HootSuite Improves Scheduling With Daily Customization by Mike Allton

UPDATE: The addition of this capability has "broken" the optimization aspect of HootSuite's AutoSchedule. Instead of scheduling posts at the optimum time for your profiles, posts are being scheduled at 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 6pm. HootSuite is aware of the issue and is working on a resolution.

One of the great features of HootSuite is the capability to schedule posts. Whether you're choosing a specific date and time, or uploading a spreadsheet full of posts, it's definitely a time-saving aspect that many of us use daily.

Even more useful is the AutoSchedule button.

With AutoSchedule, you can create a post, select one or more social profiles, and let HootSuite determine the best time to share that update. I use this scheduling option all the time because HootSuite not only finds the best time to share, but also automatically spaces out shares to different social networks so you're not spamming all your accounts simultaneously.

Up until now, the only drawback was that we had little to no control over how these posts were scheduled. While we can see scheduled posts in the Publisher and edit them, it was still up to HootSuite when each post is scheduled.

But what if you could set a daily frequency for your posts?

HootSuite has added a Buffer-like option to set which days of the week you want to share AutoScheduled posts, and how many times per day.

This is a fantastic option for businesses!

You can decide in advance which days you want to share posts and how many per day, and then AutoSchedule as many posts as you like to fill up your queue as far in advance as you want.

How to Edit HootSuite AutoSchedule Settings

To get to these settings, open your HootSuite dashboard and click on the Compose dialogue box, then click on the scheduling icon.

Here, you can turn AutoSchedule on or off, and to the left of the toggle is a gear icon to access settings.

-insert-

You can also get to the AutoSchedule settings by going through the Settings icon in the left sidebar and clicking on AutoSchedule.

Once you're in the AutoSchedule settings, you have two sets of controls.

First, you can set how many times a day you want to be able to schedule posts, and during what hours of the day. The default is 5 posts per day between 8 AM and 7 PM (your timezone). So if you want to be able to queue up 10 posts a day from 7 AM until 11PM, just adjust these settings accordingly.

Second, you can detemine which days of the week you want to post on, and simply disable any day you don't want this activity on. For most people, the obvious choices would be to disable sharing on Saturday or Sunday, but I would caution you against doing that. Statistics have indicated that tweets can actally get more engagement on the weekend, so don't be shy about tweeting outside of normal business hours.

-insert-

Once you've decided your best settings, simply click Save and from that point on, any time you choose to use AutoSchedule, the posts will be scheduled within those parameters.

HootSuite will still determine the specific time to share each post, but now you have more control over how late you're sharing in the day, and how many posts can go out in a specific day.

Is HootSuite's AutoSchedule Better Than Buffer?

So the obvious comparison here is to Buffer. With bufferapp.com, you can create a somewhat similar queue and determine how many times a day, and on which days, you want to share posts. The difference is that within Buffer, you can set specific times that posts are shared, as well as create multiple schedules. You can decide that on weekdays you want to share 6 times a day at these specific times, while on the weekends you may want to share a few times in the morning and then stop. So if you have somewhat advanced scheduling needs, Buffer's capabilities are still superior.

But HootSuite is fast improving.

I like to use Buffer to schedule several weeks worth of tweets in advance, where I'm sharing and resharing old blog posts - evergreen content. But I love using HootSuite's AutoSchedule to share my latest posts, as well as great articles and posts that I find from other people and sources. So I tend to use HootSuite to share posts no more than 12 - 24 hours out, while Buffer is more longterm. So for the time being, I'm not likely to change.

But I do think this development from HootSuite is fantastic, and I'm looking forward to having this greater control over when my posts are shared.

What do you think? Have you been using HootSuite's AutoSchedule, or will you think about using more now?

If you aren't yet using HootSuite at all to manage your social media, now's a great time to get started. Here's an affiliate link for you to get a free 30-day trial of HootSuite Pro. It doesn't cost you anything more to use the link, and I only make a couple bucks, but it helps me gauge interest so I appreciate you using it.

And if you've been using HootSuite for a while and aren't yet using all of its features, definitely check out my HootSuite Series, where I go into depth about all of the things you can do with the social media management tool.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.thesocialmediahat.com/news/hootsuite-improves-scheduling-daily-customization-04042014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Your SEO Efforts Will Fail Without a Social Strategy by Rachel Serpa

Since the dawn of MySpace, social media has managed to creep into every area of our lives. Admit it: you check yourself in at the airport, find all of your favorite recipes on Pinterest, and even catch yourself thinking 140 characters at a time. Social networks have infiltrated business as well, with both B2C and B2B marketers realizing that the only way to effectively connect with modern consumers is to build social experiences around their brands, products and services.

Although they were at one time considered the north and south poles of marketing, social now plays a significant role in shaping search results. Here are three reasons why your SEO strategies need to be social, and how you can start leveraging social media to improve your search performance today.

More UGC = Better SEO

SEO is a huge pain point for many marketers as they struggle through keyword discovery and fight against the conglomerates that be to surface under phrases that people actually use. When it comes to search rankings, relevant, quality content is key, and when customers post comments or reviews and syndicate them across their social networks, they provide valuable user generated content that improves keyword performance. User generated content is especially useful because it puts your product or service in terms typically used by consumers, uncovering new keywords and increasing searchability. Websites that feature ratings and reviews typically experience a 10-20% increase in CTR on search engine results pages (Inchoo).

