The estimated reading time for this post is 6 minutes
The Wonder of Tech welcomes guest author Manickam Vijayabanu who wrote the following article explaining the website HootSuite. If you are feeling overwhelmed at keeping up with your social media sites, HootSuite might be your best solution!
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Social Network Overload
As Social Networks continue to grow, connecting people and exchanging information becomes much more time-consuming due to the immense traffic and your increasing connections. You may own a business, want to create an online promotion campaign or just want to keep up with your contacts. How do you effectively manage multiple social network accounts with your busy schedule? For instance, what have you done with today’s tweets? What about your Facebook profile update? How about LinkedIn and MySpace submissions? Doesn’t it drive you crazy!?
Sharing information across multiple social networks has grown very rapidly, presenting big responsibilities and challenges. Whatever sites you become active with, the final question may arise, how much time and effort does it take to keep up with your sites? Cost does matter with Everything! So what is the best way to manage all of your accounts with less effort?
Try HootSuite! A simple and efficient online tool to handle multiple social network sites from one place. It will surely enhance your social networking experience.
What Is HootSuite?
Basically, HootSuite is a Social Media Dashboard! It helps people and organizations manage multiple social networking accounts being within a single website to identify, schedule messages, manage marketing campaigns, develop your audience and more importantly to distribute your targeted communications across multiple networks from within a single environment. Very impressive!
How To Setup a HootSuite Account?
HootSuite is a simple tool and creating your own account is very easy. HootSuite has provided very clean and intuitive user interface screens for easy navigation. You can setup your account and social networking connections less than 10 minutes and can make use of the tool as soon as you have created your account.
HootSuite offers two types of service packs, as Basic and Pro. Basic is entirely Free and allows you to connect up to five social network environments, and also provides free Social Analytics and feed options. Pro packages cost $5.99 per month and HootSuite offers a 30 day free trial period.
Installation:
Go to the Hootsuite website and choose the Basic Plan option. The site will guide you through the initial setup. Just complete the setup and in the next the step, site will navigate for Social Network stream additions. (Note: Basic package offers only the following networks – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Word Press, PingFm, Foursquare and Mixi). I would highly recommend to start with Basic package initially, then you can ramp towards a Pro package, if you feel that would be useful to your business.
Key Features and Benefits:
Here I have consolidated few key features and benefits from both Basic and Pro HootSuite packages. Technically, Pro package offers various security features and also extends other analytical functionality which may really help to manage your social network accounts in a more professional way. A Pro package is especially useful for a business with several employees authorized to post on its social network sites. For example, with HootSuite Pro you can coordinate individual user access, administrative privileges, team member management, and schedule maintenance. The analytic reports generated by HootSuite will help you keep track of your activity on all of your accounts on all of your social networks.
1) Message Scheduler:
This is one of the more noteworthy features of HootSuite. For instance, what is the best practical and effective way to handle updates to multiple social networking accounts during your vacation? HootSuite extends its hand to help in such situations and can be a real time-saver. You can compose all your tweets, article submissions, messages and even team delegation upfront according to your free time. You will be able optimize your messages ahead by scheduling the delivery at the best time and date to reach your audience.
HootSuite even offers the option of scheduling your messages up to a month ahead of time! A perfect Social Network scheduler. For Twitter enthusiasts this will become a real time saver, since you can compose all your deep-laid tweets at your leisure time and have wider choices to distribute those tweets evenly which keeps you connected around the clock.
2) HootSuite – On The Go:
This is a compelling and handy feature. HootSuite mobile apps are useful for On The Go. Since HootSuite is an Internet based application, you can access your account wherever you have Internet access. HootSuite has released their mobile app versions for smartphones like iPhone, Android, Blackberry and more, which will make your life easier and better connected while on the go.
3) Distributed Messages:
Compose your tweets or messages in one place and distribute them to multiple networks at same time or according to your set schedule. A real hassle-free communication tool with no need to log in to individual accounts. It will surely save you enough time so you can plan for other activities.
4) Email Confirmation:
Are you scared about your scheduled messages delivery status? No need to worry. HootSuite offers email confirmation as and when your scheduled updates post to let you know everything went as planned.
