7 Reasons NOT to use Hootsuite
By 
Hootsuite Review
Although I wrote this article some time ago, it is being updated regularly. See above for when it was last updated.
You can check out my new article, The Hidden Prices of Social Media Management Tools Revealed, which includes all the details on these new Hootsuite plans.
Hootsuite is one of the most popular and comprehensive social media tools out there. Yes, there are others such as TweetDeck and SproutSocial, but Hootsuite is considered by many as the "crème de la crème" of the Social Media Tools World. I have used it for many years and I still occasionally recommend for my clients. HootSuite is a service referred to as a "Social Media Management Tool". A Social Media Management System or Tool (SMMS/SMMT) can help you manage your many social channels by monitoring, posting and delegating tasks within a team.
The History of the Owl
HootSuite was launched back in 2008 by Ryan Holmes through his digital services agency, Invoke Media. Originally, HootSuite integrated with Twitter only and was called BrightKit . In the following year, HootSuite launched a competition to help decide on a new name and HootSuite was chosen from the short list. Since then, HootSuite has grown its success, now having over 8 million users and employing nearly 400 people from over 175 countries. The head office is in Vancouver, Canada.
If you manage your business’ social networks, it’s highly likely that you will have heard of HootSuite and may already be using it. Back in 2012, HootSuite came top in a list of social media management tools in a survey from monitoring tool Pingdom. According to the survey, over 20% of companies used HootSuite to manage their social media empires. TweetDeck was second and SocialEngage third.
Hootsuite Pros
Here are some of Hootsuite's many features:
- Manage multiple Twitter, Facebook (profiles and pages), LinkedIn, WordPress, Foursquare and Google+ networks all from one place
- Schedule updates (including on a calendar and even upload from a spreadsheet (csv file)
- Collaborate as a team (delegate replies, tweets, mark as done, track messages etc)
- Mobile apps (iOS & Android)
- Customised analytics (including scheduled reports)
- RSS integration (post updates from an RSS feed)
- Helpful and comprehensive support pages and friendly customer support team
What is this article about?
There are lots of great things about Hootsuite, but this article aims to talk about the reasons why you might not want to use it! The title of this post may sound a little provocative, but aim to be constructive in my criticism. Hootsuite will be the right product for a lot of people- maybe even you. If so, please let me know why in the comments below.
As I said, I've used Hootsuite for many years but I use it very rarely, this is because of some big issues that I have encountered. These are deal breakers for me and they may be for some other people.
I'd be really interested in your thoughts, so please let me know in the comments. To get a more balanced view, you should also have a read of my more recent post entitled 7 Reasons why you SHOULD use Hootsuite.
Hootsuite Cons
The issues affect mainly small businesses and individuals and concern cost, reports, url shorteners and their team members option.
Although Hootsuite has a free option, and the pro option isn't exactly expensive there are some very expensive parts to Hootsuite which you may need. When I originally wrote this article Hootsuite Pro cost $5.99 per month, then it increased to $9.99 (or effectively $8.99 per month if you pay yearly). It's now $14.99 per month (or effectively $9.99 per month if you pay yearly). Also, from May 2013 Hootsuite started to offer prices in different currencies and discounts for paying yearly. If you are outside the US it will likely be more expensive for you.
Anyway, here are my top reasons for NOT using Hootsuite...
#1 Expensive Analytics Reports & the Point System
Hootsuite have gone out their way to produce some helpful analytics reports. These go into great detail how your social networks are doing. You get up to 2 free reports with the free version of Hootsuite.
This is where it gets complicated. You buy reports using points. Assuming you are on the Pro plan, you get 50 points to use every month. There are some free reports as I mentioned above, but most reports are 45 points which will cost you $50 each time (or $45 if you pay yearly). If you are serious about monitoring your social media performance then this is simply not going to be enough.
Yes, there are free reports like the ow.ly one (more on this later) but the others are $50 per report which is a lot for an individual or small business to swallow. The Google analytics integration is fairly helpful and the Facebook report is a massive improvement on what Facebook give you. The other consideration is that because Hootsuite uses its own url shortener (more on that in a bit) it will only track click-throughs on links made via Hootsuite. If you use another social media management tool such as Buffer or SproutSocial, Hootsuite won't track links made from these tools.
#2 Forced to Use Owly
Of course, where would we be without url shorteners? They started as a result of people wanting to add links to their Tweets without using up as much space. Later on, url shortener providers offered tracking services, as they also had the advantage of tracking how many clicks were made on the link (and tracking information of the person who clicked the linked link like location and what browser they were using). Hootsuite have their own url shortners- ow.ly and ht.ly. That's fair enough, but you are forced to use them (unless you add your own custom url shortener- more of that in a bit).
As well as broadcasting to everyone that you are using Hootsuite (which, to be fair, happens with any non-custom url shortener) you can only track any click throughs that have been added from within Hootsuite. As I mentioned above, this is a real problem, as if like many, you use other services such as Buffer, SocialOomph or even TweetDeck, then you can't track the links you've added here. The Hootsuite reports that you've paid for won't give you the whole story. If you use other analytics services such as SumAll, bit.ly or Buffer then they won't show the click-throughs from the Hootsuite links. You could of course monitor reports from each, but that's no easy task.
Perhaps, that's what Hootsuite want. They want to lock you in- they don't want you to use other services. For some, this isn't a big issue. For the big companies out there, offering customer services via Twitter, Hootsuite will be the best option- they don't need to use Buffer or Twit Pic. However, if you use multiple services on your Twitter account then you are out of luck. Finally, although only a temporary blip, there was an issue when Facebook blocked all ow.ly urls. Hopefully that won't happen again.
#3 Expensive Custom URL Shorteners
This isn't going to put everyone off, but if you'd like a vanity or custom url shortener with Hootsuite you are in for a shock.
I use a custom url shortener for the links I share on my social networks- to.iag.me for this blog and select.social for my business web site. This personalises my links and makes them more "clickable" and more professional. I use bit.ly for this, which allows me to add a custom url for free. Of course you have to pay for the domain, but domains cost very little these days. I've written a detailed article on why custom short domains are so useful- 8 Steps to Build Brand Awareness with Short Domains.
If you want to use a custom url shortener within Hootsuite (or an ow.ly custom vanity URL as Hootsuite call it) then it's $49.99. That doesn't sound so bad until you realise that this is the cost per month! That means using a custom url shortener will cost you $588.88 per year on top of the cost of the domain! You get a slight discount if you pay this in one big chunk per year- $539.88. This is madness, especially since when you consider you are still locked into only using Hootsuite's reports.
According to Lauren Lawton Perfors in the comments below the vanity url shorteners can only be used in the browser version of Hootsuite- not the mobile apps. So although you are paying over $500 per year you can't use them on mobile. Also you can only use this vanity url within Hootsuite- you won't be able to use it on other apps such as Buffer, SproutSocial, OktoPost etc.
I've spoken to various people within Hootsuite and although bit.ly integration was discussed internally, it was abandoned. It obviously doesn't make business sense for them to do so. It's a big shame. If Hootsuite did integrate bit.ly, I would be one of their biggest advocates!
#4 Facebook Image Problem
(No Thumbnail & Summary previews in Facebook in Certain Situations)
If you are posting or sharing a link to your Facebook page, ones with photos and a summary are far more likely to be clicked than ones with just a short text status. When you post a single update or use the standard scheduler in Hootsuite, it does post the thumbnail and summary. It gets this from the open graph tags on the web page or tries to have a good guess. However, if you use the bulk scheduler (uploading from a csv file) or use the RSS feature (posting directly from an RSS feed) you are stuck. Facebook is only going to get the text in a Tweet-like status (see the screenshot on the left).
