HOW TO: Use HootSuite as a Marketing Tool

The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute. GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Series are the leading educational events for organizations looking to advance their online capabilities. Learn more.

As social media increasingly becomes optimized for brands, marketers are finding themselves juggling multiple accounts across a variety of networks. With so many statuses to update and so little time, keeping yourself organized is key.

HootSuite, a web-based social media management tool, is a great place to start. It has a user-friendly interface and the basic plan, which has fairly robust features, is free. Unlike other social media management systems, HootSuite is accessed through your web browser rather than a desktop client.

We talked to Dave Olson, HootSuite’s marketing director, for a primer on using the platform for social media marketing.

Secure Team Setup

With the vast reach social media can have, it’s important for marketing organizations to be aware of who has access to which accounts and how they’re using them. HootSuite has put a number of features in place so managers can keep accounts secure as teams grow and change, including the ability to add and remove members without sharing passwords.

“Because HootSuite was created by an agency to manage their social media needs, the functionality is specifically designed for marketing teams and organizations,” Olson said.

After a slew of embarrassing tweets sent by brands like Chryslerand the Red Cross when marketers accidentally clicked on the wrong account, HootSuite developed Secure Profiles. The feature prompts users to confirm or cancel tweets before sending them, preventing potentially damaging updates from being posted to corporate social profiles.

The New York Public Library is one organization that takes advantage of HootSuite’s team collaboration tools. It uses the platform to coordinate a decentralized team of contributors that maintains its online presence across a number of social networks. Team members share search columns, schedule updates and assign each other tasks within the tool. These coordinated efforts helped the @nypl Twitter account dramatically grow its following while increasing traffic to the site by more than 350% in a year.

Track Campaigns and Engage Daily

HootSuite’s dashboard can help manage both day-to-day community building and one-off campaigns. For actively-managed accounts, you can set up streams for the types of content you want to monitor, including news feeds and mentions. These streams live in customizable tabs, which can be organized by account, network or content, which comes in handy for tracking campaign-specific hashtags, Olson says.

Batch scheduling is another useful feature for keeping campaign updates organized. You can pre-schedule up to 50 unique messages, making your team’s workflow more efficient and allowing you to optimize peak traffic times.

HootSuite allows marketers to understand their audience by providing a follower’s bio and Klout score along with links to his or her social media profiles. You can also create lists of followers you want to keep a closer eye on and increase engagement with.

Measure Success

The platform recently revamped its analytics feature to include a new interface and the ability to create custom reports — a necessary tool for marketers presenting campaign reach numbers to clients.

“Built-in Social Analytics reports allow teams to measure the success of campaign tactics — by tracking URL click-throughs for example — and make adjustments to achieve the highest level of engagement,” Olson says.

Measurable items include follower growth and mentions on Twitter. Facebook Insights and Google Analytics data are also integrated, enabling you to track how many users are visiting your website based on specific links your share through HootSuite.

The analytics package is one of the features that makes HootSuite most useful for marketing, says Mauricio Aguayo, an account manager at online marketing agency M80. He and his team manage Twitter and Facebook accounts for various clients with HootSuite.

“We use the ow.ly free analytics. It’s not extremely in depth but helps to gauge where traffic is coming from, aside from basic number of clicks, etc,” Aguayo says.

Get Help and Give Feedback

HootSuite employees are users too. “We use it daily for broadcasting our own messages and building our community, which means we’re very close to the functionality for marketing purposes,” Olson says.

And they’re willing to help. The HootSuite blog and help desk are places for users to go when they’re having trouble. You can read how-tos and best practices, while providing feedback to the HootSuite team. The custom analytics reports and free mobile apps were created because users asked for them.

“We actively listen to our community’s needs, and try to incorporate feature requests as often as we can,” Olson says.

Have you used HootSuite for marketing? Would you recommend it? Tell us your experience with the tool in the comments below.

Disclosure: Mashable is a Hootsuite Pro Partner

Series Supported by Global Strategic Management Institute

The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute, a leading source of knowledge for today’s leaders. Learn more by visiting GSMI’s website, liking it on Facebook and following it onTwitter.

More Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Foursquare
- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Gowalla
- The PR Pro’s Guide to Facebook
- How Barbie & Ken Were Reunited by Social Media
- How Converse Became the Biggest Little Sneaker Brand on Facebook