5) Security and Profile Management:
This is an especially important feature for businesses. With the Pro package, HootSuite allows you to authorize members for your account and also to define member level access rights. This feature provides additional and enhanced protection for enterprise teams when posting business level social profiles. This feature can be used for both web and mobile accounts.
6) Collaboration and Team Delegation:
If your type of business is spread out across many locations and you want to closely monitor your social network posts, HootSuite certainly will help to fine-tune your team delegation and intensify core monitoring processes. Being an admin account holder, you can always manage contributions from multiple users and can share the data across team members without sharing the passwords.
7) Internationalize:
HootSuite offers multiple language support for language localization. French, Italian and Japanese are available, to mention a few, and more languages are in the pipeline.
Summary
For every person or business, time, effort and cost are vital components to becoming successful. If you feel you or your business receives overwhelming responses from your web and social networking sphere, you can surely think about HootSuite to make your life more easy and to provide you with a more organized way of communicating on social networks. I anticipate people who travel a lot or delegate often with team of people will be able to benefit from monitoring their social media accounts on a single platform using HootSuite.
Just try it and have fun!
Have you become overwhelmed with keeping up with your social networks? Have you been looking for a way to keep up with it all? Have you tried HootSuite? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Guest Post By Manickam Vijyabanu
Manickam Vijayabanu, an IT professional and Blogger from Baltimore, Maryland who writes articles under – MediaCrayon
MediaCrayon is all about interesting articles and content from diversified fields where I love to discuss anything about Technology and Creativity.
Please follow me on Twitter:- http://twitter.com/#!/
Many thanks, Manickam, for your fantastic and timely article! Last week quite a few readers expressed concern with keeping up with all of their social network sites. You may have provided the idea solution!
Hi Carolyn,
My many thanks for your help and so happy to share my thoughts at your journey. It’s really a big honor for me and surely adds more value to MediaCrayon. I love the way you narrate technical subject matters at very simple, effective and informative. Really a great art and you well deserve it.
Glad to know, You found HootSuite article interesting and has arrived at right time to meet your expectations. That sounds really great.
Thanks Carolyn.
Greetings,
V.Manickam
Hi Manickam, Yes, this article was very helpful and informative, coming at the perfect time after Facebook’s announcement last week. I appreciate your hard work in writing this article. I am happy that you chose to share it with Wonder of Tech readers! 🙂
Mani,
Its a very useful app/tool for all business and people whoever keep using multiple social networks. I am right away going to download in my iPhone and try this nice one.
I prefer this app for the scheduled to tweeting option. Its cool.
An Interesting Article.
Thanks.
Hi Thiru,
Thanks for your visit and glad to know you found this tool interesting and useful. Absolutely. Scheduler is HootSuite’s one of the key feature. Online business community surely can try to make use of it niche,since it may save lot of time and effort. Glad to know you wish to have a try of smart phone app version. Just have a try and let me know your thoughts. Thanks.
Hi Thiru, You’re right, you can’t get more convenient with scheduling your tweets than to have HootSuite on your iPhone! I hope you really enjoy using the service. I’m so glad you found Manickam’s aweseom article helpful to you!
Hi Carolyn – this might be the thing for me, last week the FB changes caught me in a very bad moment!
Great article, Manickam, thanks for explaining all the features. Interesting name – MediaCrayon – I will head over to your site now.
Have a lovely day, Barbara
Hi Barbara, I have to say, I thought of your comment when Manickam submitted his article to me. Perfect timing!
Thanks for letting us know you found Manickam’s wonderful article to be useful to you. 🙂
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for your comment and happy to know you found HootSuite is interesting and useful. If you tweet often, I would highly recommend to have a try since you can schedule and keep as well organized.
About Mediacrayon name 🙂 , I was keep thinking a domain name which suits for all technical topics and subject matters, and finally zero down this. 🙂
I am glad you like my site and always welcome to MediaCrayon. Thanks for your lovely comment.