I did contact Hootsuite about this, and to be fair they were quick in responding "Yes that is correct, if you schedule a post you can choose the thumbnail and it will post. However this is not a feature yet with Rss feeds and Bulk schedule, we invite you to submit this idea to our feedback forum here: http://feedback.hootsuite.com". Hootsuite Help also replied to a Tweet saying that it probably wouldn't be added in the future due to "logistical reasons".
#5 No Data in Facebook Insights
Barbara Karnes (in the comments) came up with a 5th reason:
When posting new content to Facebook via Hootsuite, those posts do not track the, likes, shares, and comments that you received in Facebook's Insights analytical data for that post. The likes, comments and share do exist when viewing from the front end Wall and Feeds, but the "credit" for getting them is not recorded in any way by Insights.
#6 Lower Facebook Reach & Engagement?
Update (April 2016) - Facebook has never publicly announced that using a 3rd party tool affects the EgdeRank algorithm. Recently there has been quite a bit of research into this and I decided to update this section.
Over the years, some users have suspected that using a 3rd party app to post to Facebook has resulted in their post reaching fewer people. Facebook uses an algorithm to decide the order of posts in each user's home stream. If you never engage with a friend or page's posts, their EdgeRank score will drop and Facebook will stop displaying their posts to you. Facebook uses a number of factors in their algorithm, and it is possible that they take into account whether or not you have used a 3rd party app to post the post. However, it is a controversial topic!
Buzzsumo analysed over 500 million Facebook articles for an article by Mari Smith and the results were quite surprising. In particular, there was this "little" stat:
Posting with a 3rd party tool results in 89.5% less engagement than directly posting to Facebook.
That's a substantial drop in engagement! Mari Smith's article and infographic caused quite a storm, particularly from 3rd party tool vendors such as Buffer and Postplanner who were quick to disagree with the claims. Mari Smith then added some clarification to the bottom of her article which I agree with. The analysis from Buzzsumo found that there was 89.5 less engagement. That does not mean 3rd party apps were getting penalised. It could mean that the posts were getting less engagement because the posts looked automated.
If you use a 3rd party app to post to Facebook, you do need to make sure you are creating it specifically for your Facebook audience. It is easier to think about your audience when you post natively on Facebook, so this may account for lower than normal engagement scores when using 3rd party apps.
Buffer's response to Buzzsumo's analysis is worth reading. We'll never know whether or not Facebvook devalues posts from 3rd party apps. However, make your own mind up after reading the above!
#7 Expensive for Teams
Team users is one of Hootsuite's killer features. It allows multiple members of a social media team to access multiple social media channels without needing to know the password for each one.
This is very important for a security point of view and is why so many big companies use Hootsuite. If you use Twitter for customer service, being able to delegate tasks among your team members is going to be integral to your way of working. The Hootsuite plans that support teams should be affordable by the big businesses that work this way. For smaller businesses, however, Hootsuite is going to be expensive if they want their team members to use it.
The Hootsuite plans that support teams should be affordable by the big businesses that work this way. For smaller businesses, however, Hootsuite is going to be expensive if they want their team members to use it.
2017 Update
Towards the end of 2016, Hootsuite changed their pricing plans. Unfortunately, the pro plan no longer support teams of users. If you need this, you'll have to upgrade to their Team Plan which allows up to 3 users for $34.99/user/month. If you need more than 3 users, you'll need to upgrade to their business plan which costs $7,000 per year! Ouch!
For more information on these prices and how they compare with other social media management tools, check out my article on the Hidden Prices of Social Media Management Tools.
Hootsuite Team Prices in the past
Hootsuite has changed their plans quite a bit over the years. I've kept the following for information, but please note this information is no longer the case. Just click on the following to expand the information...
I was under the impression that extra team users (on the pro account) cost $9.99 per month but on close examination but it's not quite as simple as that. You get 2 user free per month on the Pro account (and one of these users is you). The 3rd user costs $9.99 per month, and then each one up to 10 users is $14.99 per month. 10 users is going to cost $1,800 per year.
Update (September 2015). It seems Hootsuite have finally made the prices for each extra team member a little more simple to follow. In the pro plan you have yourself and one team member included for $119.88 per year (equivalent to $9.99 per month) or $14.99 per month (if paying monthly). Each subsequent team member costs an extra $119.88 per year or $14.99 per month extra. You can have up to 10 team members including yourself.
If you want 11 users, you're going to have to sign up for Hootsuite Enterprise. As for the price of the Enterprise plan, I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you. Actually, seriously, there is a lot of secrecy about the Enterprise plan. I've tried to find out over the past few years but no one is willing to tell. Over 4 years ago the price that was circulating the interwebs was an eye-watering $18,000 per year. As for what it is these days, it will vary depending on your needs. It's likely to be a different pricing structure depending on whether you are an agency or a company.
Here is a table that summaries the user cost (since it's far from obvious from Hootsuite).
In 2013 Hootsuite started offering a discount if you pay yearly and offered prices in different currencies, so if you are outside the US you may be offered prices in your currency. This likely to be more expensive.
Prices updated September 2015
| Total Users | Description | Cost/mth (If paying yrly) | Cost/yr (If paying mthly) | Cost/yr (If paying yrly) |
| 1 | Included in Free Plan | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 2 | Included in Pro Plan | $9.99 | $179.88 | $119.88 |
| 3 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 1 extra user at $9.99/mth | $19.98 | $359.76 | $239.64 |
| 4 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 2 extra users at $9.99/mth | $29.97 | $539.64 | $359.64 |
| 5 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 3 at $9.99/mth | $39.96 | $719.52 | $479.52 |
| 6 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 4 at $9.99/mth | $49.95 | $899.40 | $599.40 |
| 7 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 5 at $9.99/mth | $59.94 | $1079.28 | $719.28 |
| 8 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 6 at $9.99/mth | $69.93 | $1259.16 | $839.16 |
| 9 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 7 at $9.99/mth | $79.92 | $1439.04 | $959.04 |
| 10 | 2 are included in Pro Plan + 8 at $9.99/mth | $89.91 | $1618.92 | $1078.92 |
| 11+ | The maximum number of users in Hoostuite Pro is 10, to add more users you will need a Hootsuite Enterprise account. Hootsuite don't publish the prices for Enterprises, so this is the last known price. Hopefully it should be cheaper than this. | $1499 (?) | $17,988 | $17,988 (?) |
Update (March 2013) UK Prices in dollars
Hootsuite now offer prices in a few other currencies . If you live in the UK for example you have to pay in pounds (since 8th March, 2013). This is determined by your IP address. Unfortunately the prices are quite a bit more expensive in other currencies.
Update (September 2015) - Prices less expensive
Hootsuite have listened and reduced the cost. In the UK the base price per month is £6.99 (if you pay yearly) or £9.99 per month (if you pay monthly). This is still a bit more expensive than the equivalent price in dollars, but certainly more reasonable.
You could try and dodge this by connecting to a VPN to get a United States IPN, delete your cookies and visit the sign up page, but that is trying to trick Hootsuite into thinking you are from the US which may be morally grey.
Hootsuite Alternatives
I still use Hootsuite for certain tasks such as displaying multiple streams from multiple accounts. This is something that Hootsuite does very well. Here are some alternatives depending on what you are trying to do...
