How to Engage with Your Audience Using Streams

Hootsuite’s free platform course provides the knowledge and skills to use the full suite of Hootsuite social media management tools. Learn how to utilize these tools to boost the impact of your social media efforts, driving results and proving your ROI.

Video Transcript | Intro

Engaging extensively with your audience can set you apart from your competition and build meaningful relationships. On native channels, important comments, posts, or mentions can get lost in the shuffle, but with Hootsuite, you can efficiently interact with your audience across all social networks in one place.

How to Engage

Let’s say you spot a comment from a happy customer. You can engage with them by liking their post, and, if the comment is through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you can reply to it directly in stream.

You can also share or retweet their message. On Twitter, you have the option to Retweet the post as is, or quote the original Tweet. Quoting the original embeds it in a box within your tweet, as well as send it to the composer, where you can post immediately or schedule for later.  

To see which users have retweeted one of your posts, click the number next to the retweet button. You can then click a username to view their Twitter profile. Twitter profiles can also be viewed in stream by clicking their handle. Here you can follow, send a direct message, reply, or add them to a Twitter List.

If there’s a post you’d like to view natively, click the timestamp which takes you to the platform to see the post.  

If one post in particular is getting a lot of comments, create a separate comment stream to stay on top of the action. This can be done for networks that allow commenting.

Comment Settings

As a general rule, we recommend keeping comments made on your posts public. But if you find yourself on the receiving end of spammy or hateful comments on Facebook, select Hide from the drop-down menu. Hidden Facebook comments will still be visible to the commenter and their friends, but are hidden from the general public. 

If you’re receiving similar comments on Twitter, you can report the user.

To reach out to a Twitter user for a private conversation, click the Direct Message icon within one of their tweets.  

Private Messages 

You can also respond to a private message sent to your Facebook Business Page. First, add a Messages stream from the Add Stream Menu. Then click the message to respond.

Check out our Help Desk to learn more about How to Add and Use Streams.