7 Reasons Why You SHOULD Use Hootsuite

Hootsuite Review
Many years ago, I posted a rather controversial article that ended up being one of the most visited posts on my blog- 7 Reasons why you should NOT use Hootsuite. It even prompted the Vice President of Community at Hootsuite to respond in the comments. Although that blog post was first created a long time ago, I do keep it up to date.
Although I tried my very best to give a balanced view and to list the positives, it was, at the end of the day, more of a negative Hootsuite Review- a list of the problems that I had encountered with Hootsuite. Since then I've wanted to list some of the positives and reasons why some people and businesses should use Hootsuite. Despite the issues that I brought up in the original post, Hootsuite remains one of the most comprehensive social media management tools out there and I still recommend it to businesses today in certain situations.
April/May 2020: Note, I am in the process of updating this article. Please come back to see updates!
What is Hootsuite and what does it Do?
Hootsuite is one of many tools referred to as a "Social Media Management System" or tool. It helps you keep track and manage your many social network channels. It can enable you to monitor what people are saying about your brand and help you respond instantly. You can view streams from multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and post updates or reply directly. With so many networks for businesses to manage, it's no doubt Social Media Management tools have become so popular and relied upon by many companies today.
If you manage the updates for your business' social networks, it's highly likely that you will have heard of Hootsuite. In a survey from monitoring tool Pingdom, Hootsuite came up as the top Social Media Management System, with over 20% of companies using it to manage their social media empires. TweetDeck was second and SocialEngage third. To see more details, see the original Pingdom post on the survey.
Hootsuite was launched back in 2008 by Invoke Media and since then has accrued an impressive array of features.
Here are my 7 reasons why you may want to consider using Hootsuite to manage your social network channels...
1) Monitor Multiple Streams in One Place
- Facebook Pages
- LinkedIn Pages
- WordPress blogs
- Vimeo, Tumblr, Evernote, MailChimp, Slideshare (via 3rd party apps)
- Many more!
You can even add more than one of the same network. This can be useful if you manage multiple Twitter channels, or Facebook pages. You can even post to multiple channels at the same time. However do be careful here- think of the type of audience you have on each network. Your Facebook fans will be different from your Twitter followers. Also, Twitter only allows 280 characters whereas Facebook allows much longer and richer posts with photos and videos.
Hootsuite's analytics are still a little clunky, even with their recent updates. If you're looking for a really powerful social media analytics tool, I highly recommend Sotrender.
2) You Have a Team Managing Your Social Media Empire
If you have more than one person managing your business' social networks or you share the load with an outside social media management business, you may have encountered a number of issues in trying to keep on top of things.
Firstly there is security- allowing other people to manage your Twitter account will mean sharing your Twitter password. Never a good thing!
Secondly, how do you properly share the management of the various networks within a team? How do you know if a team member has already responded or in the process of responding to a message or status?
The main reason I used to recommend Hootsuite to a business was Hootsuite's team management facility. I say "used to" because Hootsuite's team features are now only available on the much more expensive plans.
Hootsuite allows you to delegate responses to different team members. For example, if you receive 20 mentions in one day, the administrator can delegate each one to a different team member. When a team member is logged in, they'll see which tasks have been allocated to them and not make the mistake of responding to a status that has already been replied to.
Another useful tool is Hootsuite's messaging feature which allows team members to send private messages to each other. This is particularly useful if your team members are located outside of the office (for example they work from home)
Be aware that multiple team members are expensive in Hootsuite.
For medium to large businesses with a good marketing budget, this shouldn't be an issue, but smaller businesses may struggle. Firstly you need at least a Pro account which costs from $129 per month which includes 3 users. Each extra team member gets more expensive.
3) Managing Customer Service on Twitter
