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Hoot-Up (HootSuite Style)

Dec 092011

A few days ago, Houston held it’s first “Hoot-Up“. A Hoot-Up is like a Meet-Up but sponsored by HootSuite. At the Hoot-Up, we had a wide range of users there (they range from Certified HootSuite Professionals to those who use it once or twice a week, and even a couple who just wanted to know more about it). The conversations were engaging and when someone posed a question the others jumped in when they knew the answer to help out. We talked about the Desktop, Web and Mobile versions.

Some of the questions were:

“I have HootSuite on my Phone but I can’t get it to post, what am I doing wrong?”

After walking through the steps with this person, we discovered she was not selecting the social network she wanted to post from.

“I have connected it to my Google Account, but when I want to log in from the log out page, it won’t let me.”

When the “time out log out” occurs, sometimes you have to go back to the original log in page and click to log in with your Google Account.

“I heard that you can connect it to your Google+ Account, but I can’t find it anywhere.”

We explained that you don’t have access to that app yet UNLESS you have the Enterprise Account.

We also shared what we like about HootSuite. Below are some of the features that were mentioned (this is not a complete list):

The ability to see all my networks at a glance
The ability to schedule from one, some or all networks at the same time
The reports feature

The following features are limited to Pro/Enterprise Users:

The ability to bulk upload a weeks or a months updates at a time
The ability to move updates around in the calendar view
The ability to add team members
Assign tasks to team members

We had a small turn out due to the weather or other life circumstances but one thing was for sure, the people who were there, were the ones that made the Hoot-Up such a great event!

Use One Site to Update All Your Social Media

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May 192011

HootSuite - Social Media Dashboard

Did you know that you can use one site to update all your social media? You can sign up for a free HootSuite account and easily update all your networks in one fell swoop. You can do it “in the cloud” using a PC and a browser or you can do it from your mobile device. You can update to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more social networks.

Another program that lets you update all your social media networks at once is called yoono. This is a program that can be added to your Firefox browser as an add-on tool. You can automatically view and update your social networks with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo and others. It does not have as many networks available as Social Oomph and ping.fm but it looks promising as they plan to add more social media networks eventually.

Gizapage is another promising aggregator. It says it’s an integrated social hub bringing together your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and more so that you can share with all networks at the same time, and you can pick and choose which networks too. It also lets you view your full profile from one spot. The problem with it is that you have to ask for a quote. It looks really great but that automatically makes me think it will be expensive. I put in for a quote but haven’t heard anything yet.

Social aggregators aren’t new, they’ve been around as long as social media has been around. If you do a Google search on social media aggregators you’re likely to find a lot of them both working and defunct. You’ll find free aggregators, and premium fee based services. They come and go so choose a popular one that is widely used so that you don’t have to start over. Part of using an aggregator is to save time. Setting one up takes some time and work but is worth it in the end so no matter which one you choose definitely make sure you do choose one in order to stop wasting time duplicating tasks.

7 Tips for using Hootsuite

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May 012011

I have been using HootSuite for a couple of years now. I switched over from the other platform I was using, and I can’t be more happy. This is exactly want I wanted and I use it everyday. Below are som tips that i think will help you make a better decision that HootSuite is for you too (or not).

Use it for ALL your social networks. Did you know that you can update the following from Hootsuite? Facebook profile, Facebook Pages, Twitter, Linkedin, Ping.fm, 4Square, WordPress, Myspace and your blog?
Custom Tabs. You can have each of the ones above on a separate tab or you can have each client on a separate tab.
Search/Keywords. You can do your ORM for your and your clients brand and have each on its own tab.
Teams/Assignments. When adding in your social networks, you can have all your team-mates who are working in the same accounts with their assignments-just have them add themselves as team members.
Tracking. When you are putting in a link, you can use the ow.ly shortener to save space but you can use it inside Hootsuite for tracking. It will tell you how many clicks and which of your links are getting the most clicks so you can run similar URLS to get the similar results.
Schedule updates. You can use the “Send later” feature to schedule many updates for all the various networks. Just type in your update and click the “Send later” and follow the steps for scheduling them. This is great if you have things that you have to have out at a certain time and don’t want to forget. Or if you want to schedule your favorite quotes.
Drafts. Hootsuite offers a “Save” button. You can start an update and if you can’t finish it, you can save it for later. Or if you are running similar ones and want to save them so you don’t use the same one twice you can do that also. Then when you are done, you can delete them.

Twitter – How To Social Media (Part 3)

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Mar 032011

Twitter may seem like a relatively new player on the social media front, but the site is actually nearly five years old, having debuted in 2006. Now, Twitter has over 100 million registered users who are sending out a combined 55 million-plus tweets a day. Many people still see Twitter as a waste of time – but didn’t they think the same thing about the Internet, 15 or so years ago?

If you’re looking for a quick, concise way to reach a wide audience, Twitter may be your answer. Twitter’s strength lies in its openness and its numbers. Of course, those are its drawbacks, too. It’s so easy to connect with people on Twitter that it isn’t much of a commitment – at first, at least.

As a business owner, you should observe what the “average” user does – and then do the opposite! For instance:

The average user has fewer than 100 contacts. Business owners aim to increase their reach.
The average user’s tweet is “chatty.” Business owners strive to provide value.
The average user hasn’t tweeted in the past week. Business owners want to stay active.

If you’re ready to commit to Twitter, one of the best things you can do is to enlist the help of one of the numerous third-party Twitter applications, such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Seesmic. These services allow you to track conversations according to numerous keywords, post on different profiles, and create tweets to post at a later time or date.

Here’s what you want to do in your 15 minutes a day:

Post an update. As with Facebook, make your updates applicable to your audience. Provide a link to your latest blog post or an interesting factoid related to your market. (1 minute)
Check out your new followers. If they look like appropriate contacts (i.e., not spammers), follow them back. (2 minutes)
Respond to DMs, i.e., direct messages, and “@” messages. The latter are tweets aimed directly at you, but posted publicly. (2 minutes)
Check your keywords and hashtags. Through the services suggested above, you can track keywords in your niche. Read what people are talking about and asking about; answer questions where you can, and join in conversations where appropriate. (5 minutes)
Read your feed and see what people are talking about. Some of your followers will be chatting about your area of specialty; others won’t. Spend a minute or two joining a few conversations, even if it’s about last night’s Red Sox/Yankees game. (2 minutes)
Retweet useful information. Did someone tweet a useful tool or a great blog post you think your market will love? Retweet it! You’ll generate good karma while providing great content for your followers. (2 minutes)
Create a few updates to post to Twitter at a later date. Make it look like you’re on Twitter more than you are by creating a tweet or two and scheduling it to post later. (1 minute)

The key to Twitter success is brevity and consistency. Users’ feeds scroll by so quickly that if you’re not in the stream consistently, you’re going to fade into the woodwork. Yet if you’re out there with useful information frequently, you’ll build a loyal following.

Word of caution: If you schedule tweets to go out…do so in moderation and check to make sure that people did not respond to it. HootSuite is my preferred method of keeping up with my social media.