Hootsuite How-To: A Basic Guide for Social Media Management
February 9, 2018 | By: DCIAs more cities and regions around the world compete for business, investment and talent, having a strong social media presence is key for your community’s branding strategy. Between the networking, thought leadership and advertising opportunities, it is a great way to promote your brand. Although many understand the importance of being active on social media, it can be all too easy to fall behind in this area of communication.
To address this issue, companies like Hootsuite and Sprout Social have evolved to manage the tedious task of posting across a variety of channels. Here at DCI, we utilize Hootsuite to schedule social media on behalf of our clients and our agency. If your economic development organization is having trouble keeping up with timely posts, it is a great resource to consider.
Below are a few tips and tricks our digital team has picked up over the years from managing client social media with Hootsuite.
Customize Your Tabs and Streams
First, decide which channels you’d like to manage from Hootsuite. The tabs at the top of the home page can be organized for each social media platform. We recommend tabs for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, followed by anything else you typically note in newsfeeds. Once you’ve established a tab – let’s use Twitter for example – choose the streams of content you want to see underneath. A few suggestions include a home tab, scheduled tweets, mentions, and sent tweets. This will cover all your bases, so you never miss an interaction.
Set Aside Some Time Each Week to Draft and Schedule Content
If you don’t have time to write several tweets each day, plan out your content ahead of time. At the top of the Hootsuite homepage, there is a scheduling bar that allows you to tag names, schedule a specific date and time and assign content to whichever channel you prefer. Though it may seem tedious in the moment, taking some time each week to schedule content has tremendous value for your organization’s online presence.
Monitor Daily for an Overview of Mentions, Comments, Likes and Retweets
If you tailor streams to include previous posts and mentions, Hootsuite can function as your one-stop-shop for monitoring engagement. You can respond and interact with users in real-time, answer questions, join conversations and build relationships with other organizations.
Check out our previous blog post, The 7 Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Twitter Chats, for some advice on how to best engage with other users on Twitter.
Take Advantage of the Analytics
Recently, Hootsuite made some drastic improvements to its analytics. With a user-friendly dashboard, it’s easy to check followers, engagement, traffic and more. The software also allows accounts to compare current activity to previous months, highlighting how your activity has changed over time. It’s a useful tool that can show you where your organization is doing well, and where there is room for improvement.
Social media is a great tool for economic development organizations to showcase the very best of their region to a variety of audiences. Cost effective and mobile-friendly, it is a must in today’s competitive digital market. With the help of a simple management software like Hootsuite, telling the story of your community on social media will become a key component of your team’s marketing strategy.
Does your economic development organization have experience using a social media management tool? Tweet us your thoughts at @aboutdci!