Whether or not you should use Hootsuite to manage your social networks depends on the type of business you have as well as the reasons you have a social network presence in the first place. If your primary reason for a social presence is for managing customer service on Twitter, then Hootsuite probably will be the best tool for you. Mobile networks or Utility companies love Hootsuite as it allows them to delegate customer messages to different team members and these can be managed overall by an administrator. Another useful feature is that Hootsuite allows you to store draft messages that you can post when you receive a frequently asked question, for example, open hours or directions to your business.
4) You Want to Cross-Post to Your Google+ Page
Update - Obviously, Google+ is no longer an option since Google closed the doors on its social network. I'll be updating this reason soon. But here it is for now...
Google's own social layer, Google+ is finally being seen as an important network for businesses to be using. Not only does it help with SEO and the authorship of your website or blog, but it has some amazing features that could help you reach your customers such as Communities and Hangouts.
Currently the only way to post to your Google+ profile is by using the Google+ website or mobile app. When it comes to updating and managing your Google+ business page you have a bit more choice- and Hootsuite is a big winner here! The Google+ API is very limited in that it currently only supports pages and not personal profiles. Full access to the page API has only been given to a few partners, of which Hootsuite is one.
Google+ management used to be available only in the $1500+ per month Hootsuite Enterprise plan. The good news is that it's now available to all, including free users.
Pretty much all the Google+ features you'd expect are available, including posting to your circles, location, links and scheduling. If you add the update manually in Hootsuite it will also generate the full summary and thumbnail of the link. This is very important as it is will be more visible and will resilt in more click-throughs. Despite me not being a fan of the ow.ly url shortener, the resulting post won't show the ow.ly link in an obvious way, although it does say that the post was made via Hootsuite. Be careful though, if you bulk upload or connect an RSS feed to your Google+ page- you won't get the thumbnail or summary- just the text. With that in mind, I'd avoid automatically posting to your Google+ page via Hootsuite completely or only in special circumstances.
5) Completely Cross-Platform
I must admit, I don't particularly enjoy using the Hootsuite mobile apps (at least the Android one which I've tried) but if you are managing your social networks as part of a team, you will be relying on the Hootsuite mobile apps, particularly for managing Twitter. The mobile Facebook app allows you to manage Facebook pages if you are an administrator without having to share any passwords. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't have any administrative features, and so the only way to allow multiple people to manage a Twitter account is by sharing the password. That's not great from a security point of view and could potentially open up your Twitter account to abuse, especially if one of your team members were to leave the company. If your team members use one of the Hootsuite apps to manage your business' social networks, you no longer have to share any passwords for your social networks, since each member will be using their own Hootsuite account.
6) Get Free Reports by Email
If you solely or mainly use Hootsuite to manage your Social networks, then you will find the weekly analytics report very useful. Each week, Hootsuite sends you an email with a pdf attachment of your click summaries. Hootsuite gives you graphs showing:
- Number of clicks per day
- Geographical information on the people clicking through
- Top referrers
- Most popular links
The good news is that this is free for all users, and can be useful to give you a brief overview as to how you are doing on a weekly basis.
Unfortunately the report will only work for you if you always use Hootsuite to manage your networks. This is because it tracks the click-throughs using Hootsuite's very own ow.ly url shortener. If you use other apps such as the Twitter or Facebook websites or mobile apps, Buffer, IFTTT or TweetDeck, any click throughs will not be shown. Since I rarely use Hootsuite, my report was completely blank!
7) You Want to Connect Lots of Services Together
One of the things that really appeals to me about Hootsuite is the sheer number of networks and apps that it supports. Although I advise against posting to multiple networks at once on a regular basis, it can work and can be a real time saver for small businesses. Hootsuite allows you to post a quick update (for example) to multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook profile and page, LinkedIn profile, company page and groups and more! This can be incredibly useful if you need to get a message out to your customers in an emergency. The scheduling features (using the new Hootlet feature) can be a very welcome time-saver, and these also allow you to post to multiple networks at once.
Social Media Management Tools

