Organize Your Social Media With Hootsuite

I recently shared how easy it is to use Twitter to connect with your Etsy customers.   So you've done that, you're on Facebook, LinkedIn and a whole bunch of other sites you were told to join to promote your shop. Then you learn about ANOTHER site to join and you're ready to throw in the towel and never go online again.    I use to get that way too until I learned about Hootsuite.   I recently described Hootsuite to someone as "Information Overload!"

Hootsuite is an online brand management service which publishes to websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace, and WordPress. It is also a Twitter client.  There are SO many features to Hootsuite that I won't get into (because I don't want to pay extra for a premium account) so I'll just keep it simple with an introduction.

If this screenshot of my personal account doesn't scare you away, keep reading. :)

Instead of posting the same annoucement to different websites, Hootsuite is set up to be your one stop promo hub.  I currently have three twitter accounts, my personal Facebook, my Etsy shop Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram set up- I know! Crazy right???

The buttons next to the Compose Message box represent my different Twitter and Facebook accounts (the two Facebook icons are question marks, not sure why). These are the icons you click when you're ready to post. You can click more than one.  You can set up your dashboard with one or multiple tabs. The tabs are just for viewing, the buttons next to the message bar are for when you want to share something. The way I have mine sorted doesn't have to be the way you set up yours.

By selecting the buttons I mentioned, you can tweet to multiple accounts, share an Etsy link on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook at the same time. Another bonus is schedule posts ahead of time.  It's really fantastic! Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't "get it" right away. I know it's overwhelming at first, it took a while before I added Facebook, Tumblr & Instagram (which I call Tumblrgram) to the mix because I really wanted a good grasp of how the site works.  But it is a great way to keep your Social Media sites in order and see everything at once and not go from one site to the next.

If you have questions about setting up, or you use this for your business and love it/hate it, feel free to share in the comments.