If You’re Not Using HootSuite To Manage Your Social Networks Now, You’re Going To Hate Yourself Later

Peter Guirguis Social Media 27 Comments

Note:  There is a video tutorial in this article

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend on Twitter, Facebook, or any of the social networks?

If you’ve never measured how much time you spend on social media, then I can almost guarantee you that the amount of time that you spend on them is WAY more than you think.

I used to think that I only spent 1 hour a day on social media sites until I signed up for this one app that actually measures everything that you do on your computer and puts it into charts.

Guess what?

I was spending sometimes up to 3 hours a day on social media sites, especially on Twitter!

Your time is valuable and today, I’m going to share with you an app that can literally give you 14 hours of your week back (depending on how much you use social media).

Can you use an extra 14 hours a week?

The Problems You Face When You Don’t Use a Social Management App

So if you aren’t using a social media management tool like HootSuite, here are the problems that you face:

  • You have to visit each social network to read your status updates, timeline etc.
  • You need to go to each social site to compose an update
  • When it comes to scheduling your messages in advance, the options are slim to none
  • If you’re using more than one person to manage a Twitter or Facebook account, there’s no way for you to work in teams
  • The painful list of shortcomings goes on and on…

HootSuite Comes to the Rescue

If you use HootSuite as a social network management tool, all of these problems are solved and you get a lot more bonus features.  Here are some of  the things that HootSuite has to offer:

  1. Update multiple social accounts and networks at once (e.g. multiple Twitter, Facebook accounts etc.)
  2. Schedule messages in advance
  3. Provides a  great way for you to work in teams to manage your accounts
  4. Gives you analytics and insights to re-tweets, clicks, likes on Facebook and much more
  5. Create drafts of messages and send them whenever you like
  6. Add different streams of your social networks into one consolidated dashboard organized into nice looking columns.
  7. Free mobile apps for iPhone, Android, iPad, and others platforms.

HootSuite is Free with Premium Features

Most of the features that are mentioned are bundled with the free version of HootSuite.  If you need to work in teams, need a lot of reporting, or have more than 5 social networks, you’ll want to sign up for their Pro plan which starts at $9.99 a month.

I do the social media management of my own networks in addition to our church’s, so I have a premium account.  I switched over from TweetDeck which quite frankly, doesn’t have half of the features that HootSuite does.

I’ve also created a video that shows you how to use most of the features in HootSuite.  Check it out.

If you’d like to sign up for a free HootSuite account, you can click on the button below.

 

[x_button shape=”square” size=”large” float=”none” href=”https://notashamedofthegospel.com/hootsuitego” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Check out HootSuite[/x_button]

 

 

Disclosure:  To pay for a portion of the costs of this online ministry, I’ve decided to sign up to become a HootSuite affiliate.  That means that you can keep your free HootSuite account forever but if you upgrade to the Pro version, HootSuite will pay me a commission.  I wanted to disclose this information and to let you know that whether I’m a HootSuite affiliate or not, I still would give HootSuite the same 5 star review.

How about you?  Do you use any tools to manage your social networks? Which ones are your favorite?

 

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Comments 27

        1. The problem Paul, as I understand it, is that Google hasn’t released the API information in order to allow third party apps to be able to manage their personal Google Plus profiles. Were you using any other app before switching to HootSuite, by the way?

          Reply

          1. Yeah, I get that. I just wish that both were possible.

            I used Twuffer, BufferApp, and Timely.is (which was my favorite and doesn’t work anymore). If I could just limit scheduled tweets to a certain number (say 3) and those would auto-schedule, hootsuite would be the best, but I use it now so I can post tweets to G+, FaceBook pages, and twitter at once.

            I know that ideally, I wouldn’t do that; I’d have separate content, but I think it’s better than ignoring FaceBook and G+ like I was before.

            Paul

            Reply

            1. Lately I’ve not been having warm fuzzy feelings towards Facebook. It seems like its getting more complicated and like our posts don’t get seen as much anymore. I definitely don’t feel like paying to promote my post.

              Reply

    1. You’re welcome Kurt, you’re gonna love using HootSuite. Knowing most of your social network needs, you’ll probably be fine with the free account unless both you and Kathy want to manage the same social networks from your own account.

      Reply

  3. I’m a creature of habit, so I have not looked at HootSuite yet. Will check it out when I have time! Been busy helping out a few folks! 🙂

    Thanks Peter as always for good info.
    Blessings
    Greg

    Reply

  4. This advertorial is a little bit of a joke. If you are going to talk about the efficiencies that come along with a CRM or a CMS at least have the integrity to point out it’s short comings as well.

    POSTING:
    Hootsuite fails miserably when it comes to posting to multiple Social Channels at the same time. Why would I ever want to say the same thing on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and my WordPress Blog? Won’t my boss fire me if he sees another Hashtag on my Facebook wall. How am I supposed to post to my blog through a text box (shame on WordPress to even allow such a crappy integration).

    Monitoring:
    If I manage the Social Media for 5 different accounts (Companies) why must I use an interface that shoves all the conversations I am tracking all into the same dashboard. This is cluttered and incredibly inefficient when it comes listening and responding to everything from mentions to lead generation.

    Analytics:
    First I hate the idea of buying credits to then purchase reports. Second OW.ly click reporting is a joke. Where are the actionable metrics that allow me to understand what is working and what is not. Where are the analytics on users? This is not email reporting where we check how many got delivered and how many got opened. But how do I measure the effort and quantify the result of the people doing the work.

    If you are an agency you need to use a platform that is designed for team collaboration and delivers transparent reporting on all effort and result. Of what I posted which topics and times do the best for me. Of the conversation I engage in which one move the needle. Of the people doing the work who is a rockstar and who needs some training.

    Hootsuite is a great entry level tool but far from a business solution.

    Reply

    1. Thank you David for sharing your feedback. I have to say, I wouldn’t really classify HootSuite as a CRM or a CMS. I don’t think that HootSuite even tries to say that it is anything close to something like salesforce.com or any of the other great CRM’s out there.

      HootSuite is a great social media dashboard. Obviously, the word great is subjective and I’m pretty sure that you can count on there being thousands of people that share the same opinion.

      The audience of my blog are mostly bloggers and have yet to learn all the ins and outs of social media. That’s why I recommend HootSuite for them since it’s free and for those that need a little bit more robust reporting, they can pay for the upgrade.

      What is your app of choice by the way?

      Reply

      1. I use and built Social Office Suite. I built @SOS out of the need for my digital agency. So while I am biased the UI I designed and features I added in were based off of what failed me in everything from Hootsuite to Radian6. The Patent Pending features like Split Post and Categories that allow you to create your own KPI’s and make more actionable metrics possible is significant. If you ever want a demo of SOS just let me know and I will have someone on my team give you one. You can see more about the collaborative platform which delivers enterprise features in a UI designed for business owners and brand managers here sos.me/why. We will be coming above the radar towards mid January and sharing our mobile and desktop solutions. I think once you see the feature set and how efficient you can get in the social space not to mention the transparency we create you will become a fan. Either way I would love to give you a demo and get your honest opinion.

        Reply

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