HootSuite Certified (pt 2)

I did a post earlier this week about my HootSuite certification and what it was but I want to talk a little more about what I learned through this process and how it has helped me in my current usage of the dashboard.

As someone who has been a user for close to two years now, I was amazed to find out how much I didn't know about what HootSuite could do for me.  For starters, I've never used any of the analytics they offer--I've always just pulled them from other sources.  I knew that HootSuite offered this option, but I never took the time to figure out how to build the individual reports--a task that seemed daunting and difficult, but after watching the HootSuite University videos, I actually found that they're   quite user-friendly and offer a much more in-depth look at the analytics of each social media outlet.

Finding out how to schedule bulk messages was also something i'm not sure how I ever lived without before. My current internship and the freelance work I do require me to make Facebook and Twitter posts multiple times a day and since I'm never in the same place at the same time, having the ability to schedule posts is what drew me to HootSuite in the first place, but I've been doing it all wrong.  Instead of scheduling each tweet/post separately  you have the option of creating a spreadsheet and uploading that into the dashboard which will then schedule all of these posts for you.  How convenient!  I used it for the first time this week and it cut my schedule time in half!

Lastly, getting a more detailed overview of how geo-tagging works has helped me track certain tweets and subjects more accurately and efficiently.  I'm currently brainstorming a list of hashtags I intend to follow for the various social media accounts I manage.

If you've got some spare time and an interest in social media management I highly suggest becoming familiar with HootSuite or a similar dashboard product.  The basic HootSuite account is free, but they're currently offering a 30-day free trial of HootSuite Pro and HootSuite University.