Shweiki Media has teamed up with Kevin Knebl—international speaker, author, trainer, coach and an authority on social media and marketing—to present a webinar on how to use Hootsuite to maximize one’s Twitter success.
By watching Knebl’s first two webinars, “Optimizing Twitter Accounts” and “Daily Habits that Lead to Twitter Success” from Shweiki Media, one can understand the basics of Twitter: how to set up an account and how to establish a simple 15 minute daily routine. Here Knebl explains how to use a tool called Hootsuite that makes social media sites like Twitter much easier to use.
What is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a website that manages multiple social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. It allows users to create, send and schedule a tweet. Hootsuite also lets people post across social media platforms, so if someone tweeted something they could also post it to Facebook as well.
It is important to remember that every single feature and function on Twitter is also available on Hootsuite, and the tool also has many features that are unique and therefore not available on Twitter.
The first thing one should do before jumping into Hootsuite is familiarize themselves with the basics of Twitter. If someone does not know how to use Twitter, Facebook, etc., then he or she will have a hard time understanding how to use Hootsuite. Therefore, it is important to have a basic understanding of each social media site being used in order to understand how to use Hootsuite most effectively.
Hootsuite’s Unique Features
People can post tweets directly from the Hootsuite homepage. One feature that is unique to Hootsuite is the ability to schedule tweets.
Nowadays, people lead extremely busy lives and it can be difficult sometimes to post to social media everyday. Hootsuite fixes this problem by allowing its users to schedule their tweets whenever they want. All one has to do is craft the tweet, then click the calendar icon to schedule the time and date when one wants the message to be tweeted out. If a person wants a tweet to go out the next day at 3:05 p.m. then he or she must simply put that date and time in the calendar.
With Hootsuite, people can now schedule their tweets to go out at any time in the future. This can be incredibly helpful, especially if one follows a daily 15-minute routine. It allows one to schedule out all kinds of posts across one’s social media channels, thereby maintaining a presence without having to physically be at an iPhone or computer at a specific time.
Another unique feature of Hootsuite is that it will shrink long URLs with a simple click of a button, therefore maximizing the available 140-character allotment for Twitter.
There are a maximum of 200 lists on Twitter. It requires several clicks for users to get to their lists, but on Hootsuite, lists can be seen as tabs. Instead of having to open up another page, users can see all of their lists as tabs the moment they log into Hootsuite. It also enables users to create sub-columns within each tab.
The news feed on Twitter is the same exact news feed that appears on Hootsuite. Hootsuite will automatically create mentions of a person’s Twitter handle. For example, anytime my Twitter handle, @kevinknebl, is mentioned on Twitter, Hootsuite sees that somebody tweeted about or to Kevin and puts it in one of his news feed columns. It automatically sorts through all of this information for users, meaning users do not have to do the sorting themselves like they do on Twitter by going to notifications. This makes easier to engage with people, because one can retweet or direct message them right from the Hootsuite homepage.
One can also also set up a keyword for just his or her name. For example, Kevin set up a keyword for his name, Kevin Knebl, so he can easily see who is talking about him. Once he knows who is talking about him, Hootsuite allows him to add people to a list and see their most recent tweets. Now, if he wants, he can easily engage with someone who has mentioned him by replying, retweeting or direct messaging them.
When Hootsuite users open up the homepage, they will see all of these different features right in front of them without having to click on different buttons and go to different pages. From the homepage, one can see his or her lists, post to Twitter or Facebook, schedule posts, and much more.
Free Vs. Premium Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a tremendously powerful tool that saves people a lot of time. The features discussed above are all available on the free version. Opting for a premium account on Hootsuite will turn on more features and provide more information, like what time of day most people often retweet things and the keywords that are most commonly retweeted. Upgrading to the premium account allows users to see the things they find truly valuable
The premium account is often very appealing to marketers because the extra marketing information it offers is very helpful. However, many will find that the free version has everything that they need.
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