Hi Mani – This is interesting and quite an useful tool for many of us. It makes our lives easy having everything in one place rather than spending time managing all the social networking accounts. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Praveen,
Thanks for your visit and comment. Due to overwhelming traffic and exceptional business opportunity, most online business people started entering Dashboard driven tools business, since they can turn the mass Social Media crowd towards their tool and really make perfect sense from users viewpoint. Really, it makes life more easier.
I am glad you found the tool very useful and interesting. Thanks
Hi Praveen, Yes, HootSuite can make your interactions on social media more effective. Manickam did a great job explaining all the ways HootSuite can be useful.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment! 🙂
Manickam, aloha. Thanks so much for this excellent review. As a result of the clarity your explanation, I am ready to give HootSuite another go.
Late last year when I started with social media, I attempted to use it and found it frustrating. Quite honestly, I think the problem was with me rather than the system because everything was so new to me.
So many people give high marks to HootSuite and it certainly makes sense–especially give the time difference from Hawaii to my East Coast friends.
Okay, Manickam, it is on my “to do” list for later this week. Nice to meet you through this guest post on my friend Carolyn’s site. Look forward to reading more of your posts. Until then, aloha. Janet
Hi Janet,
Thanks for your visit and wonderful comment. I am happy to know that, you acknowledge the tool already and had a try. Sounds good 🙂
I too agree your point about learning curve and stuffs. It’s always little tricky, if anything we try new at technical. Frankly speaking, I am also new to this tool and the concepts makes very interesting to me and come up with this article. 🙂
I would suggest , You can try out with basic package for initial run and have an better idea. That should provide perfect feel about the tool. My many thanks to Carolyn to get a chance to meet you and many new people and I am happy about that. Let me check your site soon and post my comments. Thanks Janet.
Hi Janet, Good point, with the time difference between Hawaii and the East Coast, HootSuite could come in very handy for you to use for posting on Facebook and Twitter.
I’m glad Manickam convinced you to give HootSuite another try. He did a great job explaining the site and we are very honored to have him guest post here at The Wonder of Tech!
Thanks for visiting and leaving a wonderful comment for Manickam! 🙂
Yes, when I was Mr Manual and pretty much clueless; the increased activity was eating my lunch. Somebody told me I needed HootSuite so I installed it on my computer. It took my awhile to figure out the lists and such, but it has helped tremendously.
I would highly recommend it if someone were looking for organization.
Thanks for sharing this at Carolyn’s place; you are in some good company.
Hey Bill, I thought you were Mr. October? Maybe that was a different Bill Dorman.
Congratulations on being ahead of the game on tech. I’m glad you’re enjoying HootSuite. When you get your iPhone you will be able to load the HootSuite app onto it for even more convenient connections with your social media networks.
Thanks for welcoming Manickam. We are delighted to have him here at The Wonder of Tech! 🙂
Hi Bill,
That sounds awesome. Happy to know you found the tool very useful and saves lot of your time and effort. Though HootSuite holds many features, Scheduler is more attractive since it helps to save time. Yes. You are right. For online business this is a perfect Social Media scheduler to maintain all in one place. Thanks for your visit and effective comment. Thanks to Carolyn to get a chance to meet you here Bill.
HootSuite has been very useful for me ever since. I’ve used it to post my articles at designated time and day and it has brought significant amount of traffic to my site. Truly beneficial and I’m glad you have elaborated it here. 🙂
Hi Walter,
Thanks for your comments and happy to know you are widely using HootSuite at real time. That sounds awesome. 🙂
Also, I am glad to understand you found the scheduling option works well and you could make use to haul your traffic as well. That’s so cool 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and pass your effective comments.
Hi Walter, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. I’m so glad you are one of the many who enjoy HootSuite. Manickam did a great job of explaining the many benefits of the site and it’s great to hear from another satisfied user. 🙂
I am a big fan of Hootsuite. Very effective tool and something I use daily.
Hi Jake,
Thanks for your visit and comment. Glad to know you are happy with HootSuite and its features.
Hi Jack, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! As a fan of Timing and Time Management, I imagine you find HootSuite very useful. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
Hi Manickam,
I’ll throw in my thanks as well for this very indepth explanation of why Hootsuite is a great tool.