Displaying Streams of Posts (and replying)
AgoraPulse (Free Trial, then from $49/mth)
A powerful social media management tool for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+ which aims to offer enterprise-level features at a low monthly price. As well as integrating with the social networks above, it also offers a variety of Facebook apps to increase engagement (such as sweepstakes, personality tests, coupons, quizzes and more). AgoraPulse has a built-in customer relationship management tool (CRM) allowing you to build up a list of your social contacts. The integrated reports and analytics are detailed and engaging and you can also export to a Powerpoint presentation (useful for agencies). There is a very handy "moderation rules" feature for Twitter which can filter spam out for you.
There is a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Agora Pulse was rated top Social Media Management Tool of 2017.
For more information, visit AgoraPulse.
Social Report (Free trial, and from $49/mth)
Social Report launched back in 2011 and has a robust all-in-one solution covering publishing and scheduling, analytics, reporting, a “smart inbox”, team management and automation. They integrate with most networks out there, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and more. They’re going to be shortly launching direct publishing for Instagram too. It's cost effective and cheaper for teams when compared to Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer.
For more information, visit Social Report.
Sendible (from $49/mth)
Similar to Hootsuite and SproutSocial with an impressive array of features. Sendible integrates with a huge number of social channels including Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages & groups), LinkedIn (profiles, pages & groups), Google+ pages, Foursquare, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and more. You can have as many team members as you like (although you will have to pay per user above your allocated amount) and it integrates with bit.ly and other URL shorteners.
There is no free account but they offer a free trial. Be aware that Sendible includes a certain number of "services" for each plan. For the basic "lite" plan you get 20 "services", and with the "advanced" plan you get 100 services. This can get a little confusing, because a Twitter list stream, Twitter mention stream, Twitter Search stream, Facebook Group and Facebook Profile stream are all classed as separate services. You can find yourself running out of services very quickly.
For more information, visit Sendible
Muster Point (From $18/user/month)
MusterPoint was created in 2012 specifically for the public sector and emergency services. The founder, Christine Townsend, has a lot of experience in communicating in this space. With that in mind, MusterPoint takes into account the unique challenges for such organisations - that need to be publicly accountable or responsible for emergency comms.
It provides in-depth audit and accountability and is very flexible in terms charging a small amount per user. It's perfect for small cash-strapped teams and large-scale organisations wanting to communicate en masse. It also supports collaboration between different agencies and supports excellent knowledge sharing protocols meaning both private and public sector organisations can seamlessly integrate their social media.
MusterPoint integrates with Twitter and Facebook, and has a media management functionality, allowing organisations to log media enquiries, publish press releases and track issues. It's been built with the public affairs communicator in mind. In addition to the software, MusterPoint also provides crisis communications and exercise simulation training.
For more information, visit MusterPoint
Jollor (Free Trial, then from $5/mth)
Jollor isn't as well known as the likes of Hootsuite and SproutSocial, but it's a really good looking social media management tool that integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube as well as the Russian networks VK and Odnoklassniki. They don't integrate yet with bit.ly, but they have some enterprise features such as team and role management and delegation. Analytics look very impressive. There is a mobile app coming, but the website is fully responsive and can be used well on a mobile or tablet. They have a very transparent pricing scheme starting from $5. It basically costs $5 per network, and you can add extra team members for $5 per month as well as other features.
For more information, visit Jollor.
MavSocial (Free Plan, $59/user/mth pro plan & Enterprise plan)
MavSocial offers traditional features such as managing, posting and cross-posting to multiple networks. However, it offers some very unique features. In addition to supporting Facebook (profiles, company pages and groups), Twitter, LinkedIn (profiles and pages) and Instagram, MavSocial also integrates with Tumblr and YouTube. The enterprise plan also integrates with the Chinese Youku and Weibo.
MavSocial has a digital assets manager which stores and manages all your images, videos and audio files where you can easily re-use them in future. Not only can you upload your own or user-generated content, you can also licence stock images from within MavSocial from various stock libraries including free ones (there are over 50 million to choose from). You can repeat-publish your content to your social media networks ensuring your posts are always in front of your audience. Finally, MavSocial allows you to publish videos directly to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (with Instagram coming soon) and audio files to Twitter. This is particularly important when it comes to Facebook, as natively published videos tend to have more visibility and engagement than videos published through 3rd party video channels like YouTube.
MavSocial has a basic free plan which gives integrates with Twitter and Facebook only but gives you access to the stock library, social inbox, RSS feeds and more. The pro plan ($59/user/month) gives management of up to 50 social networks, unlimited reports and bit.ly support. The Enterprise version has an extensive team and brand management including team-based user permissions
For more information, visit MavSocial.
Oktopost (Free Trial, then from $200/mth)
An impressive social media management tool primarily built for Business to Business (B2B) marketing. Oktopost supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (profiles, company pages and groups) and Google+. Oktopost really shines by allowing scheduling across multiple social networks including multiple LinkedIn groups and by using a scheduling calendar. Instead of offering the facility to cross post to multiple networks, Oktopost allows you to hand craft posts to different networks in the best way possible. There is a free trial and paid accounts range from $200/mth to over $2,200/mth.
For more information, visit Oktopost.
Sprout Social (from $99/mth)
A big competitor to Hootsuite with some awesome features (really snazzy reports, multiple bit.ly URL shortener integrations, Google+ pages etc) - it does have a hefty price tag though- prices start at $99/user/month (sadly, they recently removed the entry $59/user/month plan). There is no free account but they offer a free trial. Do have a look at my related article 7 Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social.
For more information, visit SproutSocial.
TweetDeck (free)
Twitter Management Only. This used to be one of my top recommendations, but Twitter has done their best to make this less useful. TweetDeck used to be able to manage your Facebook profile but now it is just for Twitter.
For more information, visit TweetDeck.
Posting & scheduling
AgoraPulse (Free Trial, then from $49/mth)
(As mentioned above)
Buffer App (free or $10/mth for Awesome Plan or from $99/mth for Business Plan)
Allows you to post or cross-post to Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages or groups), LinkedIn (profile, groups or company pages), Google+ business pages or app.net. You can either post straight away or create a schedule for each social network. Buffer is an amazing tool and one that I use every day. For more information see my post on 10 Must Have Social Media Tools for Small Businesses.
Friends+Me (free or from $3/mth)
Friends+Me turns Google+ into a fully fledged Social Media Management tool. It allows you to selectively cross-post to Google+ pages, Twitter, LinkedIn (profiles, pages & groups), Facebook (profiles, pages & groups) and Tumblr. It has a scheduling system similar to Buffer and cross-posts intelligently to other networks (including using full images, headings and descriptions). It's something I use every day and couldn't do without it.
ContentCal (Free plan, and from $49/mth)
ContentCal is a great visual tool to help solo freelancers, small business owners or agencies (and beyond) manage their social channels. A content calendar is central to ContentCal, giving you a 'birdseye view' of all the social posts going out across multiple channels. It currently integrates with Facebook (Pages), LinkedIn (Pages, Profiles) and Twitter. It has very affordable plans despite some very enterprise focussed features.
Oktopost (from $200/mth)
(As mentioned above)
TweetDeck (free)
(As mentioned above)
MavSocial (Free Plan & Enterprise)
(As mentioned above)
Social Media Relationship Tools
Commun.it (from $19.99/mth)
I'd also highly recommend Commun.it which is a full Twitter community management tool or CRM. As well as being able to manage multiple Twitter accounts you can find out who is relevant to your Twitter community. Examples include your influencers or people who support you. You can also find out who is talking about you or your business or who is linking to your website and interact with them straight away.
I don't have enough room to go into it here, but please see my Complete Guide on how to Manage your Twitter Community using Commun.it together with its walkthrough video.