#SearchingForHashtags

Once a Twitter-ism, the hashtag has emerged as an acceptable and universal means of communication across the digital landscape, even finding its way into verbal conversations. Consumers now classify and search for specific content using hashtag terms across social networks like Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn, and search engines including Yahoo, Google and Bing have recently amplified hashtag visibility in search results. Smart brands are increasing reach and visibility by leveraging both new and existing hashtags to optimize event promotions, user generated content, branding initiatives and more.

“Social Search Engines”

Over the past several years, major search engines have been increasingly relying on users’ social graphs to provide relevant and timely search results. For example, not only does Bing showcase tweets and other social media posts related to users’ searches, but by connecting Bing with their Facebook profiles, users can also see status updates and photos that their connections have posted that are relevant to their search terms. Connecting with consumers via social, having a strong social presence and increasing content shares across networks is becoming mandatory for brands as search results become increasingly social.

As the paths to search and social success continue to merge, only the brands that learn how to incorporate social media into their search strategies will rise above the competition  - literally.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/why-your-seo-efforts-will-fail-without-a-social-strategy/

3 Challenges Facing Marketers in 2014 By Emma Tzeng

It’s nearly unthinkable to consider how far marketing has traversed in the past year alone. While marketers continued to hone their social strategies and experiment with big data and omni-channel tactics in 2013, this coming year will pose its own hurdles, as businesses concentrate their efforts on unifying user experiences, achieving provable social ROI, and knowing their customers in even deeper, more actionable ways.

This article dissects three major challenges marketers will come head to head with this year, along with action plans for tackling and overcoming these obstacles.

Challenge #1: Unifying Cross-Channel Experiences with First Party Data

In 2013, eMarketer reported that 45% of consumers prefer shopping experiences that combine online, mobile, and in-store interactions. As customers interact more with brands across multiple devices, however, marketers need to figure out how to obtain a consistent view of consumer identity over a variety of mediums.

To complicate the matter, traditional retargeting techniques that utilize third party cookie data to construct inferred consumer personas don’t translate to mobile. As the average time spent on mobile devices exceeds desktop usage rates and consumers become increasingly social both online and offline, marketers are more pressed than ever to rely on first party data to inform their marketing strategies and craft unique customer experiences.

(Source: eMarketer)

Solution: Social Login for Access to First Party Data

The best way to acquire firsthand insights on your users is to start at the source — their social networks. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ collect millions of actionable data points on their users such as their locations, emails, genders, interests, likes, social graphs, and more. Businesses can gain direct access to these insights by leveraging social login on their digital properties, which captures social profile information in a permission-based manner.

For example, Dutch airline KLM incorporates social login into its digital experience, offering four different social provider options and displaying a prominent call to action for a streamlined user experience that encourages more consumers to log in socially. As these users choose social login, KLM gets access to valuable social profile information that it can leverage to personalize user experiences across channels.

In KLM’s instance, the airline uses social login to power its Meet & Seat program, which lets flyers see who else is on board their flight and select seats based on other flyers’ seat assignments.

By integrating social into its in-flight experiences, KLM gathers valuable data on its customers while facilitating serendipitous, memorable opportunities for their flyers to connect with one another offline.

Challenge #2: Proving the ROI of Social

As we discussed earlier, social login is the gateway to firsthand consumer insights. These insights, in turn, can be analyzed and measured to determine just how much direct value social delivers to your marketing initiatives.

Solution: Measurable Insights Offer a Deeper Dive into ROI

We’ve outlined three factors to measure to effectively determine the ROI of your social marketing efforts:

• Increase in registrations – How much have site registration numbers increased since implementing social login?
• Value of a registered user – To determine the value of a registered user, you’ll want to examine the estimated return for new user registrations. Take the following example: An ecommerce site registers 10,000 users a month. Of these registrations, 500 users go on to make purchases on the site over the span of a year. If each purchaser’s average shopping cart conversion is $75, then the value per registered user is $3.75. What is the value per registered user for your business?
• Decrease in forgotten password help desk issues – When users log in socially, they save themselves from having to remember another username and password combination; your business, in turn, avoids the hassle of dealing with lost password recovery issues. What is the decrease in support costs since implementing social login?

Check out our white paper, Path to ROI: Boosting Demand Gen and Improving Conversions with Social Login, for a deeper dive into how capturing social identities directly affects ROI.

Challenge #3: Knowing Your Customers in Even Deeper, More Actionable Ways

As users’ Internet habits evolve, we’re seeing a greater shift in online sharing: consumers are posting personal photographs, life events, and more across their social networks. This move towards a more connected, open social web reflects how consumers and businesses should interact in a landscape that encourages the sharing of users’ information in a safe, valuable way.

Solution: Schemaless, Social-Optimized Database for Seamless Data Storage

To facilitate this process, you should invest in a database that is not only secure but also fully equipped to handle the varied, dynamic nature of social data. This database structure is known as a schemaless database, and it enables sites and apps to store all types of unstructured (social and behavioral) data without any constraints.

