7 Benefits of Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Social Media

It is no secret that social media is important to building your company’s brand. However, keeping up with continual posting and connecting with your customer base can be difficult and incredibly time consuming. Is there a way to strike a balance?

Thankfully, yes. Meet Hootsuite.

What is Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is an incredibly useful application for managing social media network channels. Often referred to as a social media management system or tool, it enables you to view multiple streams at once and monitor what customers are saying. You can post updates, read responses, schedule messages, view statistics, and much more. Many international brands—including Coca-Cola and Sony Music—utilize this timesaving approach to social media marketing.

7 Key Benefits of Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Company’s Social Media Presence:

1. Monitor Multiple Social Media Streams in One Place

Perhaps the most compelling reason to utilize Hootsuite for your brand is that it allows you to manage multiple social media networks in one place. No more remembering pesky passwords or having to go to each website individually.

With Hootsuite, you can post updates, review responses, and connect with your customer base on over thirty-five popular social networks, including:

Twitter
Facebook (including Profiles, Events, Groups, and Fan Pages)
LinkedIn (including Profiles, Pages, and Groups)
Google+
Foursquare
WordPress blogs
And several other platforms via third party apps (including Vimeo, Reddit, Via.me, StumbleUpon, Instagram, Tumblr, Evernote, Flickr, MailChimp, Slideshare, Storify, Edocr, Get Satisfaction, and others)

2. Schedule Posts in Advance

Another important reason to use Hootsuite is that it allows you to schedule messages across all your favorite social media platforms in advance. This enables you to create a solid social media strategy that encompasses crucial times when postings are most often read and get more followers to notice your content.

Simply pick the day and time that best suits your needs. You can then view scheduled posts in an easy-to-read calendar format.

3. Easily View Analytics Data

Hootsuite’s unique analytics feature gives you an in-depth view of how well your social media strategy is working. The tool tracks clicks across all of your favorite platforms, delivering them in an easy-to-read series of charts. Furthermore, Hootsuite provides other extensive monitoring and reporting features that allow you to create professional-looking, printable reports on your business’ social media progress.

4. Hootlet Plug-In Allows You to Share Information Easily

Hootlet is a terrific bookmark plug-in that allows you to easily share content across the web with your followers. This special add-on tool to Hootsuite sits atop your browser toolbar for easy access. When you find something online that you would like to share with the world, simply click the Hootlet button. The application shortens the URL with Ow.ly and inserts a small snippet of prominent text from the site into your social media message. Hootelet is just one of the many plug-ins that make adding Hootsuite to your social media arsenal worthwhile.

5. Social Media Listening

An excellent way to connect with your customer base is through social media listening—noticing what others are saying and bringing your company’s value to the conversation. Another great feature of Hootsuite is that it allows you to track key phrases and terms across other user’s posts to determine when your expertise could be beneficial. This can be an excellent way to bring in new clients, simply by being highly in tune to their needs!

6. Manage Customer Service on Social Media Efficiently

One reason many companies shy away from social media platforms is that it can be difficult to manage customer service effectively on them. With Hootsuite, you can view customer questions in one single place without having to check multiple social media sites. You can also store draft messages to post when a client asks a frequent question, such as store hours or directions to your business location.

7. Team Collaboration

Effectively manage your team with Hootsuite! This tool allows you to add multiple team members to the social media accounts of your choice, allowing you to see first-hand who is posting what information and who has scheduled posts. You can also control the ability to assign tasks, add collaborators, and edit posts as you see fit.