Still not sure? Try SocialPiq!
If you'd like a little more help in finding the best social media tool for you then you could try this great service from SocialPiq. All you need to do is enter your requirements and SocialPiq comes back with the tools that could fit the bill for you. It's free too!
Other Resources
There are plenty of other tools out there that offer similar services to Hootsuite. Have a look at some of the comments below and let me know if you know of ones that you’ve personally used and would recommend. In particular I recommend reading my latest article (May 2013) on my recommended social media tools for small businesses.
If you need any more help on getting started with Hootsuite or want more advice in whether or not Hootsuite is for you, check out these posts…
- HootSuite Tutorial Video (Basic Blog Tips)
- Hootsuite Review (PC Mag)
- HootSuite Review – 5 Reasons to Use HootSuite as Your Social Media Dashboard (Adam Troudart)
- 7 Reasons why you SHOULD use Hootsuite
- 10 Must Have Social Media Tools for Small Businesses
7 Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social!
I’ve recently (February 2015) written a follow up to this article, based on Sprout Social entitled 7 Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social.
What Next?
So there you go, 7 valid reasons not to use Hootsuite. Of course, you may well feel these aren't strong enough reasons, but they are annoyances that I have found with it. Despite all this, I would still recommend Hootsuite to businesses in many situations. If they have the resources to pay for the extra features and especially if they want to use it for customer service.
What do you think? Please do add your comments below.
Let me help Choose the best tools for you!
I hope this article has helped you, but perhaps you feel you need some expert help. As well as asking a question in the comments below, you might benefit from a one to one service. I offer a social media consultation service in which I can help find the best selection of tools and solutions for you or your business. If you are interested, get in touch!
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The editorial line is NEVER impacted by these links. I will only ever recommend a product or service if I think it is worth recommending! If a product or service does not have an affiliate scheme, then we will still include it in the same way.
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About Ian Anderson Gray
Ian is a Confident Live Marketing Coach and founder of Seriously Social. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher, web developer and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. Ian is co-founder of Select Performers – a family run web agency. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK. Find out more
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Interesting thoughts and you highlight the pain very well
Thanks. Glad it helped. Have you had similar issues yourself?
I don’t see Iconosquare as an option. Is it not suitable?
Thanks, Kelly. Iconosquare has changed a lot since I wrote this blog post.
It was only an Instagram analytics tool and it didn’t really do much else.
These days, it’s much more of a social media management tool. However, since it only integrates with Facebook and Instagram I’m hesitant to add it as an alternative. There are more cost-effective tools out there that integrate with more networks and offer more features for management. Do you use Iconoquare yourself? If so, what features do you really like?
I’m a graphic designer who’s newish to social media stuff and I have a client who wants me to post to facebook, her facebook group and instagram and I want to be able to do the same post to all 3 but not have to do it 3 times. I’d also like to be able to do a bunch of posts and schedule them so they hit every couple of days or at least not all at once. Hootsuite was recommended to me but I can’t tell from your article and looking at all the programs online what’s best. I’d also like to be able to do posts for my own business or other businesses eventually. what would you recommend?
Hi Brenna,
Thanks for your comment. I don’t want to knock Hootsuite – it might work for what you want, but there are other tools that might do a better job.
SproutSocial is worth checking out. AgoraPulse doesn’t do exactly what you want yet, because it doesn’t support Facebook groups – but give that a few more weeks and I think they will. Ian
Hi Ian,
A couple of other points.
1. Recently, Hootsuite’s ability to tag facebook pages has also been restricted (among other things) due to tightening privacy regulations from Facebook. This is a major bummer because it means you have to log into Facebook to fix the posts.
2. Secondly, you can’t upload large file sizes to your platform of choice via Hootsuite. Hootsuite throws up an alert saying the filesize is too large. It’s a useless restriction given Facebook doesn’t limit your filesize but your third party tool does.
Thanks, Amy. Facebook has had loads of changes recently with all the privacy issues. They had to remove the tagging feature, but I believe that’s coming back. Not sure about with Hootsuite, but the ability should be there from the API.
And there is a filesize limit with uploading via the Facebook API, I believe. Here’s Agorapulse’s help documentation on it – http://support.agorapulse.com/article/show/19582-image-file-types–size-recommendations Hootsuite and SproutSocial both have the same 5Mb max upload restriction.
There isn’t much they can do about that due to the API restriction.
Hiya – wondering if you could make a recommendation. We are a company that supports multiple brands. Thus we have about 40 social media profiles.
We rely heavily on images and videos in our social media promotion. Currently using Hootsuite and the lack of bulk image upload + Facebook preview
is essentially wanted us to change platforms. Can you recommend something that supports all the social media platforms / allows bulk upload with images,
but won’t break the bank?
Thanks!
Hi Andrew, There are a number of tools that support bulk upload, but usually they’ll just import the text and link – not allow you to bulk upload the images yourself. The only one that might work is eClincher. Other than that, I’d check out the bulk uploader from the tool I use, AgoraPulse. It doesn’t import images, but it’s easy to go through and add images and videos for each one. I’ve not come across any tool that would import videos. Sorry, I can’t be more helpful.
There appears to be one called SocialPilot that allows it. Also – Buffer seems to have it as well…
Yes, I’ve come across SocialPilot. Not had the chance to play with it, though. There are hundreds (and probably 1000s) of social media tools out there. Hope you find what you’re looking for. Let me know how you get on!
Thanks! Will do.
I got excited when I read in the article that you could use a custom domain for free with bit.ly. That’s why I use rebrandly right now, because it is free. I headed over to bit.ly to figure out how to do it since I hadn’t seen anything about it before. I came back here to post this because it does not appear to be an option with the free version of bit.ly. I looked at your other article on custom domains with bit.ly and those instructions don’t correspond to what I see in the menus. It appears that maybe the custom branding is only available in the enterprise version. Or am I missing something? Thanks.
I’m still pretty sure that it’s available with the free version, although I’ve not been able to 100% confirm this for new accounts. I have two bitly accounts (for my two different businesses) with branded URLS. For information on how to set this up, see here -> https://support.bitly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003294132-Setting-up-your-BSD-in-bitly-com
Great points overall, but the second bullet is very misleading and contradictory. The title is “Forced to use owl.ly.” Then in the content, it says, “you are forced to use them (unless you add your own custom url shortener- more of that in a bit).” Not having other shorteners integrated into the system is quite different from being forced to use theirs. It’s very simple to just paste in the url from whatever shortener you use. I use a combination of snip.ly, bit.ly, and rebrandly, so while it would be nice to have them all integrated it’s not realistic. I’ve seen most of the other services have one or two integrated, but of course they don’t have their own. I don’t see this as a reason not to use Hootsuite compared to others. Otherwise, I appreciate the info you put out. Thanks!
Thanks, Andrew. It used to be the case that Hootsuite shortened all links with owly. Now, I suppose you do have the option to select no URL shortener or owly. But you are forced into using owly as your only URL shortener unless you pay a lot more to get a vanity URL. You could manually paste in your URL, but that’s not the same as an integrated URL shortener that some other tools offer. So, you are right, you could use bitly if you’re happy to manually paste in each time. I’ve not used rebrandly, what does that give you? Personally, I really recommend against sniply. I used to use it, but it can really frustrate people because you are effectively adding your branding to their content. I’ve actually blocked sniply from being used on my website and I know many others do (this block feature is baked into the Social Warfare plugin). So, coming back to your point. The lack of bitly integration or being “locked” into owly is only a minor disadvantage, but it’s still one that frustrates me. I use my custom url shortener with bitly across multiple tools – Buffer, Friends+Me, Sprout Social and more.… Read more »
Do you have a newer articles for small business?
