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Schedule your Facebook status updates with Hootsuite

Written on January 12, 2010 | Posted in Social Media |

hootsuite logo 250x250 Schedule your Facebook status updates with Hootsuite For long days, I was looking for a system to schedule my Facebook status updates. After starting using Twitter I got many free services that allow schedule tweet. SocialOomph (previously known as Tweetlater) is one that I used to schedule my tweets.

After that I integrated my twitter account with Facebook that is I automated my Facebook status updates with my tweets.

Sometimes thus I schedule my Facebook status by scheduling tweets. But I was not satisfied with this system as twitter do not allow more than 140 characters.

I was looking for such system that will schedule my Facebook status and directly update my status in due time. I found some paid service like SocialOomph and some free service like Sendible. I don’t have any experience with SocialOomph but I gave a try to Sendible. I couldn’t make Sendible to work. The consistency is too much poor. Sendible do not update any of my pre scheduled Facebook status.

In the mean time I started to use Hootsuite to schedule my tweets. Hootsuite is a excellent social media client that allow you to manage multiple twitter account along with schedule status update to Twitter, Ping.fm, Linked.in.

Finally, Hootsuite has come to the rescue and now are providing a new service from November, 2009 where you can schedule your status updates on many social networking sites including Facebook. This has really made my job a lot easier. The great news is that you can even schedule updates to your Facebook Fan pages as well.

Why I need to schedule my Facebook status update?

I am a Facebook enthusiasts and don’t want to make others think that I am busy enough to away from Facebook. Sometimes I mention my important events on my scheduled status so that if I forget, my Facebook status reminds me about that. Again, often I need to go for a trip where internet or PC is not available. So I pre schedule my FB status and my friends and family get me updated on Facebook.

However, how to do it with Hootsuite is not too much hard. Just follow me.

Step-1: Go to http://hootsuite.com and Signup. (I assume that you are new to Hootsuite)

Step-2: Now Login to Hootsuite.

Step-3: To add your Facebook accounts, click on Settings near the bottom of your screen.

On Settings page there are several tabs, among them click on “Social Networks“.

Once you click that tab, the next step towards adding Facebook is clicking a button with a green “+” button that says Add Social Network.

Step-4: Once you click Add Social Network, the window like below 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. Hit on Facebook button.

Now click on the blue button “Connect with Facebook“. A New on page window will pop up. Again click on the blue button “Connect with Facebook“. Again a new window will pop up.

Step-5: Now, put your Facebook Login details and hit on the blue button “Connect“.

Then the window will disappear and a small on page window will pop up as below.

Click on “Finished“. 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.

Step-6: Now click on the Home button as shown below to come back on your dashboard home. Here you will find a new tab that is your Facebook profile tab. Click on that tab. You will found two column one is “News feed” & another is “Pending Status Updates“. If not then add a new column.

Click on the add column button. A new window will pop up.

Select “Facebook” from first dropdown menu and select “Pending Status Updates” from next dropdown menu. Don’t forget to select the Facebook profile.

How to schedule a status update:

You have completed all the job you need to to do on Hootsuite to update your Facebook status. Now, start scheduling your status updates. On the top of your Hootsuite dashboard there is a text field in which you have to write your words to be scheduled.

Then click on “Send later“. A scheduler will drop down. Select your date and time. Then you need to select your Facebook profile which is located at the right side of the text field just by clicking on the avatar of your Facebook profile. Now, hit on the black button “Schedule“. You are done. Hootsuite will update your Facebook status at pre scheduled date & time.

A long tutorial …huh? However, this tutorial works not only for Facebook status update. Hootsuite allow twitter, linkedin and ping.fm also. If you are using any of them, for status scheduling Hootsuite will be the best solution.