How-To Tuesday: Using HootSuite to Manage Twitter

I love, love, love social media. And I love even more those smart people who come up with smarter apps every day. Whenever I think I’m using the best, latest, greatest Twitter app,  another takes its place. So today’s focus: HootSuite.

First let me say that for someone who works on marketing day in and out, I sure am swayed by cute packaging. Curse me. HootSuite has an adorable little owl as their mascot, which was the first thing that got my attention.

After that I thought, “Gaah, another Twitter platform? Don’t I have enough of these?”

And then I visited the site. And tweeted my entire experience. I was in love with an owl.

My favorite feature by far is the Hootlet. You just drag it into your toolbar and whenever you’re on a page you want to tweet about, you just click the owl. Oh. My. God. So great. In case those directions were too hard for you, here’s the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHxUm7atb0o&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

So since this is how-to Tuesday, let me give you a few how-to tips. You are smart enough to set up your own account on HootSuite, so let’s skip that.

Setting up Columns

If you’re an avid Twitter user, you know that it can be overwhelming to pay attention to a stream of thousands of people you’re following. HootSuite’s columns work a lot like TweetDeck or Seesmic’s. You name them and add people to them. So for instance, I have a column for Social Media and follow people like Chris Brogan that are saying smart things about social media (and I regurgitate it to you on my blog). You can have as many as you want, but the feature I don’t like very much is having to know the name of someone to add. I liked TweetDeck’s former capability of scrolling through my list and checking off people to add to a column.

Using Stats

Another feature that makes HootSuite unique is its Stats. You can see how many people click on a link you tweet and where they come from. Very handy. Just click “Stats” in your account and select your profile to view.

Profiles

Speaking of profiles, HootSuite lets you manage multiple! I’m actually not working with multiple Twitter accounts right now, so I haven’t tried it out, but it seems pretty straightforward. Just remember to select which account you’re tweeting from.

There’s really nothing else to teach you. It’s just that dead simple. Check out HootSuite and let me know what you think!

PS If you’re listening, HootSuite, please add Facebook interaction to your platform!