111 Time-Saving Keyboard Shortcuts for Social Media Managers (PC and Mac)

by Michelle Martin May 18, 2022

Strategy

Did you know using keyboard shortcuts can save you hours of time? Holy shift! As a social media marketer, think what you could achieve with all that extra TikTok dancing practice?

But seriously: Shortcuts can help you schedule social media posts, reply to DMs, insert hashtags (without copy/pasting), switch between tabs and accounts, and so much more. There’s a faster way to do nearly everything you need to in a day.

This is your one-stop shop for time management optimization. Keep reading to find out the 111 keyboard shortcuts for Mac and PC you need to know as a social media manager.

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

What’s a keyboard shortcut?

A keyboard shortcut is a specific combination of keys that triggers an action on your computer, e.g. copying or pasting a piece of text.

You can do almost anything with shortcuts, including taking screenshots, scheduling social media posts, switching programs, finding documents and text quickly, and so much more.

A study found that keyboard shortcuts are, on average, 18.3% faster than using a mouse for common tasks!

Keyboard shortcuts on PC vs. Mac

Keyboard shortcuts look a bit different on PCs and Macs. Most shortcuts start with the same key: either Control (on PCs) or Command (on Mac). Functionally, this is really the same key — the naming is just different between operating systems.

It should be labeled on your keyboard, but if not, remember:

PC users = Control

Mac users = Command

Sometimes keyboard shortcuts are different between the two operating systems. If there are Windows or Mac-specific versions of the social media shortcuts below, I’ll mention it. Otherwise, I’ll default to saying “Control” below because even though I’m a Mac user now, I grew up the way all elder millennials did: Windows 98, baby.

Keyboard shortcuts for Facebook

Search Facebook: /
Search Messenger contacts: Q
Navigate Messenger DMs (previous conversation): Alt + ↑
Navigate Messenger DMs (next conversation): Alt + ↓
Show shortcuts menu: SHIFT + ?
Scroll News Feed (previous post): J
Scroll News Feed (next post): K
Create a post: P
Like or unlike a post: L
Comment on a post: C
Share a post: S
Open attachment from a story: O
Launch or exit full-screen mode: F
Scroll a photo album (previous): J
Scroll a photo album (next): K
See full text of a post (“See more”): ENTER on PC / RETURN on Mac

Note: To use these, you need to enable Facebook keyboard shortcuts in your settings. You can turn them on, off, and also enable or disable single key shortcuts.

Facebook

You can also navigate to different areas of Facebook with the following keyboard shortcuts, but these only work on Windows:

In Chrome:

Home: Alt + 1
Timeline: Alt + 2
Friends Page: Alt + 3
Inbox: Alt + 4
Notifications: Alt + 5
Settings: Alt + 6
Activity Log: Alt + 7
About: Alt + 8
Terms: Alt + 9
Help: Alt + 0

In Firefox: Press Shift + Alt +1, and so on.

Mac tip: Some reports say these work in Safari as Control + Option + 1, however they did not on my M1 MacBook with Monterey. If you have an older Mac, give it a try.

Keyboard shortcuts for Twitter

Search for positive brand sentiment Tweets: :) + your company name (or any other term)
Search for negative sentiment Tweets: :( + company name

Send a DM: M
Scroll Home feed (previous Tweet): J
Scroll Home feed (next Tweet): K
Refresh Home feed to see new Tweets: . (period!)
Like a Tweet: L
Write a new Tweet: N
Post Tweet: Control + Enter on PC / Command + Return on Mac
Favorite current Tweet: F
Retweet selected Tweet: T
Open detail page of current Tweet: Enter (Return on Mac)

You can also navigate Twitter by pressing the following keyboard shortcuts at the same time:

Home Feed: G + H
Mentions: G + R
Notifications: G + N
DMs: G + M
Your profile: G + P
Someone else’s profile: G + U
Lists: G + L
Settings: G + S

Keyboard shortcuts for YouTube

Skip backward or forward when watching a video: Use number keys to skip to the following marks.
- 1 = 10%
- 2 = 20%
- 3 = 30%
- 4 = 40%
- 5 = 50%
- 6 = 60%
- 7 = 70%
- 8 = 80%
- 9 = 90%
- 0 = Back to the start
Make video full-screen: F
Play or pause video: Space Bar
Rewind video: Left arrow key
Fast-forward video: Right arrow key
Skip video forward 10 seconds: L
Skip video backward 10 seconds: J
Go to the next video in the playlist: Shift + N
Go to the previous video in the playlist: Shift + P
Toggle closed captioning on or off: C
Volume up by 5%: Up arrow
Volume down by 5%: Down arrow

