Get started with Hootsuite

You can use Hootsuite to publish and promote social content, increase brand awareness, engage with your audience, and generate leads. With Hootsuite, you can manage multiple social accounts from different social networks in one place. Here are the basic steps for getting started.

 Choose a plan

Hootsuite offers flexible pricing and several plan options to meet your needs at hootsuite.com/plans. Consider the number of social accounts you want to manage, the average number of posts you'll publish, and whether you'll work with a team; the plan you choose determines your allowances for these tasks. Higher-level plans offer access to more powerful features, such as content campaigns and advanced metrics. For more about plan types, see Overview of Hootsuite plan types.

 Start a trial or request a demo

After deciding on a plan, sign up for a free 30-day trial or request a demo.

For information changing plans, managing billing, or canceling, see Manage your Hootsuite plan and account.

 Connect your social accounts

The first time you sign in, Hootsuite prompts you to connect your social accounts and set permissions. The number of social accounts you can add depends on your plan type, but we recommend adding at least two or three. As an example, an Instagram account, a Twitter account, and a Facebook Page make up a total of three social accounts.

For detailed information and video walkthroughs about connecting social accounts, see Add a social account to Hootsuite.

 Monitor and engage with social accounts using streams

Hootsuite streams are feeds that display the content from your connected social accounts and allow you to participate in conversations relevant to your industry. You can use streams to monitor activity across all of your accounts; engage with your audience; and monitor specific keywords, topics, hashtags, brand mentions, and competitors in one place.

After you've connected your social accounts to Hootsuite, you can go to Streams and select Add Stream to create a new stream. To organize or categorize your streams, add boards by selecting New board and choosing a stream type.

Create few boards and streams and scroll through them to see what works best for you. You can easily create and delete streams, so don't be afraid to explore. 

• To learn more about the experience of adding streams, see Your first boards and streams.
• To learn about using boards, see Use boards to organize your streams.

Here are a few other things you can do with streams:

• Engage with your audience in Streams
• Share stream content
• Organize streams
• Edit or delete published content in Streams
• Send social content via email

 Create, schedule, and publish your content

You can create, schedule, and publish your social media content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram from one place, and you can publish content to multiple social networks at a time.

To get started, go to Create new post, and then select an option.

Select your social accounts, and then create your post. In addition to text, you can include mentions or tags, links, images, videos, GIFs, emojis, and hashtags.

As you compose your post, you can preview how it will look on the right. When you're ready, you can publish it, save it as a draft, or schedule it for later. 

For additional information, see:

• Create and publish posts
• Work with drafts
• Schedule a post

 View and manage your scheduled posts in a calendar

To view or manage your scheduled content, go to Publisher . You can create new posts and organize, edit, or delete existing posts right from the calendar.

• Use the Planner view to review and manage your posts in a weekly calendar view. Select a time block in the calendar to create new content to publish at that selected time.
• Use the Content view to see your past scheduled posts, view and manage your future scheduled and draft posts, set up RSS feeds, and upload messages in bulk.
• Use the Promote view to allocate advertising spend to Facebook or LinkedIn Page posts. For more information on promoting your content, see Create a promoted post.

 Next steps

Here are some great ways to extend your Hootsuite functionality and advance your Hootsuite knowledge.

Extend your Hootsuite functionality with apps

Visit the Hootsuite app directory to select from a library of free and third-party apps developed to increase your productivity with Hootsuite.

Select My profile , and then select App directory to explore the app library.

For additional information, see Install or uninstall apps from your dashboard.

Manage social media on the go with Hootsuite mobile

Download Hootsuite mobile apps for Android and iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch from your device's app store to manage your social media on the go. For more information, see Hootsuite Mobile Apps.

Advance your skills with Hootsuite Academy

Master new social media skills and expand your Hootsuite knowledge with free online courses. Visit Hootsuite Academy to explore our courses and certification options.