Twitter Management Tool – HootSuite

I’ve written in the past, both in my blog and book (“I’m in a Job Search–Now What???”), about TweetDeck. I have found in the last several months a Twitter Management Tool called HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com). I’ve had many people ask how to manage and tweet from multiple Twitter accounts and HootSuite is designed to handle this well. I personally don’t have multiple Twitter accounts, but I do know people who do and they say that using HootSuite’s dashboard makes tweeting from different accounts a breeze. Let me highlight just a few of the features:

I circled the dashboard area for the Twitter accounts. If I had multiple Twitter accounts, they would appear here. I could simply check from which account I wanted to tweet or select “all” accounts. You can tweet now or later. As you see in the picture, if you click on the link “send later” by the little clock icon, you will have the ability to schedule your posts. You can also be alerted by email when your scheduled tweet is sent.

You can also set up your RSS feed within HootSuite if you blog. I actually use a plug-in for my Wordpress website to do this automatically, but for people who don’t have that functionality within their blog / website, this is a great tool. Simply scroll down and select “Settings,” click on the tab “RSS/Atom,” and click on the button “Add New Feed.”

If you are not sure how to find out your RSS feed’s URL, simply find the RSS button (the orange button) within your blog / website URL:

Click on this button and subscribe to your feed. Then, select it within your bookmarks and right click on it. When you right click, select “Properties.” When you do this, you will be given your RSS feed’s URL address. You can copy and paste it within HootSuite and have your blog posts automatically fed to your Twitter account.

Are you interested in seeing the analytics of a link you have posted? HootSuite has a tool called a “Hootlet” that you can drag and drop on your bookmark toolbar. When you find something of interest that you want to tweet on another website, you can simply click on your Hootlet icon in your bookmark toolbar and it will shorten your URL with the Ow.ly URL shortner. Then, at the bottom of your HootSuite page, you can select “Stats,” click on the tab “Summary Statistics,” select which Twitter account you used, and  find out the analytics of that tweet.

Finally, like TweetDeck, you have the opportunity to create groupings; however, HootSuite has integrated the power of the Twitter Lists for your columns. You will simply click the icon that says “Add Column.” When you click on “Add Column,” you will see this pop-up window:

Select “Twitter Lists” and name your list in the space where it says “List URL.” You can create several lists and divide people into groups, i.e. social media experts, career coaches, recruiters, personal branding, and so on. Separating people whom you follow into groups helps you to engage and participate in the Twitter conversation.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Social Media, Twitter Lists, HootSuite, URL shortners, Analytics, Kristen Jacoway, Career Design Coach, “I’m in a Job Search–Now What???