Hi Kate, Yes! Although I do make sure this article is kept up to date. But, you may find these articles helpful…
https://iag.me/socialmedia/the-hidden-pricing-of-social-media-tools-revealed/ https://iag.me/socialmedia/top-5-social-media-management-tools/ And I’ll be creating more articles this year too.
Are looking for anything in particular?
Hi, what about MS Social Engagement? You didn´t mentioned it in your post. Is there anything wrong with it? I’m using MS Dynamics CRM and I’m looking for a social media management tool that integrates with Dynamics CRM for creating leads, cases, contacts and opportunities from comments within the social networks. I know MSE is limited to only facebook, twitter and recently Linkedin but that’s pretty much I need, and I´m sure they will add more in the future. How are their analytics and reports? Is MSE less o more expensive than Hootsuite?
Ian Anderson Gray
Hi. I can’t mention all social media management tools out there. There are hundreds and hundreds of them! To be honest I’ve not looked at MS Social Engagement so I can’t give you any feedback.
Absolutely, these are really good tools to use. All these tools helps to a great extent in making social media campaigns more effective and successful.
Thanks, Benny. Do you use a particular social media management tool? Ian
Ever tried Zoho social? I’m looking at that now. Basic plan only $10 a month but I’m concerned with the basic analytics report. Wonder what you get with that.
Hi Tina, great question. I really like Zoho and the reports/analytics are pretty good too. But I’m not sure what the difference is between the basic reports on the cheaper plans and the more advanced ones. I’ll ask Zoho to see if they can reply to you directly. Thanks! Ian
Thanks for the heads up, Ian.
Hello, Tina.
The basic reporting on Zoho Social includes stats from your social media accounts. These are numbers and stats that you’d see on each social network. If consolidating basic reports from each social network is what you need, this should be fine for you. If you need additional analysis about how your brand is performing on each of the social networks, I’d recommend going for our Professional Plan. Hope that helps!
Praval
Thanks, Praval, that’s helpful. Ian
You mention Grabinbox, but it seems to be dead. The link is 404, and a little Google searching didn’t lead to any details about where they might have moved.
Hi Carl, thanks for reminding me! I thought I had removed Grabinbox from the article, but you’re right. They ceased to exist a little while ago.
They were a free platform, so I was surprised how long they lasted. Ian
I have been using Hootsuite for a while now. Nice article
Hi Mary, thanks. What is it about Hootsuite that you like? Ian
I am unable to get my free Hootsuite account to connect to LinkedIn. I don’t have a Company LinkedIn account, just a personal one. It tells me I have to get permission from LinkedIn for Hootsuite to connect. I’ve looked through all my LinkedIn settings and don’t see anywhere to do that. And all the searches I do come up empty.
Think you can help.
Hi Mark,
You should be able to connect your LinkedIn account to the free version of Hootsuite. When you connect it, it should connect to LinkedIn and you give your permission there. After that, it should just work.
However, LinkedIn does need to be reconnected every 30 days or so (or at least that was the case the last time I checked). I’d remove it and try again and see if that works.
we operate over 2000 facebook pages what service do you recommend thanks
larry
Hi Larry, that’s a huge number of Facebook pages to manage! How big is your team, and how do you want to manage all those pages? Do you want to publish to all those pages all in one go?
For that high number, you’ll need an enterprise level tool because most of them have upper limits of around 20-30 profiles/pages. I’d recommend speaking to Hootsuite about their Enterprise plan as well as Agora Pulse and Sprout Social. But really it will depend on your speciifc needs. Ian
Thankyou for your previous response. I have just signed into the free version of hootsuite and have connected 3 social mediums and it is just so slow and will not even allow me to add a second photo. I friend told me about hootsuite so I thought I would check it out before using it for business. Although easy to set up(relatively) but just trying to add a second photo to post of 2 facebook pages & 1 instragram(ie. 3 social mediums I thought I would try) from where it says ‘choose to upload files’ , it loaded the first picture, but it will not allow a second picture to upload. Therefore based on this, either hootsuite is very basic(can only load one picture), or corrupts easily, is very slow, or not user friendly. As an Accountant, I have usually found if the basic version has difficulty then the upgrades tend to follow suite eventually. I would like an answer before I would like to try venturing to any other type of version of hootsuite. I do not want to do a trial period on the other upgrades as I would like to see if the basic version works first.… Read more »
Hi. I’ve checked, and on one Free Hootsuite account that I have access to, I was able to add three images to a post for 3 social networks (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). You need to compose your post and click on “add media” at the bottom of the post composer. I would say that HootSuite isn’t exactly fast, but it isn’t overly slow. It could be where you are located or perhaps your internet connection. I’d try again another day and see if it improves. But HootSuite is one of the only main social media management tools out there that offers a free version. Yes, it is limited, but it at least allows you to manage up to 3 social profiles.
I live in Australia and would like to know that if I use hootsuite would it be free if I used it only to post to facebook, twitter & instagram. When did the free plan with Hootsuite start
The free version of HootSuite has been around since the beginning. But over the years, HootSuite has reduced the features. It’s very cut down now compared to what it was a few years ago.
Lightful.com is also free! really good!
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Great article! I work for a local health department in the Miswestern US and our organization, along with others in the region, are looking to develop a risk communications plan for social media. Musterpoint looks like a great tool for emergency communication, but I’m guessing their services would not extend to the U.S. Do you know of any other organizations like them that are in the States or other social media managers that can do what they offer for emergencies? Much obliged!!
Hi Kaitie, I am fairly sure that Musterpoint does work internationally. They are based in the UK and have a lot of experience with working with the public sector here. But it’s probably best to chat with them – they are very friendly.
As for coping with an emergency, other social media management tools such as Sprout Social or Agora Pulse are well placed to help. They have team management which is absolutely vital, and you can stop posts in an emergency. Of course, Musterpoint also has similar features, and I’ve always been very impressed with them. Another option is to use a tool such as SEMRush or Brandwatch which can monitor the web and social media and can notify you if there is a big increase in conversation. That’s been really useful for me and vital for bigger businesses and organisations.
I hope that helps!
Hi Katie and thanks Iain for the update. We are based in the U.K. but now we have a US office in Austin, TX and have US public sector clients so we would love to hear from you.
I’m on CDT so will happily chat through and show you a demo.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Christine Townsend
Thanks for being so quick in responding, Christine! Great to know that you’ve got a US office. Ian
Hootsuite is not the best tool to use. Do your research and you will find that to be true.
Thanks. Well, I think Hootsuite is a good option for some people in certain circumstances. For those looking for a limited free social media management tool, it’s a good option. It’s also good for people who really like the multiple column layout.
Dear Ian,
I am a very basic and light user of FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram.
I do however need to monitor and retrieve content as and when required.
Would Hootsuite Free be the best option for me.
Kind regards,
Ben
Hi, You are talking about disadvantages, but using hootsuit is more convenient and beneficial. For example, It helps monitoring multiple streams in one place, you can manage and connect to lot of services together. One of the best part is you can have a report in email for free. I am just saying what i feel is right. Thanks for the post.
Hi Suketu, thanks for your comment. Yes, I agree, there are many advantages in using Hootsuite. I’ve written article on the advantages in using Hootsuite. The user interface will be loved by some and hated by others. I do kind of like the multiple streams in one place – they’re good for research and for Twitter streams. However, from a productivity point of view, I find it not as good. I find single column views from Agora Pulse and Sprout Social much more effective. Thanks again.
