MKTG 347 week 7 Hootsuite

Hootsuite is an online tool to help you post things among multiple platforms at one time. Hootsuite has various features, you can pick different social media platforms to post on at once, you can also view various different streams. Streams are different views of the social media platform in once place but separate.

The first thing you need to do on Hootsuite to be able to post to various social medias at one time is to add a Social Network. In the top left corner it looks like this: 

Simply hit the +Add Social Network, and you will be presented with this, where you can see the various social media platforms you can share too. On the right side when you click on which platform you want to add there will be the "Connect with ____" and you simply hit that and log in. On Facebook, and maybe others I am only sure of Facebook, you can pick which parts of your profile you want to connect. I do not need my personal Facebook account on Hootsuite, so I only allowed them access to my Digital Marketing page. 

Once you add different social media platforms you can pick streams, and that is what you see on the Hootsuite website. Here is what it looks like for twitter, any thing you add will create a new stream (pictured below). Each stream shows different types of posts/content that is on the website. But if you have no interest in "Likes" you do not need to stream it, but if you want to be able to see your Tweets and you mentions at the same time but not mixed up, Hootsuite can do that for you. 

So this is a screenshot of my Hootsuite stream. The left column is my tweets, I share my blog on twitter and do not really use the social aspect of it, so my tweets are just my blogs. The middle is my "home" on Twitter, so the things that show up on my twitter feed when you first visit or log onto the website. The right column is my Facebook timeline for the Digital Marketing Page I have. This feature is nice because you can add additional platforms, these are just the three I can see at one time. Hootsuite makes it easy to manage multiple accounts at one time. 

So now that you have an idea about the Hootsuite features itself,  we can talk about what Hootsuite can do for you on different platforms. Hootsuite gives you the ability to post across various platforms at one time. 

This is what it looks like. Simple, but powerful. You type, add links, or add attachments, and Hootsuite will post it to all of the selected platforms with the simple click of "Send Now". The three shown here are highlighted blue because they are all selected and if I were to send something it would go to all three of those. Hootsuite gives you options, you can either send them now and post them immediately (within the hour), or you can  hit the little calendar icon above the Send Now button, and schedule when you want something posted. It can be useful to schedule things weeks in advanced so you can take a break from posting, but you have to have the content ready ahead of time or this feature will not be applicable to you. 

Hootsuite seems overwhelming, but in reality they make life easier for Social Media Marketers. Just try it out and if you have any questions, or get stuck, they have ways they can help you. Hootsuite also has video tutorials for a lot of the things I mentioned. Give it a try! If I can figure it out, you can too.