Keyboard shortcuts for LinkedIn

Send a DM: Control + Enter (or Return on Mac)
- Or, you can set LinkedIn to send a message, instead of starting a new line, when you press Enter.
Add an image or video to a post: Tab + Enter
Send your post or comment: Tab + Tab + Enter

Shortcuts for LinkedIn Recruiter

In a list of candidate profiles in search results:

Next person: Right arrow
Previous person: Left arrow
Save profile to pipeline: S
Hide profile: H

Shortcuts for LinkedIn Learning videos

Play/pause: Space Bar
Mute audio: M
Turn closed captioning on or off: C
Volume up: Up arrow
Volume down: Down arrow
Skip backwards 10 seconds: Left arrow
Skip forward 10 seconds: Right arrow
Make video full-screen: F

Keyboard shortcuts for content creation

These shortcuts work in most applications and web browsers, though some apps may have their own specific shortcuts. You may be familiar with most of these already, but don’t underestimate how much time these can save you compared to clickin’ around.

When it comes to content creation, batching your production and getting your captions, graphics, and links all done at once is essential for your workflow. The faster you can make content, the more you can make, and the better your social media marketing ROI will be.

Copy: Control + C
Cut: Control + X
Paste: Control + V
Select all: Control + A
Undo: Control + Z
Redo: Shift + Control + Z
Bold text: Control + B
Italicize text: Control + I
Insert a link: Control + K

Take a screenshot on PC

Windows Logo key + PrtScn
Or, if you don’t have PrtScn: Fn + Windows Logo + Space Bar

Take a screenshot on Mac

Entire screen: Shift + Command + 3 (press and hold all together)
Portion of your screen: Shift + Command + 4
Screenshot an open window or app: Shift + Command + 4 + Space Bar (then use mouse to select which window to capture)

General keyboard shortcuts for social media managers

Put these shortcuts in your back pocket ‘cause you’re going to use them daily. Oh, the shortcut for that? Ctrl + ↓ = send to back (pocket).

Search text on a webpage or (most) applications: Control + F
- Scroll to the next mention of your search term when using this: Control + G
Switch open tabs in your web browser: Control + Tab
Open a new tab: Control + N
Save progress: Control + S
Close a browser tab or app window: Control + W
Quit an application: Control + Q
Force quit a frozen application: Control + Alt + Delete (press at the same time) on PC / Option + Command + Escape on Mac
Restart a completely frozen computer:
- Windows: Control + Alt + Delete (same time), then Control + click the Power icon that comes up on the screen
- Mac, without Touch ID: Control + Command + Power button
- Mac, with Touch ID: Hold down the Power button until it restarts
Switch between open apps: Alt + Tab on PC / Command + Tab on Mac (hold the Command key down and press Tab to select an open app)
Wildcard Google search: Add * to the end of your search phrase to find keywords related to your search phrase.

Search for an exact phrase in Google (also works for Facebook, Twitter, and many other sites): Put quotes around it, like “Mac keyboard shortcuts”
Use Google to search a specific website: Put the URL followed by a colon. Extra search power? Add quotes to find an exact phrase, too.

Search your computer: Windows Logo key + S on PC / Command + Space Bar on Mac
Zoom in a browser tab or app: Control + +
Zoom out: Control + –

Keyboard shortcuts for Hootsuite

These shortcuts can seriously boost your productivity in Hootsuite:

Send or schedule a post: Shift + Enter on PC / Shift + Return on Mac
Navigate Hootsuite in your web browser: Press Tab to cycle through sections—Home, Create, Streams, etc—and Enter to select one.

Quick text phrase shortcuts

On most devices, you can assign a long text phrase to a key or shorter phrase, which saves you from having to type it all the time. Use this for hashtags, answers to frequently asked questions, common DM responses, and more.

For Mac: Create your own quick text or keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences.
For PC: Customize keyboard shortcuts.
For iPhone: Set up text replacements.
For Android: Depends on device, though all Android phones can run Gboard which allows you to customize text replacement shortcuts.

Use your text replacements in the Hootsuite mobile app or on the web while scheduling posts to save a ton of time:

Hootsuite keyboard shortcuts for Streams

Use these in the search bar in a new Stream to supercharge your content curation and engagement research.

Go to the Streams tab, then click Add Stream at the top:

Select the account you want to use, tap Search, enter one of the following shortcuts, and click Add stream.

In this example, my Stream shows social media posts about marketing that don’t have links—perfect for adding to my content curation workflow.

Search for positive brand sentiment posts: :) + your company name (example: :) Hootsuite)
Search for negative brand sentiment posts: :( + your company name
See posts without links: -filter:links (example: marketing -filter:links)
- To see only posts with links, remove the “-” so: marketing filter:links
Find content near your location: near:City (example: marketing near:Vancouver)
Find content in a specific language: lang:en (Find language abbreviations.)
See only posts with questions: Add a ? to your search term.

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