After finding a secure data management system to store and manage your users’ data, you’ll want to invest in a marketer-friendly, web-based dashboard that enables marketers to access user data, define their audience segments, and apply these findings directly to their marketing strategies. This grants you full control over your marketing efforts, allowing you to work with the data to glean new insights on your user base and turn these insights into measurable actions.

In 2014, Personalization Triumphs

As consumers continue gravitating towards personal online experiences, it’s important for businesses wanting to retain a loyal customer base to remain a step ahead of their users. This means swapping mass marketing techniques for tailored messages that speak to users on an individual level. Businesses that successfully carry this out can expect to see real ROI on their marketing campaigns.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/3-challenges-facing-marketers-in-2014/

The Ultimate Guide to Social Marketing Success in 2014 by Rachel Serpa

With 2013 now behind us, modern marketers are well versed in the importance and potential impact of social data and engagement. According to the Word of Mouth and American Marketing Associations, 70% of marketers expect to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2014 (MediaPost).

However, 79% of marketers cite measuring social media and demonstrating social marketing ROI as two of their biggest obstacles (MediaPost). The new year is poised to shift social marketers’ focus from simply establishing a social game plan to measuring and optimizing social marketing impact, implementing data-driven strategies, and creating effective cross-channel user experiences.

Marketers must answer the call of innovation and find new, creative ways to acquire and retain customers by leveraging social media, social data, and unique web and mobile experiences. Our new guide gives you a head start on the competition with insights on achieving and measuring real social ROI in 2014, including how to:

• Accurately calculate the value of social marketing
• Turn anonymous visitors into known customers
• Make data-driven marketing decisions
• Grow an interactive community of trust
• Unify cross-channel user identity with login vs. cookie data
• Nurture consumer relationships with rewards

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-social-marketing-success-in-2014/

5 Marketing Predictions for 2014 By Rachel Serpa

2013 has seen more and more businesses recognizing the value of incorporating social media into their marketing strategies. Marketers have finally started moving beyond accumulating Likes and posting tweets to leveraging social connectivity to develop authentic consumer relationships.

2014 is poised to present even greater changes, challenges and opportunities for marketers. As user data gets bigger and the variety of consumer touch points grows wider, marketers must continue to optimize their strategies to connect with customers on deeper, more personal levels. Here are 5 predictions that we believe will shape the way marketers connect with consumers in 2014.

Social login distribution will grow.

While Facebook still maintains social login domination, as noted in ourQ3 Social Login infographic, Google+ has made significant strides as an identity provider in 2013. We predict that this trend will continue in 2014, with regional networks like Orkut, Mixi and Vkontakte continuing to gain momentum overseas, and Amazon’s “Login and Pay with Amazon” offering landing the eCommerce giant a spot in next year’s top social identity providers list. Distribution aside, with mobile usage continuing to surpass desktop, we expect social logins in general to grow as users choose to more easily verify their identities across mobile devices with touch versus text.

Omni-channel experiences will reign supreme.

Earlier this year, eMarketer estimated that consumer time spent on mobile devices will overtake desktop by the end of 2013. The rise of mobile and social technologies has given way to more potential touch points for brands to reach and connect with consumers than ever before. 2014 is the year that marketers will be forced to develop and execute solid omni-channel strategies to create consistent, cohesive cross-channel experiences, or face the consequences.

Social login data will overtake cookie data.

In just one minute, 2 million Google searches are conducted, Apple receives 47,000 app downloads, and over 100,000 tweets are sent. Traditional cookies cannot effectively track and aggregate these petabytes of user data across devices and mediums. Logged-in user data is the only way for marketers to tie all cross-channel user activity to a single identity, turning anonymous users into known customers. We foresee social login data becoming the new standard for consumer insights, with successful marketers making the transition from cookie retargeting to fostering authentic consumer relationships.

Marketers will take data into their own hands.

While 78% of marketers have felt the pressure to become more data-driven in 2013, only 33% claim to consistently and strategically leverage consumer data in their marketing efforts (Teradata). We expect to see this number rise in 2014, with marketers taking charge by trading in restrictive IT infrastructure for flexible, centralized cloud storage databases. These databases integrate with user-friendly dashboards and third-party platforms to empower marketers to quickly access insights and adapt messaging to consumers’ real-time wants and needs.

Consumers will demand greater privacy control.

73% of consumers say they prefer retailers that use personal information to make shopping experiences more relevant, but 88% believe that companies should give them the flexibility to control how this information is being used. We predict that 2014 will see a crack-down on user privacy as consumers become more knowledgeable about privacy settings and data storage. Marketers that don’t request permission-based access to user information and provide a clear description of how this information will be used will lose touch with consumers.

While we have a sneaking suspicion that these five predictions will come to fruition in 2014, as long as marketers focus on connecting closer and growing authentic relationships with customers, both brands and consumers will reap the benefits in the new year.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/5-marketing-predictions-for-2014/?utm_source=out&utm_medium=psync&utm_campaign=2014blog&utm_content=var1