As writers and artists, it’s almost imperative these days that you have some semblance of a social media presence (especially if you’re still new to the scene). I’ve said this plenty of times and even made posts about why social media is one of your strongest allies. If you’ve listened (and I know a lot of you have), then you’ve got at least a Twitter account or an Instagram page set up. And if you’ve listened really well, then you’ve got a couple of social media accounts that you fiddle around with. But keeping multiple social media accounts up to date can definitely be a hassle.

I currently keep seven forms of social media pseudo-up to date (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Goodreads).

Seven.

I have friends who have even more (Youtube, Vine, etc.). It’s insane.

But the point is this – there comes a time when copying and pasting the same status update into seven different social media accounts, not to mention blogs, becomes a little tiring. You burn out and just the thought of logging into Twitter makes you gag a little. You’ve got what I like to call “Social Fatigue” (I’m sure there’s an actual term for it, but that’s what I’m calling it). You stop updating and commenting and your social media presence diminishes almost completely. This happened to me a few months ago and I’m only now recovering from it. But I went dark for a long time, only occasionally posting a picture I drew on Instagram or Tumblr. I lost followers (because who wants to follow a ghost?) and I lost a lot of the traction and social media momentum I had leading up to my burnout. Now, admittedly, there were a few real-life factors that played into my disappearance, but it was still a serious dose of Social Fatigue.

When the new year finally swung around, I made the resolution that I would hop back on the social media wagon. I’d contact my internet friends that I’d abandoned months ago. And I’d try to become a voice in the writing world once again. But in order for me to do this, I needed to figure out a way to do it without hitting that wall again. And that was when I found:

Hootsuite.

My god. I love Hootsuite so much. Here’s the skinny – Hootsuite is a free (though there is a paid version), all-in-one dashboard for your social media accounts. In the free version, you can log into up to three accounts and everything you post gets shot out to all your accounts at once. Or you can choose what it gets sent out to. No more having to open up seven tabs and copy/paste updates and links into each one individually. You can monitor your news feeds, notifications, and likes/favorites all from within your Hootsuite account.

The Hootsuite Dashboard

Hootsuite also has the capacity to give you up-to-date analytics on how well your posts and accounts are doing (though the advanced analytics require you to have the paid version), as well as offering you the ability to create a company Hootsuite (if you and your friends run a massively successful blog with lots of social media outlets, for example).

Here’s how I have my setup, well, set up:

I have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram hooked up to my Hootsuite account (though they support over 35 different social media websites). From there, I have posts, tweets, and pictures set up on a schedule (another awesome feature of Hootsuite) to be posted/released throughout the day for weeks at a time. I’ll spend about a day filling Hootsuite’s schedule with a smorgasbord of postings and then sit back as Hootsuite takes care of sending out my daily musings and occasional sketches, leaving me free to peruse what other people are chatting about. When Hootsuite sends my pictures to Instagram, I pop my Instagram app open on my phone and share the post across my other social media sites. All of this helps to decrease the stress of forcing myself to come up with something witty or insightful every day (and stressing out even more when I can’t and the day goes by filled with my silence) and allows me to focus on interacting with folks across the different social media networks while staying miles ahead of the Social Fatigue that seems to always be nipping at my heels.

Do you use Hootsuite in your own social media life? Have strategies on how to use it more effectively? Let me know in the comments section below!