Sendible Blog

One of the most common questions we get here at Sendible is “How does Sendible compare to HootSuite?” HootSuite is a great tool, but it does have limited capabilities for someone who really wants to dive deep into social media as well as online marketing or manage several clients. HootSuite is used primarily as a Twitter tool (although it does more than just Twitter), whereas Sendible is an all-around online marketing tool.

Sendible offers services that HootSuite does not including the ability to offer white label social media management and resell Sendible to your clients under your own brand. We also offer rebranding of your Facebook and Twitter posts so that they won’t say “via Sendible”. I have put together a list of the features and services that Sendible supports as well as those that HootSuite supports below.

In summation, HootSuite is a very useful social media tool, but if you are looking to do more than just basic social media and want to delve into online marketing, Sendible will be your best bet. For an unbiased second opinion, check out Max Goldberg’s blog post entitled “Hootsuite vs. Sendible, or Why Paying To Use Facebook Is Amazing” as well as this comparison post from Inkstained Knuckle.

If you’d like to submit your own review comparing Sendible with other products, please send an email to info@sendible.com and we’ll be sure to link to your site from this post.

LinkedIn groups are one of the most powerful and frequently used features of LinkedIn. Now, you can use Sendible’s powerful social media dashboard to create and respond to discussions on your LinkedIn Groups as they happen.

The following steps will walk you through setting up your LinkedIn Group.

1.     Log in to your Sendible account and go to the Add/Edit Services Tab.

2.     Under the Social tab, click the add button next to “LinkedIn Group Discussion”.

3.     Grant Sendible access to your LinkedIn account by clicking “Continue”.

4.     Choose a group from the drop down menu.

5.     Click “Save Settings”.

In order to add our live stream you will need to do the following;

1.     Go to the Add/Edit Services Tab

2.     Under the Streams tab, click the add button next to “LinkedIn Group Stream”.

3.     Grant Sendible access to your LinkedIn account by clicking “Continue”.

4.     Choose a group from the drop down menu.

5.     Click “Save Settings”.

6.     To view your stream, go to your Inbox.  From there you can reply to posts made to the group and interact with other group members.

Besides being a powerful social media management dashboard, Sendible also allows you to send out email marketing newsletters. You can use one of our email templates or create your own.  You can also track opens, unsubscribes, forwards and more.

The video below takes you through all the features available in Sendible so that you can make the most of our email campaign management software:

The video below will show you how to add Twitter auto replies to your Sendible account.  This is useful for starting conversations on Twitter without having to constantly be monitoring it and  can drive social media engagement.  Give it a try, and let us know what you think of this feature!

We’re excited to announce the launch of the new Sendible Android app, free to all Sendible users.

The app can be downloaded here.

Features:

Update all your social networks from one social media platform Publish content to any of the social networks you use and update your blogs – all from one app. Access your Sendible address book on the go Access any of the contacts you’ve imported into your Sendible account and reach them via Email, SMS and more. Save for later Ability to save unfinished posts to be completed when you get back to your desktop. Share photos Post photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, WordPress and more. Message scheduling Schedule posts to go out at a time you choose or on recurring schedules. Campaign reports and analytics Access your Sendible message reports and view statistics such as clicks, referrers, shares, comments and more.

Often, several different people within a company will need access to any given social media tool; this poses the problem of having to give out your password for them to gain access to your account.  Sendible have come up with a solution to this problem.  Sendible allows the administrator to share access to any of your social media accounts, without compromising your security.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Log into your Sendible Account.

Step 2: In the upper right-hand corner of your screen, click on the “My Users” tab.

Step 3: On your toolbar, click the “Sharing” button.

Step 4: Select the item that you would like to share, then select which user you would like to share this item with and move them to the “Currently Shared With” box on the right by using the arrow buttons.

Step 5: Select the “Close” button and you are finished!

The designated user will now have access to the chosen account, without having to use your password!

