SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT: HOOTSUITE

Social media has become an integral part of marketing. As the importance and complexity of the social media world continues to grow, a solid social media management strategy has become to staying relevant. With potential audiences spread out across dozens of social networks ranging from the basics (i.e. Facebook) to microblogs (such as Twitter) to a wide variety of niche sites (instagram, tumblr. etc.) social media management has become a specialized and time consuming task.

 How do businesses respond to this fast-changing yet critical online landscape? Many businesses (especially those with ample cash flow) simply hire a social media marketing expert, or outsource their social media completely (there are many successful firms cropping up that specialize in taking over the social media operations of businesses looking to outsource those functions.) Many other businesses–either because of budget restraints or out of a desire to maintain a more personal approach to social media–opt to hire a social media assistant. This is someone specialized in social media who can work a few hours a week remotely helping a business manage and strategize their social media marketing. Social media assistants can be a great option for businesses that have a clear marketing vision but feel overwhelmed by the world of social media.

Of course, a large number of businesses opt to simply run their own social media pages. For many, this is the smartest, most personal, and most economical way to take on the social media scene. If you’re considering running your own social media pages, however, it’s almost always recommendable to use the same tools as the pros.

Hootsuite, one of the most popular social media management tools on the web, can help you run your social media pages. It is basically a dashboard for all your social media–Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and just about any other social media page you use can all be consolidated through Hootsuite–saving you hours upon hours of time while also providing you with insights and tools that will help you reach your audience more effectively.

Here is an overview of Hootsuites main functions:

• Monitor multiple social media streams from one centralized location: this even includes multiple pages from the same network (for example, if you happen to run a Facebook page for your company and another fan page for a popular product, Hootsuite can also consolidate management of those two pages.
• Hootsuite allows for a team of people to all contribute to your social media pages–and without having to share your passwords!
• Track and respond to comments, messages, and mentions across all your social networks; efficiently delegate social media customer service tasks to a team of Hootsuite users.
• Receive free email analytics reports every week to help you market more efficiently. Reports cover statistics such as clicks per week, most popular posts, geographical location of clicks, and lots of other useful information that can help you narrow down your target audience and create content that appeals specifically to the people you want to reach
• Create and schedule posts across your social networks, allowing you to maintain a social media presence without spending too much time on the computer.