Top 3 Time-Saving Marketing Tools - Part 1

Summer is right around the corner, and a great time to reflect on your business goals for the year. Summer gives you the breathing room to refocus your efforts where there are most needed. That can only happen if you streamline all other aspects of your business. So we want to share marketing tools to help businesses save time on their marketing.

Instead of doing a quick overview of our favorite tools, I want to go into depth on how to actually use those tools to save time. So this will be a three part series where I will give you step-by-step instructions to help you save time.

I wanted to start with Hootsuite because it can save you a ton of time on your social media marketing. Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social media accounts all from one dashboard.

How to schedule posts on Hootsuite:

They key to effective social media marketing is consistency. Hootsuite allows you to schedule content in advance so no matter your schedule, your posts will remain consistent. Here are three ways to schedule social media posts with Hootsuite:

1. Schedule a single message manually

Login to Hootsuite and click on the text box at the top that says “Compose Message.” Then add your content and any photos or videos you want to include, and then select the profile or profiles you would like the post to go to. Click on the calendar button to select the date and time for your message to be sent and then finish by clicking on the Schedule button.

2. Schedule bulk messages.

You can schedule messages in bulk by making an comma-separated value (.csv) file with Google Sheets, Text Edit or Text Wrangler. Click here for detailed template information depending on which program you are going to use for the .csv. You can schedule up to 350 bulk messages at the dates and times that you specify. Once you have your file, here’s what to do:

· Select the Publisher icon from the launch menu.

· Under Content Sources, click Bulk Message Upload.

· Click Choose File, select your csv file, and then click Open.

· Select the date format used in the .csv file.

· Select the social network(s) to publish the messages (only one Twitter profile can be selected), and then click Submit.

3. Let Hootsuite's smart algorithm pick the best time to send out your messages.

With Hootsuite’s Auto-Schedule feature, you don't have to guess what times are optimal to post your content. Auto Schedule does the work for you by choosing a time to schedule posts based on when they perform the best. To use the Auto Scheduler just create a post like I taught you above, and turn on the Auto Schedule feature as opposed to picking a time.

Ok so now that we’ve covered how to automate your social media efforts with "Hootsuite" so give it a try and use your free time to leave us a comment with your favorite Hootsuite feature! Don’t forget to stay tuned next week where we will be covering our favorite time-saving email marketing tools.

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