For many of you marketing your businesses on social media, you know there are many other tools you can utilize to effectively keep on top of your daily social media marketing commitments.

Third-party tools are available for free, or a small charge, and can help you do everything from schedule posts to find influential people to connect and engage with.

Hootsuite is one such tool and can be an asset to your social media marketing strategy.  But first thing, first: you need to have a social media marketing strategy in order to get the most out of Hootsuite.  My disclaimer here is that before you begin using third-party tools, you have a clear idea of the capabilities of the social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+) you want to use for marketing purposes and what sorts of activities are going to make up your overall strategy.

Having these elements clearly presented will allow you to not only look at Hootsuite more analytically, but it will also help you get the hang of it quickly.

Here are some reasons why Hootsuite could be good for your marketing strategy…..does this sound like you?:

• “It is impossible to keep up with posting daily updates to our social media profiles!”  This is definitely one of the areas where Hootsuite excels as you are able to schedule your posts to go out on your chosen social media networks whenever you want.  It allows you to do both the date and time, allowing you with lots of flexibility.  I am not saying that social media marketing all comes down to scheduling posts to go out via Hootsuite and waiting for the wonderful results to roll in.  Scheduling posts helps you stay consistent when you have to travel, have a busy week ahead, lost a member of staff, or even if you are just starting out and need to use a bulk of your time researching your new social networks.  Scheduling really can be a help at these times.
• “My company has 4 social media accounts, how can I keep up with that?”  You are able to add multiple social networks to Hootsuite and manage your accounts from one place.  While it doesn’t take the place of on-site visits and daily check-ins with your audience, it is wonderful to be able to post and see the news feeds for each of your networks added.
• “I have no idea how many people are clicking my links!”  There is a reporting area on Hootsuite which will track links from the accounts you specify.  Then a report will be generated and emailed to you showing how many total clicks your links received as well as which links were clicked.  Of course, it will only track the links that you schedule through Hootsuite, but still it is handy to check and track the effectiveness of your campaign!
• “I want to share things instantly or I’ll forget to do it later!”   There is a wonderful plugin for Hootsuite called Hootlet.  Once installed into your internet browser bar, when you are reading a story online that you want to share with your audience, you simply click the Hootlet button and a popup window will appear with the link shortened and a title.  Just customize this as needed and share instantly….or schedule it to go out later.  Another great way to share your knowledge in real time.
• “I want to get my email blasts in front of more people!” Currently there are free plugins that Hootsuite provides supporting Mail Chimp and Constant Contact that enable you to share your email blasts with your social networks by a click of the button.  A great way to get that email blast to go the extra mile and increase your exposure by the size of your network reach.  This is one of the lesser important functions, but there are many other plugins that you will want to explore that can support other areas of your online marketing plan.

While Hootsuite has many wonderful features, there is no tool out there that does everything.  Hootsuite is best utilized as a tool in your social media toolbox.  Using Hootsuite does not mean that you will never have to log into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ to interact with your audience, answer questions, post discussions and build your network.  Social media marketing is not down to one solution, but having good solid tools in your toolbox makes it all the more simpler!

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