Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can be used to:
- Track and monitor messages and notifications.
- Manage, schedule, and publish content to multiple social media platforms.
- View reports on key metrics and engagement.
- Create customized dashboards.
There are several different pricing plans. They do not have a free plan, but do offer a 30-day free trial.
Note: I’m experimenting with social media content management tools to manage multiple Facebook pages, as well as several accounts on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc., so this was my focus in exploring this tool.
Supported social media platforms
- YouTube
- WordPress
They also offer over a hundred partner apps and integrations; some are free, and some are an additional cost on top of your plan.
Streams
Hootsuite uses streams to display content from your social media networks. The type of streams available vary depending on what social media channel you’re connecting to. For example, here are the options you see when adding a Twitter stream.
Each stream is specific to one social media channel, and one type of activity. For example, if you set up a stream to display the timeline of a Facebook page, that stream will only show your timeline, not your timeline and your messages.
Creating and scheduling posts
To schedule a post you go to the ‘Publisher’ section, create a new message, select one or more social media profiles, and specify when your message should be published.
You can publish it immediately, or schedule posts in advance. You can see your scheduled posts in a calendar view. You can select social media profiles that are on different channels, so for example you could publish the same content on both Twitter and Facebook.
Reporting
Analytics are available by channel, and then by profile – so you can see reports for all of your Facebook profiles in one view, but need to look at a different view for Twitter reports. The data includes information on posts, fans/followers, engagement, traffic, and inbound messages by sentiment.
There are additional reporting options, but you need to upgrade to a more expensive plan in order to use them.
References
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