Keeping Up in the New Age of Social Media

Nov 03, 2015
Danielle

Social media has taken off like a wildfire since the millennium. You are capable of reaching people you never thought possible, and you’re trying to keep up with every platform to grow your brand. Now there’s something even better to help you manage your marketing ploys – Hootsuite!

It Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time

I heard about it very recently. A program that’s used to combine every social media account you have – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress… So that you can tend to them more efficiently and share quicker. Growing up in the age of technology, I loved the idea. But… It sounded too cluttered, too good to be true. I couldn’t imagine a good way for them to cover all the bases of what I would want to see, how I would want to see it, and still make it worth paying for.

So I Subscribed

They have a nifty free trial. I didn’t even need to download anything. I was able to link all of my social media accounts in one place to see everything that was going on. One screen had all the information I needed, instead of opening a million and one of those pesky tabs that always tend to slow down my computer.

It’s kind of marvelous!

The ease of use was incredible! There was a brief tutorial once I signed up. If you’re anything like me, you’d rather get down to business and figure it out yourself, hands on, without trying to decode their new language and make sense of what THEY think you should be doing with this program. I humored them and followed along for a few simple steps to make sure I understood my way around – after all, there are a lot of buttons here!

The Merge

It pointed me in the direction of merging media accounts, and then further broke down each account I had control over into sub-categories or “streams” – like “home” on Instagram, vs. a list of “followers,” “popular,” or of course – “Scheduled posts.”

Streaming!

The streams I added from different media accounts were seamless to use, move, and delete when I decided I had no use for them there. The buttons are all self-explanatory; anyone growing up with technology like myself will find it second-nature, and those who didn’t will not take long to figure it out.

There is the possibility for “tabs” within the program, which allows incredible customization. I could very easily add these little “streams” of information by platform, and/or by group/account. I could see all of my Instagram streams in a tab (Home, Followers, Following, Popular, Your Posts, etc…) then all of my admin group streams in a new tab to easily move back and forth between them on ONE PAGE and make sure I’m not missing anything.

But back to that “Scheduled” thing!

A huge help this program has added is making it possible to sit down and literally plan out media posts as far into the future as you’d like- right down to date and time. These can be sent to whichever accounts you’d like to plan for, all the same or different for each scheduled post. You can plan your week or month, and set a small chunk of time aside to write up posts, and schedule them to hit when it’s convenient to you – for sales after holidays, planned group meetings, or just to keep conversation going. You can then keep checking back to follow the response – see where your brand is going and interact with those communication with you about it!

Oh, the data!

As if you could believe there were more, I will say that ease of use/convenience is just the start of what Hootsuite has to offer. You can add teams to your feeds and disperse special permissions to tackle accounts together and ensure certain people are responsible for specific areas of branding. You can view fantastic analytical reports about how Hootsuite is working for you – time use, engagement, insights, and overviews. And you keep all of the privacy settings, lingo, and formatting in each media account that you’re used to, so that you are not adapting to yet a new way of sharing and promoting- you are just bringing them all together under one roof!

WebManna’s got the inside scoop on this awesome program and we’re having great success with our clients! Contact us if you’re interested in getting help to spread your brand.