Do You HootSuite?

Get Your Arms Around Twitter with This Helpful App
By Bill Risser

Arizona REALTOR® Magazine - March 2010

If you are a Twitter fan, you know there are hundreds of applications available to help further the Twitter experience. If you are new to Twitter, or hesitant to explore the Twitterverse, let me introduce you to HootSuite, a dashboard application that groups the tweets of those you follow, handles multiple Twitter accounts, schedules and tracks activity, and even helps you manage your Facebook, LinkedIn and Wordpress profiles! There are similar applications, such as TweetDeck and Seesmic, but I happen to think HootSuite is the best. And I promise, HootSuite is not paying or otherwise compensating me for saying this.

For those of you new to Twitter, let's start with a quick overview. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging platform that lets you send out 140 character “tweets” to your followers. These tweets can be personal or business related. You can also follow people of interest to you. Conversations, both public and private, are easy on Twitter. In its early stages (way back in 2006), Twitter was known as the "SMS (texting) of the Internet." Over the last four years, Twitter has developed into a powerful social networking tool.

Developers use Twitter's API to create applications that use Twitter's feed to accomplish certain tasks. There are third-party applications that search Twitter, create groups, find followers, manage campaigns and much more. Apps that run Twitter on smart phones are also very popular, especially with the real-time aspect of tweets.

Now let's look a little closer at one of the more powerful Twitter applications available. HootSuite is a web-based application available for free at HootSuite.com. Simply sign up and create an account, verify your account and add your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to your HootSuite account.

Prefer to watch a video? Follow along as I explore the HootSuite Dashboard

Here's a screenshot of my HootSuite Dashboard:

There are two main sections to the HootSuite Dashboard. First, there is the Tweet Bar across the top. Here, you can post tweets, add photos or documents to tweets, shorten URL links, schedule tweets to post later, and select the profile from which to post. This is a powerful feature of HootSuite. It wasn't too long ago that you would have had to visit two or three different applications to accomplish everything the HootSuite Tweet Bar can do. Here’s a close-up of the Tweet Bar:

The bottom part of the Hootsuite Dashboard is where multiple tabs can be created. Within each tab, up to 10 groups can be created. This ability to categorize those you follow into groups allows you to easily track and follow conversations important to you. Hootsuite automatically creates a tab containing your home feed, direct messages (in and out), mentions and sent tweets. Creating a new tab requires a click on the "+". The user interface on HootSuite is very simple to use. And remember, multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and WordPress accounts can be managed as well. Here are my HootSuite tabs:

How does this help your real estate business? If Twitter is a part of your social media strategy, you can easily separate friends, family, past clients, prospects and so forth into different groups and then easily manage those groups from the dashboard. With the Tweet Bar, it's possible to schedule tweets to be posted throughout the day. So while you're showing houses or at a listing presentation, your followers on Twitter can receive the important, relevant tweets you scheduled. Another important detail is that HootSuite is web-based and not installed on your computer like some other Twitter applications. Wherever you have access to the Internet, you can open your HootSuite account.

HootSuite also provides some basic analytics regarding your tweets. One way to provide relevant information to your followers is via links to other websites. For example, if you find a relevant story at USAToday.com regarding a national housing trend, why not insert the link into a tweet and post it for your followers to see? (Remember, the Tweet Bar will auto-shorten the link and send it or schedule it.) HootSuite has a stats feature that allows the user to see how many times a link in an individual tweet has been clicked on. This feature enables you to determine which topics see more activity, and you can use this information to deliver more relevant information to your followers. Here’s a peek at the stats feature:

Some other features HootSuite provides include RSS feed monitoring, integration with Ping.fm and importing/creation of Twitter lists. These are more advanced features that exhibit the power of HootSuite. On final feature I must mention is the Hootlet. It is an applet you drag and drop to the toolbar of you browser. When browsing the web for interesting content for your informational tweets, simply click on the Hootlet in the toolbar and a pop-up appears with the auto-shortened link inserted into the update box. You can just add the rest of the tweet and hit send. I have yet to find an easier way to quickly tweet a link. The arrow in the graphic below highlights the Hootlet:

HootSuite is a powerful tool that can help make Twitter more manageable and more fun. Best of all, it's free. Give it a try and turbocharge your Twitter experience!

Bill Risser is Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager of the Gilbert North branch of Chicago Title. While not an expert or guru, Bill is a social media junkie. Bill hosts a series of workshops on social media websites and strategies for real estate professionals. You can contact Bill at 480-270-4590 or at www.ct-gilbert.com. To connect socially, visit his Google Profile