Hi Ben,
Sorry, I totally missed your comment. If you’re a light user, then just using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram natively might be adequate. Hootsuite free only gives you access to a maximum of three networks and so you’d not be able to manage all your networks without paying.
Hi Ian, i wanted to know what you think about Sendible!….i work at a small companny but we have a lot of clientes. Social media are not our priority (specially FB) but i think that it is important to keep and eye on what is happening. I just want a tool that helps me to publish and monitor all the content (i need good and complete reports)…what do you recommend?…
Thank you so much
Oh and i don’t have a big budget for this :s
Hi Alejandra, Thanks for your question. The perfect tool for you depends on a number of things…
Which networks do you want to manage with it?
Do you want to manage and publish to networks such as Instagram and YouTube, for example?
What is your monthly budget for this?
You mention reports, and that is an important one, because some of the tools don’t have great reporting. The best ones for reporting (in my experience) are Sprout and Agora Pulse.
Sendible is definitely worth looking at.
Check out these posts I’ve written which compare the main social media management tools in this space:
Thank you!! we are using Instagram, FB, LinkedIn and we want to use YouTube too…..i’m not very sure about the budget! But any suggestion will be appreciated….I need “easy to understand” analytics.
Buffer would help you publish to all those platforms (except YouTube) but their analytics are poor.
Hootsuite does the same, but their support for LinkedIn and YouTube is limited and their reports aren’t that great.
Sprout has amazing support for all of those except YouTube which it doesn’t support and it’s expensive.
Agora Pulse has amazing support for all of those and they’re adding YouTube in a few weeks. But it may be above your budget.
Really, for what you need, you are going to struggle to find a tool that does everything you want for free or cheap. But I hope that helps.
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Begin forwarded message:
Thank you so much for your time and help 🙂
This could take hours to search out and understand. I’m only looking to promote my artist website and usually send out blog posts from my website. Would have to be free or real cheap. Friends+Me or Jollar looks like might work. Would like to be able to track activity and send out posts to all social sites at one time. Thanks for all this info.
Thanks, Judi. Researching social media tools does take a huge amount of time, and that’s why I have written these posts to try and help people like you find the best tool.
There are some free or inexpensive tools out there, but they do have their limitations. As long as you are aware of that and can cope with their disadvantages, you’ll be fine. I started off with free tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, and then as my business grew, I moved to paid tools.
If you want to automatically post your blog posts to your social networks, then check out IFTTT – you can connect your blog with most social networks. There’s also Buffer which has a decent free option. As for tracking activity, it depends on what you mean. If you want free, then the official Twitter analytics and Facebook Insights are really very good. Yes, you don’t all your analytics in one place, but it’s free.
I just want to see all my feeds in one. So everyone I follow on any given platform in the same scrolling feed. Why would I want to see my own Facebook or Instagram profile? I don’t go on these things to see what I posted. Ugh.
Hi Chris, In that case, Hootsuite isn’t going to be for you. In fact most social media management tools don’t offer a unified feed feature. That’s partly because it is more difficult to achieve, and also because a lot of people think they prefer the separate feeds. At the moment, the main tool that offers this is Sprout Social.
It’s not cheap, but it’s one of my top picks for social media management tools.
alert(“I am an alert box! also xss”);
Nice try, but you aren’t actually an alert box! 🙂
I really like Buffer and I try to like HootSuite, most of these APPS are very good at scheduling posts and perhaps watching a stream but I’m yet to come across a management tool that integrates well with two important features. Commenting, liking and keeping track of connections who engage, especially the later. Until a program can do that, I’m not willing to part with any money. This all starts to get very expensive for a small business, website hosting with e-commerce, social media management, and then other 3rd party plugins and tools.
Thanks, Paul. There is no such thing as a perfect tool. There are plenty of good scheduling tools. Buffer does a great job and Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Agora Pulse and others are good too. When it comes to commenting and liking both Agora Pulse and Sprout do a very good job. They have a social inbox feature (especially Agora Pulse) that allows you to quickly get through your social mentions.
Now, you mention keeping track of the connections who engage? Can you expand on that more? Agora Pulse gives you a list of the top engagers in your community as well as influencers. There are other tools such as Do you even list that you can use as well as your main social media management tool.
I didn’t see Meet Edgar as a recommendation, is there a particular reason?
Good question. Edgar isn’t a social media management tool, but I should really add it as an alternative to scheduling content. I’ll add it in my next update.
I do have a full tutorial on Egdar here – https://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/how-to-become-a-content-marketing-jedi-with-edgar/ It’s also worth checking out RecurPost – https://recurpost.com/ and SmarterQueue – https://smarterqueue.com/
Ian, thank you very much for all of this incredible information! My entire research consisted of reading this page. Incredible. Thank you for gathering it all!
Thanks so much, Kris! It was a pleasure and I am so glad I was able to help you out!
If you’re looking to manage social media accounts for multiple companies the changes to hootesuite limts for the pro plan are a game changer, number of social profiles allowed for anyone signing up for a new pro plan was reduced from 50 to 10. They obviously feel as though they have enough customers given that move!! Also I have to tell you that my recent experience of their support is that some of the support staff are clueless. Buffer is much more intuitive if you’re just looking to schedule posts and it natively supports Pinterest, Hootesuite needs an add in called Tailwind to post to Pinterest which is a pain. Buffer also integrates with third party apps like IFTTT to link actions and posts, Hootesuite doesn’t to my knowledge. In fact tbh the single reason to sign up to hootesuite in the past was that that they offered a limit of 50 social accounts to manage on the pro plan which was very competitive pricing. Take that away as they have and you’re left with a clumsy web based application missing some key features. Yes hootesuite has streams which can be useful if you want be hands on and very… Read more »
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you. Hootsuite has really reduced the features in their pro and free plans, and now they aren’t at all suitable for teams of users.
I wasn’t aware that Hootsuite required Tailwind, but it doesn’t surprise me. Tailwind is a great app that I use as a standalone tool for Pinterest and Instagram – it is really good. But I am surprised that Hootsuite doesn’t have their own setup. Hootsuite is still valuable for people who want to monitor multiple streams in one view, but for most of the time, I think that can actually make you more productive.
I think Hootsuite does want agencies and companies, it’s just that they want you to pay a lot more!
Hi Ian,
Thanks for the article. Was literally about to hit the Start my free trial button for Hootsuite.
I’m a startup so outgoing expenses are still very tightly held. Currently only using Instagram and Facebook. Perhaps may use Twitter and Linkedin at a later stage though I fail to see the ROI and effectiveness of these for me in real estate, specifically selling new homes often not yet constructed.
Before I came across Hootsuite in the same day, I also came across one called Later. Could you let me know your thoughts on Later and perhaps in addition how it is vs Agora Pulse or any other SMMT you would recommend?
I have need to post, comment, monitor and really like analytics and reports to be able to make sense of everything as well as justifying the time spent on social media.
Thanks mate! <Aussie
Evan
Also just wanted to quickly add that the reason I came across Later is because it offered really cool tool whereby it mirrors your Instagram feed in a browser with the main purpose being able to then link each post to an individual url. This allows me to link each post to a Mailchimp campaign because each campaign has a url and from there receive all the images and information for that particular real estate development project.
Look forward to hearing back!
Thanks so much, Evan, glad I was able to help you. It was interesting to hear your story.
I’m a big Later fan. The guys who set it up, used to work at Hootsuite. It’s a really easy to use and robust tool.