The Sendible Twitter Management features allow you to automatically send a response to anyone who mentions your specific keywords.  This is an excellent marketing tool for busy social media managers who don’t want to miss the chance to engage with a potential client.  By striking up a conversation automatically, this tool gives you the opportunity to truly engage with potential clients who are talking about your field of expertise.

Follow the steps below to configure the Twitter auto reply tool on your Sendible account.

Step 1: Log into your Sendible Account.

Step 2: Go to Add/Edit Services.

Step 3:  Go to the Automation tab and click “Add” to include Twitter Auto Replies.

Step 4: Type in a description along with your keywords into the respective fields.  Keywords must be separated by a comma.

Step 5: Type in your message.  You can randomize which message will go out by entering different messages on each line.

Step 6: Save your settings at the bottom of the page.

It is really that easy to start engaging with Twitter users who are talking about your area of expertise without you even having to be in front of your computer!

How do you use the automation tools that Sendible provides to make managing your social media engagement easier?

The Sendible Facebook auto responder allows you to automatically send Facebook wall posts to your contacts on their birthdays.  Businesses can use this social media tool as a marketing campaign, to send messages to their customers leading up to their birthdays.  These messages could be used to attract customers through the use of exclusive birthday coupon codes.

Follow the steps below to configure this on your Sendible account:

Step 1: Log into your Sendible Account.

Step 2: Go to Add/Edit Services.

Step 3: Go to Social Media Messaging and Click “Add” to include Facebook Wall Post.

Step 4: It will ask you to connect to your Facebook account. “Click” on connect with Facebook and enter your account details.

Step 5: Click on “Allow”.

Step 6: Click on “Grant the Permission” and then again click “Allow”.

Step 7: Click on “Fetch Contacts” and then select the contacts to be imported and to receive your automatic messages.

Step 8: Click on “Import”.

Now you will be brought back to Add/Edit Services and in there select the “Automation” tab. Then click the Add button next to the Facebook Auto Responder.

Step 9: Fill in the Details on the form and don’t forget to select an existing or if you don’t have one setup yet, then you can create one by clicking on the small group button next to the group dropdown menu as shown below.

Step 10: When you are done then click on “Save Settings” as shown below.

Your Facebook auto responder has now been set up and will automatically start scheduling birthday messages to your Facebook contacts.

Sendible is a great piece of social media management software, but we also make it easy for people to compose, track and analyze email marketing campaigns.

A great way to grow your email mailng list is through Sendible’s opt-in widget.

Our opt-in widget allows users on your website, blog or even Facebook Page to add themselves directly to your address book and can be setup in 4 easy steps:

1. If you don’t already have a Sendible account, you can sign up for one here.
2. Log into your Sendible account.
3. Go to My Contacts and select the Widget section.
4. Click “Get Started” and select the standard fields that you would like to appear on your capture form.
5. Go to Step 2 and click “New Field” to create any additional custom fields you would like your customers/contacts to fill in.
6. After creating any additional fields, proceed to Step 3. Here you can customize the button text and the page to direct users to after signing up. You can also create/select a group of contacts that can be notified whenever a new customer signs up.
7. Finally, go to Step 4, where you can select the Sendible group (mailing list) that all new contacts are added to.

You can click the Preview button to preview and test the widget. When you’re ready, click “Get Widget Code”. This is the code that you’ll need to copy and paste onto your website or blog to have the capture form appear.

We’re excited to announce the launch of the new Sendible iPhone app, free to all Sendible users until 31 January 2011 after which it will only be available to users with a paid Sendible plan.

The app can be downloaded here.

Features:

Update all your social networks at once with Sendible’s social media management software Publish content to any of the social networks you use and update your blogs – all from one app.Access your Sendible address book on the go Access any of the contacts you’ve imported into your Sendible account and reach them via Email, SMS and more. Save for later Ability to save unfinished posts to be completed when you get back to your desktop. Share photos Post photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, WordPress and more. Message scheduling Schedule posts to go out at a time you choose or on recurring schedules. Campaign reports and analytics Access your Sendible message reports and view statistics such as clicks, referrers, shares, comments and more.