Social Media Coach Guide

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Saving Time with Hootsuite

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Saving Time with Hootsuite Social Media Coach Guide 

Social Media Content Management Time saving tips with HootsuiteWhen implementing your social media strategy it’s imperative that you figure out ways to save time as saved time equals saved money. We understand that managing your business’ social media full-time can be challenging. Especially when you are tasked to find and share timely, relevant content to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and other social networks

Learn how to manage content sharing by signing into Hootsuite whenever it’s convenient, sort through suggested content that’s ready to be personalized, and schedule posts for the entire week. Now you can dedicate those saved hours to engaging prospects and clients you’ve earned by sharing interesting, useful content.

Hootsuite’s Social Media Coaches can help you make the most of your precious time. This guide outlines best practices on how to leverage Hootsuite features to start saving time while boosting your social media presence.

Best Ways to Save Time1. Share content quicklyStopping to share content while you are browsing online can be disruptive to your workflow, especially if you see something you’d like to share with your followers and subsequently have to login to the Hootsuite dashboard. In an effort to minimize the amount of time it takes to share great and relevant content, Hootsuite created Hootlet.

Hootlet: Our free Chrome extension lets you quickly and easily share content to your social networks from anywhere on the web. Find targeted content using Google, Google Maps, and Yelp, and reply or retweet right from your browser window. Post to multiple social networks with one click, saving time and extending your reach. You can also schedule your Tweets to be published when you want, or better yet, let Hootlet do it for you with the AutoSchedule option.

“Before Hootlet, I spent about an hour and a half per day finding content to share and creating the Tweets to share it. Hootlet has saved me an hour and a half per day, and several days per week for the past year!” Brittany Berger, Social Media and Content Coordinator, eZanga Inc.

2. Curate content easilyIn order to establish yourself or your brand as a trusted source for information, it’s essential to constantly be researching and discovering content that you can share to your audience. Because the act of finding great content can be tedious and time consuming, Hootsuite created a content curation feature called Suggested Content brings relevant content to you and makes it easier to share.

Suggested Content: Suggested Content analyzes your Twitter posting history and recommends relevant articles that you can share with your audience. It automatically populates a message and adds it to your scheduled messages calendar. It’s important to note that you still need to approve and schedule the content.

“Suggested Content is a really well-rounded feature that makes finding and posting relevant content incredibly easy. It saved me a lot of time every day and kept me actively engaged in the social world.” James Goodwillie, Social Media Strategist and Manager, Dynamic Solutions3. Syndicate a content library

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3. Syndicate a content libraryAnother aspect of building out your social media strategy is to have a system in place where content is being brought to you - like a content library to access. This will make it easy for you to consistently share great content to your audience. To fill this need, try using Hootsuite’s Syndicator.

Hootsuite Syndicator: Conveniently fitting into your social content curation and distribution workflow, it provides you with an easily accessible content library for efficient social sharing. The Hootsuite Syndicator brings the RSS Reader right into your dashboard and provides a quick and easy way to view, manage, and organize all of your RSS feeds in your dashboard.

4. Save time and plan aheadWhen trying to build an audience, it’s easy to inundate your followers’ feeds with too much information at once—or worse, not enough. To prevent this as well as establish yourself as a reliable source, use the scheduling functionalities that are built into the Hootsuite dashboard. This way you avoid overloading a certain time of day with posts as well as space out your content publishing throughout the day

AutoSchedule and Bulk Scheduling: An efficient way to maintain a steady—but not overwhelming—amount of content is to set up a publishing schedule. Hootsuite offers three methods to schedule messages: Manual, Bulk, and AutoSchedule. By setting up a weekly content schedule, you can maximize the time spent on gathering the information free of distraction.

“Hootsuite is incredibly helpful for our social media management. Being able to schedule posts in advance is a lifesaver when things get hectic.” Christina Riley, Marketing and Communications Editor, The Scottish Ballet

How to use the HootletYour first step is to install the Hootlet. Hootlet pre-populates a compose window with the title and URL of the web page you are visiting, leaving you to select your social networks and customize your content before sending or scheduling your message.

How to use the Hootlet from any web page

1. Click Hootlet in the upper-right corner of your browser.

2. In the pop-up box that appears, select the social network(s) you would like to send your message to.

3. Optional: Edit the message within the pop-up. This might include changing the copy, attaching images, or adding your location.

4. Click Send Now. To schedule your message, click the calendar icon or select AutoSchedule to allow Hootsuite to choose the best time to publish your message.

How to use Suggested Content

1. In the Hootsuite Publisher tab, click on Suggested Content.

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2. Within the Suggested Content window, Hootsuite scans your previous Tweets and Twitter profile and suggests three content categories based on what it finds, which you can approve or change.

3. If you choose to alter your categories, Hootsuite will analyze your choices and posting history. Once relevant content is found, it will be created in a scheduled list of social messages. These messages will appear in optimal time slots within your content calendar. It is important to note that social messages will not be published until you have approved the content.

4. Review the Tweets. Look at article previews to make sure the content is up to par, and then edit any of the messages to meet your desired tone of voice and structure. As you tweak, edit, and refine your content, Hootsuite learns what you like and provides even more precise content for you. Articles can also be replaced with a different post by clicking the “replace” button at the top of the screen.

5. Then—one-by-one or in bulk—delete or schedule the messages of your choice.

How to install Hootsuite Syndicator App

1. Install the Hootsuite Syndicator App.

2. Click the Subscription Manager icon from the Hootsuite Syndicator app stream.

3. Add your RSS Subscriptions and click Done.

How to use AutoSchedule within your Hootsuite dashboard

1. Click to select social profile(s) to publish message.

2. Click Compose message, and then type message.

3. Click calendar (Scheduling) icon.

4. Click gear (Settings) icon next to Autoschedule.

5. Within the pop-up, adjust your AutoSchedule settings. Click Save Settings and exit the pop-up window by clicking the “X” in the upper-right corner.

6. Back in the compose message box, click to switch the AutoSchedule toggle to ON.

7. Click AutoSchedule.

Note: AutoScheduled messages are saved in the Publisher section of the dashboard under Scheduled (with a clock icon for easy identification), and can be rescheduled. After rescheduling, the clock icon will disappear confirming the new scheduled time.

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How to schedule in bulk1. Click Publisher (paper airplane) on the left-aligned

launch menu.

2. Click Schedule in Bulk.

3. Upload bulk schedule

4. Click Choose File, locate bulk schedule file, and then click Open.

5. Click to select a date format. It must be the same format used to create the .csv file.

6. Click to select social profile(s) to publish messages, and then click Submit.

“Hootsuite gives us more time to manage other commitments and ensure that our audience is engaged and has up to date content.”Amber Dermoudy, Head of Digital, Launch Management Group (TEDxSydney Agency)

For an in-depth look at how to manage your social media activity efficiently, sign up for one of our live and on-demand Social Media Coach webinars.

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ResourcesLearn more about Hootsuite’s time-saving features with the following resources:]

Download the free Hootlet.

Get answers about Hootsuite Syndicator in this helpful overview.

Find more great information on the Syndicator in this blog post.

To learn more about the Syndicator from the creators themselves, check out this video.

Find out more about what Suggested Content can do in this blog post.

For an in-depth look at scheduling, check out this video.

Learn about the advantages of AutoScheduler from this blog post.

Check out this video for information on scheduling Bulk Messaging.