With the newest update, you can now use HootSuite to update your Facebook and/or LinkedIn status. HootSuite is the only Twitter client that will let you schedule your status updates in advance. In this walk-through, we will show you how to add Facebook and LinkedIn functionality to HootSuite.
To add your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, click on Settings near the bottom of your screen. If you’re familiar with Settings, you’ll notice a brand new tab: Social Networks. Once you click that tab, the next step towards adding Facebook or LinkedIn is clicking a button with a green “+” button that says Add Social Network.
Once you click Add Social Network, the above window pops up. The default social network HootSuite selects is Twitter, but on the right side of the window, you will see a menu that also lists Facebook, LinkedIn, and PingFM. (PingFM has been supported by HootSuite for some time already; PingFM lets you update numerous social networks at once.)
An option to Automatically create a new tab for this profile is checked by default. With this box checked, each network will automatically inherit its own tab with a column devoted to your Home Feed. De-select this checkbox if you do not want to automatically create a tab.
Just as the above example shows, if you select Facebook or LinkedIn, you will first have to give authorization for either site to connect with HootSuite.
Once you sync your social profiles with HootSuite, each editor’s profiles will be grouped by social network. You will also notice a number in brackets right beside where it says Facebook Profiles, LinkedIn Profiles, etc. This number signifies how many profiles are associated with each social network.
Beside the message box, underneath where it says Select Social Network(s), you will notice a change to your avatars: the lower left hand corner has an icon of the social network it is associated with. This is so there will be no confusion on whether you’re updating your status from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, PingFM or all of them at once.
Once you’re finished adding your social networks and profiles, you can add more columns devoted to Facebook and LinkedIn to your tabs. To do this, click the button that says Streams, then select the button that says Add Column. A Window will pop up with the default menu being Profile Feed. Select the social network you want. For now, the two columns you can choose for Facebook and LinkedIn are Home Feed and Pending Status Updates. Be sure to select which account you want to pull the feed from. When you have done this, there will be a green checkmark on the avatar.
As we alluded to before, you can schedule your status updates on Facebook and LinkedIn. It works just the same as scheduling tweets for Twitter.
With HootSuite, you can remix columns. You can set your LinkedIn Pending Status Updates right beside your Facebook Home Stream. If you want to know which column is associated with which social network, you will notice an appropriate network icon on the top left hand corner of the column. This ensures a social networking experience custom made for you.
One cool feature of how Facebook integrates with HootSuite is the ability to make inline comments. If you click comments, a text box appears under the status. Here you can see we’re big fans of Susan Boyle, so we’re very enthusiastic about the Vancouver Sun’s story about Ms. Boyle setting a pre-order record on Amazon. Once we click Submit Comment, our comment is sent to the Facebook-o-sphere. You can also “like” (thumbs up) a Facebook status through HootSuite. How cool is that?
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