitter and Facebook at first, and limit your Social Media time to an hour a day MAXIMUM, it is easy to get distracted on Facebook. Using Hootsuite keeps you focused on the right tasks, which is networking and sharing content, some of which is yours and being generous and sharing others that you know your followers will find valuable.
Sending anyone on Social Media to a constant stream of faceless “salesy” affiliate links is going to make you unpopular really quickly! You will find yourself FOLLOWING and FOLLOWING with nobody following you back. Then you end up looking like Billie No Mates at the party! V. uncool 
So once you have your Hootsuite account set up and your STREAMS lined up ready to go you can do some really cool stuff :-
1. How To Schedule A Post In Hootsuite
One of the best features that Hootsuite allows you to do is SCHEDULE posts in advance .. this is your DAILY HOMEWORK for your business it is not a TO DO it is a MUST DO and in the online marketing space DAILY means .. every day including Saturday and Sunday.
Did I mention you could SCHEDULE in ADVANCE? So that’s how you can be “working on Sundays” when you are actually hanging out with your friends at the beach .. or having lunch with your family
Enter your 140 characters or less Tweet into the MESSAGE BOX in the top left hand corner of your Social Media Hootsuite Dashboard. Instead of simply hitting enter, Hit the CALENDAR symbol which will open up in a new window
2. How To Share A Link To Facebook
I am a Hootsuite Pro account member which is a ridiculously LOW cost per month for some extra power, like unlimited Social Media accounts and RSS Feeds ( free account members are limited ) and the statistics and marketing data for Hootsuite Pro members is really amazing.
If you want to add a link to your Tweet or Status update in Hootsuite the process is the same as the TWEET above but you enter your full “http” link into the box under the message box and then hit the SHRINK button. Hootsuite will then shrink the link and enter it into your message automatically. (It will also produce you a report as a Hootsuite Pro member every week to let you know how many people clicked it!) which you might want to consider maybe IMPORTANT FEEDBACK for your business activities!
*IMPORTANT If you are posting a link to your FACEBOOK page using HOOTSUITE after your SHRINK the “http” link a message will pop up saying something like “generating preview for Facebook please wait”.
You should select an eye catching THUMBNAIL to post with your link using the SELECT a THUMBNAIL feature before posting or scheduling to another day and time as in the example above.
3. How To Add Your Blog RSS Feeds For Instant Streaming Of Your Content To Your Social Media Accounts
Hootsuite has some very powerful RSS features, far too many to mention in this blog post, but one of the easiest ways to stream all your new blog posts onto your Social Media accounts on AUTOPILOT is to add your blog RSS feeds to your Hootsuite account.
Go to Hootsuite Home => SETTINGS => RSS/ATOMS
Simply follow the ADD RSS FEED instructions and sit back and relax as Hootsuite takes care of another task for you from now on.
There is a lot to learn about Social Media and it is not something that can be done in a weekend, so seek out great advice on all the software that is out there to help you and spend the time saved on doing more income producing activities.
Feel free to share if it helped you!
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