I am also a big Agora Pulse fan, and now that they have a really good Instagram integration, it’s my main tool. I continue to recommend Later to those people who just want Instagram management. But with Agorapulse, you can manage all your social networks from one place. It’s amazing.
Do check out my other articles on the top social media management tools and their pricing-
Hope that helps!
Ian
Hootesuite have reduced the number of social profiles on the pro plan from 50 to 10. That represents a massive downgrade or effectively a massive increase in pricing. This was the main reason we used Hootesuite.
Paul, you are so right. Hootsuite are massively downgrading the features across many of their plans. Having said that, other tools are doing that too. Sprout Social recently removed their entry plan and now cost from $99/user/month.
Great write up Ian!
I just downgraded on Hootsuite from Pro to free as I didn’t have my assistant any longer. I thought since I had Twitter running on Hootsuite before I upgraded that downgrading would just remove the extra functionality. Boy, was I wrong! I should have researched it. There was no real warning about what would happen and in consequence I lost my entire Twitter history, all my forward scheduled tweets – basically hundreds of hours of work. Hootsuite Help was – as you might guess – no help at all – they couldn’t find anything so I am basically SOL. I’m taking my bat and ball and going to play in someone else’s yard in future. Hootsuite just isn’t a place I want to trust my stuff.
Aggh, oh no! Sorry to hear that, Helen. This would all have been ok if Hootsuite had warned you that your data would have been deleted. Have you found a replacement yet?
You should try out SocialPilot https://socialpilot.co/ . The best automation tool I’ve worked with until now. You can connect to 9 social media networks, and share as many as 500 daily posts and connect 200 profiles with just one SocialPilot account and that too at really cheap rates. It has features like Custom FB Branding, Bulk Scheduling, Never-ending feed content and suggestions, team collaboration upto 20 members and much more.
Always willing to try out something new – signed up for Social Pilot – less than $100 for a year of their ‘Growth Hacker’ plan. Not all the integrations as Hootsuite but *much* nicer GUI! And with Zapier integration who needs the nickel-and-dime-you-to-death apps from Hootsuite?! Very excited to see how the next few weeks go so I can put the owl to bed.
Happy to learn about your initial experience using SocialPilot, I have been using it since long and you will be happy to know that; they started providing analytics as well.
Hi, Jack. I signed up for an account a long time back. I think the service from what I remember was a little flaky, but I am assuming it has become a lot more robust over time. I’ll try and have another look at it. What in particular do you like about it or what features do you feel particularly shine in SocialPilot?
Hi Manvi, yes, social pilot is a good option. The only thing I’d want to check is how robust it is as a tool and what their customer service is like.
Problem with Uploading a Story on Hootsuite
Hi everyone, While posting through Hootsuite, there are certain situations when the URL was shortened without creating the link preview i.e. without attaching or adding news story with the post.
The Hootsuite help agent from twitter customer support team was very helpful and he had run the URL using the Facebook debugger tool (tool used to scrape a link preview/story preview),
He suggested reaching out to my web master to correct some coding for this site and then we could try running that link again once fixed. My question is how often have you faced this issue while posting through Hootsuite?
I don’t think this issue just affects Hootsuite. This can happen when you share a post that has been posted to Facebook before the image was set. It’s often a good idea to run the post through the Facebook debugger tool before you share for the first time – just to make sure the image is showing.
Great article as I was trying to understand Hootsuite’s pricing as I didn’t understand what it included. I can check out your other suggestions on the must-have tools. I’ve never used Buffer other than connecting Google + from CoSchedule. Must say that I love your expression on your picture.
Thanks! Much appreciated. I think many tools try to make their pricing confusing so you just sign up, invest that time into using the tool and then not be bothered to try other tools. Ian
Ian, this article is great!!!! I personally use Hootsuite and slacksocial, collaboratively. I was grandfathered in at $5.99 per month for Hootsuite. What’s slowly started to pull me away from Hootsuite is the fact that groups no longer seem show up on iOS, but are present on android os… I carry both. The grandfathered in price has kept me… don’t want to cancel prematurely and come back at an increased cost.
Hi Cedric, you’re very lucky to get the $5.99 per month plan. I had that for a while and then downgraded to free, then I upgraded to free and still got it at $5.99. Then after I had downgraded again I upgraded and had to pay $9.99/month and now if I upgrade I would have to pay more if I pay monthly as opposed to yearly. So, yes, if you cancel, you’ll end up paying much more if you come back. You’ll also potentially lose quite a few features as the new pro plans aren’t as generous.
It’s worth carrying on with Hootsuite but test a few other tools at the same time.
Have you contacted Hootsuite about the groups problem? Unfortunately there are quite a few bugs like that, but it is worth mentioning it to them.
As for slacksocial, I’ve not looked at it before? What do you use it for and what do you like about it?
Thanks! Ian
I have a better reason why you shouldn’t use Hootsuite: the cost monthly $50,100, & $250 monthly.
Just kidding! Always support your developers. I wish Hootsuite, Dlvr.it, and Onlywire would get together and make a slimmed down version of their tools and package them together.
Yes, I very much agree! I wish tools wouldn’t cost so much, but they do need to make their money some how!
Ian great article but your suggested costs per product is was out of reality on a number of them. With some, the monthly subscriptions you mention needs a 1 in front of it.
Hi Ian,
I just wanted to say thank you! This article, in conjunction with your attached articles, was exactly what I have been looking for. I found your articles both easy to understand and informative. They have provided me a foundation to build my own research and for that I am very thankful. Thanks again for sharing.
Kind regards,
Erin
Thanks, Erin (great middle name by the way!). Really glad my articles have been helpful – that’s my aim! I hope you manage to find that perfect tool for you! Ian
Surely whatever the cost is to the user, this can be passed on to the end client as a billed service? As long as you have an understanding of the scope of the client project, what reporting they will require and the extent of the social media campaign they want to embark upon, with accounts such as facebook, instagram, linked-in etc, each module will be costed proportionately – so does cost matter ? It is clearer now more than ever that next to the investment of a website which lets face it can be in the thousands and given that there is no point having a website unless everyone knows about it or it is heavily marketed, the budget for social media should be pretty much as an issue the same if not more than the website itself…in summary social media has become a heavy necessity…could it be more necessary than a website?
Thanks, Paul. You make a great point. There were quite a few free social media tools at one time, and Hootsuite offered a pretty good free service. However, Hootsuite, as with other tools, have reduced the number of features in their free plan. For good reason – they’re difficult to support from a customer service and infrastructure point of view. Tools cost a lot of money to maintain and develop, and Hootsuite have probably found their free plan difficult to support. I firmly believe in paying for a decent social media management tool, however, it’s very difficult to know what price you are paying until quite a bit further down the line. There are quite a few hidden prices. I’ve spent quite some time in researching this for my latest article – The Hidden Prices of Social Media Management Tools Revealed. I wouldn’t quite say that investing in social media is more necessary than a website – not in all cases, but maybe for some businesses?
I just deleted my hootsuite account. In my eyes, this application has not the necessary maturity. It is not possible to (re)post missed posts. Secondly, you get logged off of their app automatically. Hence, you cannot post the sheduled posts. The leave form does not accept the comments. This application has to many bugs in my eyes to use it in a serious way.
Hi, sorry you’ve had so many issues with Hootsuite. It’s the most widely used social media management tool, but unfortunately, it’s in need of a lot of work. It can be a bit clunky and I know many people who have encountered bugs. I think they’re struggling to keep up a decent level of support at the moment.
HI can you chime in on these newer SMMS/SMMT (& similar) and give an opinion for someone who needs a tool to primarily watch a large number of social media sites, post to at least five main ones (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to name a few) if not all those monitored in the tool , low cost, one (to 5 users), and some basic analystics?
