Hootsuite’s New Advanced Link Tagging Tool

Hootsuite have just rolled out a whole host of features to their Twitter client and some of which have been blogged about already. But one feature, probably the best feature, has not yet been discovered.

Hootsuite now enables you to add UTM parameters to your links within Hootsuite itself. No longer is an external tool required such as Google’s UTM Link Builder. You can do it all now within one client!

Firstly, have a read of this post which helps you define and understand what and how UTM parameters work for your links so that you can effectively measure the success of your online PR campaigns: How to measure the effectiveness of your online press release

Secondly, switch from Tweetdeck or Seismic to HOOTSUITE.

1) Ok, so when you open up Hootsuite click on the link box and PASTE your long URL in the box. Then you will see a little ADVANCED button pop up. Click on it.

2) A pop up box appears with blank fields.

3) Now click on the drop down box ‘Select a Preset’ and choose Google Analytics or you may need to create a new preset depending on what Analytics package you are using.

4) The parameters will automatically be populated like this with utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign:

5) Fill in your ‘Values’ for each parameter which you want to show up in Google Analytics. For this example my source is Press Release 123 and the medium I am using is Online and the Campaign is the title of my press release. Click on Done.

TIP: Your ‘medium’ does not have to be ‘online’. It could be ‘twitter’ or ‘socialmedia’. Google Analytics will look at what traffic has been brought to the site by ‘medium’ type.

6) Now your original link box will have your pre-pasted URL followed by the UTM parameters you have just defined.

7) Click on SHRINK IT and you are done. You now have a shorterned URL with UTM tags for each press release you are distributing via Twitter or any other social media tool.

Happy measuring folks!!

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