There’s a plethora of social media management tools available to recruiters such as Buffer, Tweetdeck, IFTTT and Dlvr.it just to name a few. Everyone has their own favourite but for complete novices, here’s how you can get started with Hootsuite – probably the best free tool available today:
Connect your accounts:
On the free version, you can connect up to 5 different social media profiles on a single account. You can also connect any company/brand page on Facebook or Google as long as you are a page administrator or owner.
Pro tip: You can add your favorite LinkedIn groups as individual profiles to Hootsuite and change them as often as you need to.
Get organized:
The easiest way to organize your dashboard is to use a different tab for each social network. For example, within each tab, you can create separate streams for each LinkedIn group that you have connected to your Hootsuite account. The streams will then show you the discussions happening within each group so you can keep track of the most recent discussions.
You can also add an additional stream that shows all the updates and jobs you have scheduled to go out in case you need to edit your updates.
If you’re using Twitter, you can create a stream for each Twitter List, keyword, or hashtag that you are monitoring. You should also set up separate streams for your scheduled or sent updates as well as any Direct Messages (DMs) your receive.
Hootsuite, lets you add up to 10 streams in a single tab so you can also include a tab for “Mentions” and “My Tweets, Retweeted”. By adding these streams, you can easily track tweets that are related to you and respond accordingly.
Pro tip: Instead of just sending a thank you whenever someone retweets or mentions you, you can also follow them or “Favourite” one of their tweets as a sign of gratitude.
Compose an update:
Hootsuite’s real strength is obviously in allowing you to schedule and post to multiple networks, profiles, or groups with a single click. When creating a new post, just select the profiles you want to use at the top of the page. Enter your message in the Compose box. If you’re sharing an article or a job advertisement, use the handy link shortener to attach the link to your update.
Pro tip: If you want to add an image thumbnail to your LinkedIn updates, select a Google or Facebook account at the same time. You won’t have to send the update on those networks but it will force Hootsuite to look for an image to accompany your LinkedIn update. Once a thumbnail is generated, you can then deselect the Facebook or Google+ account and hit send.
Posting an update:
Once you’ve finished composing your message, you can choose to send it out immediately or you can choose a specific date and time in the future. This feature is especially useful if you want to queue updates that will go out later in the week or while you’re away on holiday. You can use your time on social media efficiently by scheduling most of your updates in the morning and then just checking on your dashboards throughout the day.
Pro tip: Use the AutoSchedule feature when posting to multiple LinkedIn groups. The AutoSchedule feature chooses the optimal time to post on each channel. This means that your update will be posted to the group when it is most active; with the added benefit of not spamming your followers’ news feed with multiple simultaneous updates.
Contacts:
If you’re a Twitter user and/or a Google page administrator, Hootsuite gives you handy access to a contacts list from your Twitter and Google networks. From this page, you can easily follow people or check out their bios and Klout scores.
Apps:
Although Hootsuite only supports Twitter, Facebook, Google Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress and Mixi, you can still use it to monitor other networks. You can install Apps as streams and monitor your feed on Youtube, Xing, Viadeo, Instagram, Flickr, etc. Depending on the app, some will allow you to post an update from within the stream although you won’t be able to use Hootsuite’s scheduling feature.
Hootsuite Syndicator:
The Hootsuite Syndicator is Hootsuite’s RSS app. It was built as a replacement for the now-defunct Google reader. Once you’ve set up your Hootsuite Syndicator Streams, all the content you want will be available to read and share straight from your dashboard. If your company website provides an RSS feed of jobs, you can subscribe to that and share your ads straight from Hootsuite instead of using a secondary tool like Bullhorn.
Hootlet Extension:
Hootsuite offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. The Hootlet extension lets you share any webpage without having to open Hootsuite on another tab or window.
Mobile:
If you’re so inclined, Hootsuite also offers a mobile app for Android and iOS. The functionality is very similar to the desktop version so you can rely on an uninterrupted workflow, regardless of the device you’re using.
The free Hootsuite account is a powerful tool for any recruiter’s social media toolbox. For added features such as analytics reports, bulk scheduling, team accounts, and approval processes, you can easily upgrade to the Pro version.
