I was on the verge of hiring out help for my social media when I decided to try out Hootsuite. I have been hearing about Hootsuite for years but didn’t want to take the time to learn a new tool. Plus, I wondered if it would be worth the cost since I could do some of the functions with other free tools and apps.

The first week of using Hootsuite took a little more time because I had to connect all of my social media accounts, watch their how-to videos, and learn how to use it. Once I got myself all set up, I estimate that I am now saving about 2 hours a week by using it AND I am more active on social media than I was before. By using Hootsuite, my blog posts for both Planner’s Lounge and my planning company autopost to Facebook, Google+, and to Twitter. I still have to post manually to Pinterest but I can do this once a week and it only takes about 10 minutes. This is a big time saver if you blog a lot and want to make sure your posts are being shared on multiple social media outlets.

Another functionality that has been really helpful is being able to view all of my Twitter activity in one screen as you can see in this screen shot below. I can see my Twitter feed, my mentions, my direct messages, and all of my tweets in one screen. I have been more active on Twitter because I can easily manage it with Hootsuite.

A surprising feature of Hootsuite is that I can put in keywords and it makes recommendations for articles that I can share on my social media. Here is an example below where I used keywords related to wedding planning and it recommended articles for me to share. I can have any of these articles autopost to any or all of my social media accounts with one click! Or, I can schedule them to easily post in the future.

One of the best features of Hootsuite is the Hootlet bookmarket. It gives you a button on your internet browser toolbar (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) that allows you to quickly share whatever webpage you are on. With a click of that little owl on my toolbar (see the top right circle in the image below), I can share a blog post, photo, or link on all of my social media sites instantly!

In the image below, I came across an article on a wedding blog about setting your wedding budget. I want to share this article on my planning company’s Facebook page, my Twitter account, and on the Google+ page for my planning business. I was able to do all of that with a few clicks in less than 30 seconds! Not only could I share it immediately, I can schedule it to post in the future just as quickly.

Hootsuite also offers many online courses that you can enroll in for a low monthly fee. If you are newer to social media or if you want to expand your social media knowledge, create a free account then check out their Hootsuite University for all of the social media education available.

If I decided to hire help with social media in the future, I can give that person access to my Hootsuite account so that they can easily manage my social media. Hootsuite offers a free 30 day trial. I highly recommend trying it out for your event planning business!