I’ve also tried it in the past as well but I’ll tell you what I don’t like about it. I’m a part of Triberr and it doesn’t tell me if my mentions are coming from my tribe members or not. I’ve stuck with TweetDeck for this very reason.
But I do run across people from time to time looking and searching for a great tool for third party tweeting so I’ll have to be sure that they read your review and let them make their own informed decision.
I appreciate the time you took to put this post together and Carolyn must think very highly of you to accept a guest post from you as well. You pass in my book!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Happy to see your mail. Great to know you have tried couple of Social Networking tools already, like TweetDeck and Triberr. Indeed, I am new to Triberr. Looks nice concept!
I agree your point about HootSuite were it doesn’t show up your mentions which is very crucial. What package type were you holding before..like Basic or Pro? I believe one reason could be, HootSuite’s architecture and about its data linkage flow.Like, it might pick dashboard data source only from primary supporting sites and should get extended in all directions. However, It should facilitate as whole to enjoy the real benefits. :). Thanks for sharing the information to your readers community. Really Appreciated. 🙂
Absolutely!. My post with Carolyn’s site is real honor for me and I am more delighted. Many thanks to Carolyn.
Hi Adrienne, You’re right, finding out whether you were mentioned through Triberr or not can be very important to members of that site. But I also like that HootSuite functions with many different websites in addition to Twitter.
Perhaps someday there will be an ideal site that coordinates to everyone’s satisfaction!
You’re absolutely correct, Adrienne. I hold Manickam in high regard and was truly honored that he submitted this article to The Wonder of Tech.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a helpful comment and awesome tweet!
Great review Mani!
I am from the TweetDeck camp, nothing wrong with the HootSuite though. I have been on TD form beginning, I switched to HS for a little while for exactly the point you have highlighted. Scheduled updates. But soon after TweetDeck added it and I am back. May be I just have grown used to use TweetDeck on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Regardless, your article is a very informative one. And welcome to one of my fav blogs. Hope to see you more often here.
Hi iRewardChart, I agree, Manickam’s blog post is very informative. We are extremely fortunate to have him as a guest author here at The Wonder of Tech!
Hi RewardChart,
Thanks for your visit and terrific comment. Happy to hear you are well proficient at both the tools and a wide range of real time user. 🙂 Your realistic knowledge will surely add more values to new users who prefer to use the tool.
I did notice many positive reviews about TweetDeck and works great as well. Cool! I am very much delighted that, you like the article and found informative.
Certainly, Carolyn’s posts are very much informative and useful. Many thanks to wonderoftech to get an opportunity to meet many new faces today 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and passing your wonderful comments.
Hi Manickam and Carolyn,
I agree, HootSuite is awesome. I have been using it for a while. And I have mostly used it for Twitter, but lately I have also been using it for the Facebook Page at the college where I’m working. I especially like scheduling status updates. It’s brilliant and perfect for my work.
Lately, I’m not using HootSuite for Twitter. I have been testing Pluggio, and that’s probably the one I’m going to be using for a long time (at least for Twitter).
Great post Manickam!
Jens
Hi Jens,
Thanks for your visit and awesome comment. I want to thank you and our visitors that, this article provides the opportunity to understand couple of other scheduling tools like TweetDeck and Pluggio were It provides more idea as what tools to choose when consider nice Social scheduler.:)
Its glad to know that, you are happy with Pluggio and works great for your needs. That’s cool. 🙂
I perceive technology is just to facilitate our need as what we need exactly and should be easy to handle. That’s it. It will be a sure hit. Again, Thanks for your wonderful comment Jens.
Wow… I had heard and used about multiple messenger from one messenger but social networking from one place is amazing especially when so many social networking sites are coming up…..
Hi Claire, you’re right, with all the social media sites available now, Hoot Suite is a very useful way of managing them. I look forward to HootSuite expanding to new social networks in the future.
Thanks for your visit and your comment!
Hi Claire,
Thanks for visit and nice comment. I agree on Carolyn and it makes your life so easy to keep all in one place. Real time saver. Happy to know you found the tool interesting. Thanks