Here are exemples: ViralHeat, Sprinklr, Sysomos, & Alerti Thanks!
Hi Jel. Are you looking for a tool that integrates with a large number of different social networks, or you need a tool that integrates with a lot of social networks at the same time? Most tools will integrate with Facebook and Twitter for publishing, analytics and engagement. Some will integrate with Instagram for engagement and analytics. Some integrate with LinkedIn for publishing. The problem is that the Instagram and LinkedIn APIs are very restrictive and you can’t do everything with those networks from a 3rd party tool. The main 3 – Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agora Pulse can publish to all of those (although with Instagram it’s via their mobile app). Not all the others do. I’d ask the question, do you need a social media management tool to manage all your networks? And what kind of management do you want to do? I’ve not come across Alerti but I’ve looked into the others. Sprinklr is an enterprise tool and very high cost! Sysomos is also thousands of dollars per month as far as I can tell. I am fairly sure ViralHeat is the same and they’re now part of Cision Social Suite. I’ve had a quick look at… Read more »
Hi Ian, thanks for writing this article – another person it’s been useful to: a university worker who is part of a large team, all of whom have the password to one social media account (one of our projects we want lots of people involved in, citizen science)! I’m choosing between Hootsuite and Crowdbooster for this. Our priorities are to schedule posts in advance and to find out how many people we’re reaching, especially outside our speciality.
I wonder if you, or anyone else, could tell me some REALLY basic stuff: for one Twitter account, but with multiple users, does this count as “one account”? Or do the multiple users (if it can tell!) mean it’s going to be lots of accounts? I’m looking at price plans, you see, and can’t find the answer anywhere. Also – I take it that although Hootsuite is “free”, we’d very soon be starting to pay for the analytics? Thanks so much if anyone can help!
Hi Alice, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Do you just need to schedule and get basic analytics? Hootsuite is a full social media management tool which helps with engagement, reporting, and other things as well as scheduling and posting. You might want to consider Buffer which is amazing at scheduling and has basic analytics.
If you want multiple users, that makes things more difficult. You could give everyone in your team access to that one account – all sharing that one username and password. There’s nothing stopping you doing that, but it is a security nightmare. What if your details get compromised or someone in your team leaves?
So, ideally, you need to go for a team plan. But they are usually expensive. I’ve just written a very detailed comparison between Hootsuite, Sproutsocial and Agorapulse in terms of pricing and features. I think you’ll find this helpful – http://iag.me/socialmedia/the-hidden-pricing-of-social-media-tools-revealed/
Hope that helps!
Hi Ian, your article was very interesting to a relative social media newcomer like me. I am a freelance marketer and copywriter and two of my clients have asked me to manage their social media on a pretty low budget. Please can you let me know which company would be best may be best for me to use and whether you’d recommend me setting up an account for each client or one account to manage both? I’d ideally like each clients to be able to access the facility so they can post social media messages too. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. With thanks
Hi Anne. Thanks for your comment. Your situation isn’t uncommon. Unfortunately all the tools with team facilities are likely to be expensive. I’d definitely recommend Agora Pulse which would do all that you need, but if the budget is low, Agora Pulse is likely to be too expensive. The only other option would be to go for a cheaper tool (such as Hootsuite) and share the login with your client. Far from ideal! I suppose I would ask you which networks you want to manage for the client and are you just going to be posting or will you want to respond to mentions and comments? Ian
Hi Ian Many thanks for your reply. I’m hoping to use it for Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube. I’d ideally like to respond to comments as well as post messages.
I’d work out which are your priority networks. Facebook and Twitter are widely supported across most social media management tools. They have a really good API – which is the way other tools can connect with the social network. LinkedIn on the other hand has a very poor and locked down API and very few social media management tools can do anything other than post to your LinkedIn profile and page (they can’t post to groups). Pinterest and YouTube are more content networks than social networks and work differently. I’d suggest using a tool such as Tailwind for Pinterest which has really good analytics, or just use Buffer which at least allows you to post to Pinterest. There aren’t many tools that integrate with YouTube properly. Hootsuite kind of does, but Sprout and Agora Pulse don’t (although apparently Agora Pulse might in the future). You could look at Jollor. It’s not a well known tool, but as well as Twitter and Facebook it integrates with Youtube. Finally there is Instagram and this needs special consideration. Their API allows tools to respond to comments and like images, but you can’t post via a 3rd party tool – well not in a… Read more »
Hi Anne, I found your post and I have good idea for you. Did you hear something about Kontentino? It is great tool, when you can manage social media yours clients. There you find all your posts in one place and perfectly organized. You can see all your proposed posts (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) in the same layout as they are published. This tool is also easy and cheap too. If you would like to know more clicks here: https://www.kontentino.com/
Hi Ian!
It´s very useful article, thank you so much! I would like to ask you: Do you know which combinations of the social media tools are the most common? I read that big companies usually use more of them, but which one?
Thank you,
Lukas
Hi Lukas. That is a great question. I’m not sure it is just the big companies that use more of them. However, they may have more resources to justify the cost of paying for more tools and the research that went into finding them and using them together. A social media management tool such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite or Agora Pulse will definitely help with engagement, monitoring and reporting. However some companies need a more advanced tool for analytics and monitoring – one such as Brandwatch. Then there are mailing list and CRM tools such as Infusionsoft or ActiveCampaign. Keeping to social tools, some companies may want to expand what their SMMT tool does by using other tools. The only issue is, that some of the alternatives I have listed in this article aren’t suitable for teams of people with separate logins and team delegation tools. Ian
Hi! That is indeed a very well researched article.
I’m the Founder of Twitics. Twitics is a Deep Social Media Intelligence Company. We have also launched a free version of our software. It’s way ahead of Hootsuite for analytics. Get free analytics for unlimited Facebook Pages and Twitter Profiles on a Single Dashboard. You can export reports also. I would recommend everyone to try it.
Twitics Social is pure Social Media Analytics and no posting. Try it out now, it’s safe, customisable and you’ll love it. Hit me up if you have any queries and I’ll make sure to answer each one of them.
Here’s the link: http://twitics.co/twitics-social
Thanks for your comment, Siddhant. I am sure it will be of interest to people reading the comments of this article. Ian
I had previously thought to use HootSuite. But, after I read your article, I began to understand the risk when I use hotsuite. Thank you, Your article was very helpful to me and others
Hi Lemari. Glad it was helpful. Have you decided which tool to use? Ian
I actually about to purchase hootsuite, but then.. I read your article for 3rd time in a year! I then started to hesitate to use it when there is a term “Posting with a 3rd party tool results in 89.5% less engagement than directly posting to Facebook.”, that suck.. 🙁 Also, when i tried facebook in hootsute, i dont see any way on how to like an article from a website… Ian, I will always read your article for sure from time to time!
Hi Sewa, glad I could help. Have you decided which tool to use then?
As I mention in the article, I don’t think Facebook demotes posts posted using Hootsuite or in fact any other 3rd party tool. I know some people have suggested that. However, I think Facebook demotes posts that a lower quality and some people use 3rd party tools to schedule content – and that content can often be lower quality.
However, Hootsuite although good value for money can more difficult to use, more clunky and has missing features. There are some other tools out there (see my list of alternatives) which might better suit you? Ian
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Hi Neslihan, thanks for your kind comment. I haven’t heard of Pointro. It sounds interesting. I don’t have much time to look into new tools at the moment, but do feel free to contact me through my contact form if you have more information. Ian