Social Sheila Video: HootSuite for absolute beginners


HootSuite is a social media management platform that can save you huge amounts of time in monitoring and interacting with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more. In this post, Sheila Averbuch shows you how to set up and use this application effectively.




The secret of Hootsuite's success is that it allows you to manage multiple accounts from one master dashboard. If you're a complete HootSuite beginner, this video will walk you through how to set up a free account, import and start using a handful of your social media identities.

I particularly appreciate the way HootSuite makes it easier for me to see my re-tweets, which can often be missed when I'm using the normal Twitter application. But the best value of all comes from eliminating the need to log into and interact with more than one application on my phone or desktop computer for these social networks.

The secret of Hootsuite's success is that it allows you to manage multiple accounts from one master dashboard.

There are a couple drawbacks to HootSuite you should be aware of: the app version for mobile phones can act a little oddly at times (giving me information I don't want, such as repeating old notifications about who has followed me). Additionally, "mentions" (where you'd like to tag someone in your post so they receive an alert that you're talking about them) are a bit more manual in HootSuite than they are in the native applications for Facebook and Twitter.

But these are minor issues – all in all, HootSuite is a tremendous timesaver for me. Social networking can be a time sink and HootSuite is a good way to help me get in, interact with the content and people I need to, and get out again, so I can go back to working on my writing.

Are there other social media how-to videos you'd like to see? Please leave a comment below. You can also view a full list of Social Sheila videos here.




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Sheila writes middle-grade science-fiction and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Alongside Louise Kelly, Sheila also co-ordinates the SCBWI network for Southeast Scotland – contact southeastscotland@britishscbwi.org for details on member meetups

5 comments:

  1. I agree about Hootsuite! And I agree about the smartphone niggles as well. On a phone when you click away from an unfinished tweet to double check something Hootsuite can't keep your unfinished tweet in memory! I get caught out all the time. But still. It's the multi account social media tool I would recommend.

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  2. This looks great thanks for bringing it to light hopefully this will save time that can be spent doodling!

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  3. Thanks folks -- even with its drawbacks I think its timesaving potential makes it worth it. And I haven't even mentioned "hootlet" which is a browser bookmarklet that makes it even easier to post!

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  4. Sheila that was great - I signed up for hoot suite ages ago but sorely lacked your reassuring guidance!

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  5. I've downloaded Hootsuite a long time ago but haven't used it at all, this really helps to figure out what it's all about!

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