Hootsuite Social Media Management Platform
With Hootsuite, you can write, send, schedule and track posts from a simple interface across multiple networks and multiple accounts. Hootsuite is web-based and does not require any software download. It is easy to use and is great for monitoring analytics and performance.
Social Media Dashboard
Hootsuite primarily runs from a social media dashboard, which provides a clear picture of all your social media activity across all of your accounts and allows you to post to all of them from one place.
Hootsuite gives you access to up to three of your top social media streams for free. Choose from Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Instagram, Google+ amongst others. This can be so much easier than trying to manage all of your accounts directly from a browser or individual mobile apps.
Social Media Monitoring Tool
A really useful, albeit less used, aspect of Hootsuite is the social media monitoring tool. With it, you can track what people are posting to your accounts, and you can also monitor what they are saying about your brand. This is done by creating a feed that is based on a search term i.e your business name. The monitoring tool then gives you access to a stream of all public mentions, which include that search term. It doesn’t matter whether they have been directed to your accounts or not. This is a useful tool although it doesn’t offer the degree of flexibility or features that dedicated social media monitoring tools have. It is, however, a good option for SMB’s which have a unique brand or business.
Features
- Access your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Foursquare accounts from a single application.
- Update your profiles: send and program comments, upload images, check-in at the places you visit, etc.
- Welcome the assistant to import the column distribution from your web configuration.
HootSuite Pros
Lots of social networks supported.
You can use Hootsuite to manage many different social media accounts. Here is a list of social networks they support with no applications to install:
- WordPress
- FourSquare
Here are some social networks Hootsuite supports that do require you to install an application (some free and some are paid):
- YouTube
- Storify
- Viadeo
- Dailymotion
- SoundCloud
- Vimeo
- Ping.fm
- Mixi
- MySpace
- Ning
- Tumblr
- Blogger
- StumbleUpon
- Scoop.it
Low Cost
For their Pro version plan, it only costs $9.99/month which will be more than enough for most small businesses. You can pay monthly or yearly. You do get a price discount for paying annually.
Manage Accounts Multiple Stream
It’s very easy to manage all your social media accounts in different tabs. Their all-one interface allows you to add different networks you wish to monitor quickly. The organization is excellent for monitoring multiple Twitter streams, Facebook business pages, etc.
Auto-Schedule Posting
It’s very easy to auto-schedule different posts on your social networks. You can upload a .cvs file and schedule 100’s of the post to go out at various times throughout the day, week, month, and year.
Lots of Apps
There are lots of different applications you can install.
HootSuite Cons
There are some cons to using Hootsuite. They are listed down below:
Fees
There is a monthly or yearly fee for using HootSuite’s Pro or Enterprise plans. It can be a $100+ a year.
Free Account
The free account you can start with Hootsuite is limiting, but then again it is free. You can manage three social media accounts, have basic analytics, basic message scheduling, have access to basic applications, etc.
Auto Scheduling Problems
There are some bugs when you auto schedules your post which does take some additional time. For instance, you can’t add images to all the social networks you want to use. Meaning that you will have to add them in once your .cvs file manually is uploaded.
Extra App Fees
To use some of the apps, you’re going to want use. You are going to have to pay $.99 to $4.99 more each month.
Overwhelming
Since Hootsuite is very robust, it can be very overwhelming for people that are not all that computer savvy.
Also read: Importance of Social media Management tools