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Hootsuite Share Extension for iOS 8 Allows Third-Party Apps to Share to Facebook

Apple is set to release its new mobile operating system, iOS 8, Wednesday, and Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer and social media relationship platform Hootsuite is already on board with the new share extensions feature of iOS 8 — which allows third-party applications to provide their services via the share button in iOS apps such as Safari and Photos — with its announcement of the Hootsuite Share Extension.

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Using Hootsuite for Your Business

Social media is a great way for businesses to connect with their customers. Everyone is on social media these days, and even businesses with tiny budgets can use it to help their business. Social media seems like every business’s dream, but keeping up with your social accounts can turn into a nightmare. The good news is it doesn’t have to.

How to Save Time

Tools like HootSuitecan help you manage…

Travel can be a nightmare if you manage social media accounts. Not only are you away from your desk, but you never know if you’ll be able to find reliable internet access.

Luckily, there are great tools that can help you automate your social media presence. We tested every tool in this review to find which is the best for scheduling tweets and Facebook posts on the road.

Tech ninja tip!  Be careful using automated social media tools to post to Facebook, as Facebook may penalize you by decreasing the Edgerank of your automated post (meaning fewer people could see, like and share your scheduled post). Thanks to the rockin’ social media guru Alex Bramwell of Sunshine Guide to Gran Carina for this tip.

The Best:  HootSuite

HootSuite, the popular social media manager, has introduced an AutoSchedule feature for Hootlet -- the HootSuite Chrome and Firefox extension.  

This brings up the questions of "should journalists and PR professionals auto-schedule their tweets?" HootSuite's AutoSchedule, like Buffer and SocialFlow, is great for those who want to keep a constant stream of interesting articles in their feed, but does it lose out on personalization and timing?

According to HootSuite, AutoSchedule will analyze users’ and their friends’ social activity and post to the scheduled social media network when it will have high visibility without crowding people’s social streams. 

I scheduled a post from Hootlet and chose Facebook and Twitter as the social media networks. The posts were scheduled for separate times for each social media network -- 4:05pm for Twitter and 4:55pm for Facebook. 

Posting regular, insightful updates in social media is important for building a following.  There are some people I follow because I know that they will help me pick out the best articles I might have missed. I try to do the same for those who follow me. Scheduling posts on Tweetdeck is one option, but this browser extension makes sharing interesting articles so much easier without dumping 5 links in a row on my followers. 

For those who have never used Hootlet, it installs a small button on the left of the URL field in Chrome or Firefox for sharing the link of the site you are currently on. It’s similar to Tweetdeck in that a HootSuite login will remember your account setting and sync them across multiple devices. 

Personally, after 2 of the automated posts were published, I received 2 immediate responses to them. The things I schedules were not breaking news but articles on impacts of technology. I cannot say that I wouldn't have gotten those responses had I posted them immediately but I did get a higher rate of reply than normal. 

Although HootSuite is also available as a web interface, an iPhone app, and an Android App, the AutoSchedule feature is only available as a part of the Chrome and Firefox extension so far. 

Leave a comment and let us know how you think you would use the AutoSchedule feature, or if you wouldn't use them at all and why. We look forward to what you have to say. 

-CL