Hootsuite Dashboard Overview

Take the Hootsuite Platform Training course and master the world's leading social media management dashboard. Through this course you'll learn skills like composing and scheduling multimedia messages, listening for relevant conversations, and managing social media campaigns.

Video Transcript

Now that you’ve signed up for your Hootsuite account, let’s take a quick tour of the dashboard to locate the most important features including audience engagement, publishing, inbox and analytics.

Anything you want to do in Hootsuite can be found in either the Header or the Sidebar, with the main workspace in the center. The sidebar is where you can access core Hootsuite functionality, like Streams, Inbox, Planner, Analytics, and the App Directory. 

The header is where you’ll find the Composer,  Account Settings and the Help Menu. If you’d like to learn more, you can always access our Hootsuite Academy Training through the help menu.

Before you can unlock the power of Hootsuite, you’ll need to connect your social media accounts. To do this simply click your profile picture, Manage Social Networks, then add either personal or organizational accounts. Accounts can also be removed in this area. 

Scheduling and Publishing messages is one of the most popular uses of Hootsuite.  

Click New Post to access the Hootsuite Composer - where you can write your message, shorten links, attach visuals, schedule a publishing time, and select the networks you want your message sent to. You’ll also get a per-network preview of your posts, to ensure they’re perfect before publishing. 

Monitoring your social media accounts from one place

Once you’ve scheduled a post, visit the Planner to review your content. Here you can review your drafted and scheduled posts in a calendar view. Scroll through your past scheduled history, or view what’s next in your scheduled calendar queue.

Clicking on the Stream View in the sidebar is where you can monitor what’s being said across all your social channels. 

Within individual streams, Engaging with your audience is easy through retweeting, liking, commenting, and messaging options.  

Depending on your plan type, you may have access to Hootsuite Inbox.  With Inbox, you can manage your conversations across different social channels. In one place, you can see all your inbound messages, reply to them or assign them to teammates.

If you’re curious how the content you’re posting is being received, click into the Analytics section in the sidebar.

You can view overview metrics like followers, post metrics, and engagement.  Advanced uses of the Analytics tool include in depth Post Performance.  You can also create analytics Reports and share them with colleagues.