Using Social Bookmarking Tools

Last week I talked about HootSuite and how it can be a great tool for small business owners to use in order to interact with their followers. This website provides a great feature that allows its users to schedule when they want to send out tweets or posts without having to actually click a button or even have Internet access. I have been using HootSuite for the past couple weeks now and it is one of my favorite websites because it has all of your social media sites in one location and it makes it easy to check out your Facebook newsfeed or even your mentions on your Twitter page.

Today I am going to talk a little about the social bookmarking website, Diigo. This website allows users to bookmark and tag web-pages on the Internet. In order to easily bookmark a page you can install a little icon in your web browser that makes it easy for the user to click on it and it provides a drop down menu with actions you can take.

256px-Diigo.svg

The drop down menu allows the user to share, annotate, screenshot, and save to their Diigo library

Screen Shot 2014-04-03 at 5.27.55 PM

Your Diigo library keeps track of what websites you save and the annotations you can make in them. My library is mostly focused on social media, marketing, communications and blogging because our client, Wardrobe Interventions, is an up-and-coming small business that focuses on style and fashion.

It is also easy to find Diigo users with similar interests as you because Diigo has a search engine feature that allows users to type in a specific keyword and it then generates a list of Diigo users with similar tags.Screen Shot 2014-04-03 at 5.41.17 PM

When you type in a keyword such as “marketing” a list of users pops up who all used the tag “marketing” for at least one of their saved websites. This is a great tool because it makes it easy for the user to find similar websites that talk about marketing without having to spend hours on the Internet searching through irrelevant information. Many of the websites users tag in their library are extremely helpful and provide great research and information on a variety of topics.

This website can benefit business owners because it can be a huge time saver. People are constantly busy and don’t always have endless hours to spend on the Internet searching for new ways to improve their marketing, blogging, or any other type of skill. Diigo allows you to save all of your websites in one area while also being able to search through other people’s tags and websites.

Staying Connected with HootSuite

With so many social media sites available for our use it can be time consuming to constantly check every site that you have on a regular basis. In order to grow a small business though it is important to stay on top of your social media postings and to be aware of the latest news stories going on around the country and even world. Recently I found that HootSuite is a great website that can manage all of your social media accounts in one place. This website allows you to connect your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Myspace, and even WordPress so you do not have to go to each different website in order to view or post something.

hootsuite-2

Each different section allows the user to view their news feeds from several different social media sites. It also allows you to monitor what people are saying about you or your company and makes it easy for you to respond immediately back to them. For example, on Twitter you can add a “stream” that only shows your direct mentions in someone else’s tweet. This can be good for business’s because it makes it easier for them to monitor what their customer’s are saying about their product or brand and allows them to stay constantly in the loop.

Screen Shot 2014-03-27 at 11.39.37 AM

HootSuite makes it easy to click on any type of steam, for example Twitter, and it immediately creates a new section on your dashboard showing you anything you wish to see.

Another cool feature in HootSuite is its feature that allows you to schedule when you want your Facebook post or tweet goes out to your followers. You can create a tweet and then click the specific date and time you want it to go out and HootSuite will automatically send it out for you no matter where you are at.

Screen Shot 2014-03-27 at 12.01.08 PM

This can be great for businesses such as Andrea Whaley’s Wardrobe Interventions because she can schedule a Facebook post days in advance to promote something and she wouldn’t have to worry about remembering to do it. It can be hard to be a small business owner and this scheduling feature can make social media posting so much easier.

Keeping up with social media can be hard for some people and I feel like this website is a great way to make people’s lives a lot easier. Using HootSuite allows you to focus your energy on other areas of your life or business without having to sacrifice your social media presence!