Agorapulse
Free Trial, then from $99/user/month
A powerful fully-fledged social media management tool
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram Direct Publishing Instagram Push Notification Publishing
Social Inbox
Facebook Pages Facebook Ad & Dark Post Comments Facebook Messenger for Pages Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram
Listening & Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram
Analytics & Reports:
Facebook Pages Twitter Instagram
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, Official Facebook Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A powerful social media management tool for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube which aims to offer enterprise-level features at a lower monthly price. It has an inbox zero feature which allows you to get through your social comments and messages really easily or delegate them to team members. There is a very handy automated moderation rules feature for social networks which can filter spam out for you or automatically delegate or review certain messages.
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 as a pdf. The publishing feature is really powerful too with Instagram Direct Publishing & YouTube video publishing.
There is a mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

Sprout Social
Free trial, then from $99/user/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Pinterest Instagram
Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages Instagram
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A big competitor to Hootsuite with some awesome features (really snazzy reports, multiple bit.ly URL shortener integrations 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.

Sotrender
Free trial, then from $20/mth (for one user) or from $35 for plans with social inbox
A really powerful reporting and social media performance measurement tool with a newly added social inbox
Social Inbox:
Facebook Pages Facebook Ad & Dark Post Comments Facebook Messenger for Pages
Analytics & Reports:
Facebook Pages Twitter YouTube Instagram
Sotrender is an incredibly powerful analytics, reporting and performance measurement tool for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Although Sotrender isn't a full social media management tool (in that it doesn't offer publishing or listening/monitoring) it does have an easy to use social inbox for Facebook, analytics, reporting and competitor analysis.
The analytics feature goes far beyond what Facebook and other networks tell you in their insights. As well as data on the demographics of your audience, Sotrender also shows you your top community members. I love the segmentation chart which breaks down your community into different categories - Debators, Occasional, Activists, Likers and Writers. You can also view when your audience is most active, so you know the best time and day to post your contet
I also love the tips feature, where it lists your posts with tips on how to approve for next time.
You can also create stunning reports (perfect for agencies and larger businesses) and compare your social channels with your competitors.

Sendible
Free trial, then from $29/mth (for one user)
A full social media management tool with a huge number of integrations.
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Pinterest YouTube Instagram Direct Publishing Tumblr Google My Business Medium
Social Inbox:
Facebook Pages Facebook Ad & Dark Post Comments Facebook Messenger for Pages Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages Instagram
Listening & Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages Instagram
Analytics & Reports:
Facebook Pages Twitter LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram
Other features:
Official Facebook Marketing Partners, Instagram Partners, Google Chrome browser extension, Review Monitoring (including sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor), RSS Feed Importer (adding RSS feeds in bulk), iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
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), 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 Micro plan you get 12 "services", with the Small plan 48 services and with the large plan you get 192 services. Services 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.

MavSocial
Free Trial, then from $19/mth for 10 profiles
A full social media management tool that integrates with the Chinese network Wechat on its enterprise plan.
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram Tumblr WeChat
Monitoring/Engagement:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram WeChat
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A simple and affordable social media management tool for curating, scheduling and managing your socials all in one platform. Integrating Facebook, Instagram (direct publishing), Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr and WeChat, it streamlines the entire social media process from content discovery to audience engagement to reporting. WeChat integration is only available on the business/enterprise plans which start at $199/month.
MavSocial has an AI-powered digital asset management system, scheduling calendar and post recycling tools, Social Inbox, comprehensive real-time and exportable reports, and customizable team management features. Social listening to be released shortly
A mobile app for iOS and Android is available to make social media management even easier on the go.

Social Report
Free trial, and from $49/month
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, 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.

Jollor
Free Trial, then from $5/month
A lesser-known but nicely put together social media management tool.
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram VKontakte Odnoklassniki
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 at $5. It basically costs $5 per network, and you can add extra team members for $5 per month as well as other features.

TweetDeck
Free
Publishing:
Twitter
Monitoring:
Twitter Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search
Twitter Management Only.
This used to be one of my top recommendations, but Twitter has done their best to make this less useful. But Tweetdeck is a free way of managing multiple Twitter accounts and useful for scheduling posts as well as managing Twitter Chats.

ContentCal
Free plan, and from $13/month
A social media & content planning solution which has recently entered the social media management tool space.
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Instagram Push Notification Publishing
Social Inbox
Facebook Messenger for Pages Twitter Mentions
Analytics & Reports:
Facebook Pages Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Instagram
Note that ContentCal's reports only show data on posts posted via ContentCal itself.
Other features:
iOS mobile app
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.
Social Media Planning & Publishing Tools

Kontentino
Free and from $10/month
Kontentino is a content planning and publishing tool which has packed some amazing features. It has team planning and collaboration at heart, and it's perfect for agencies who want to work with their clients and get approval. Clients can approve work directly through the web app or on mobile with the click of a button. You can preview how your content looks across all platforms including all the major Facebook ad formats. Kontentino sends over all the scheduled posts to Facebook and allows Facebook to schedule them. This allows you to tag posts and do things that can only be done directly on Facebook.
Social Media Publishing & Scheduling Tools

Buffer
Free or $15/mth for Pro Plan. Business plans from $99/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Pinterest Instagram
Monitoring/Engagement:
No Monitoring/Engagement available,
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app.
Allows you to post or cross-post to Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages or groups), LinkedIn (profile, groups or company pages), Instagram, Pinterest or Google+ business profiles/pages. 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.

Social Champ
From $10/month
Social Champ allows you to schedule and publish content to a wide variety of networks, not just once, but many times in a cycle. You can also link up your RSS feed and set up filters.
Tool Comparison Table
Scroll to see more
Tool | URL | Parent Company | Year Founded | Head Office Location | Free Plan? | Number of users in free plan | Max number of users in free plan | Cheapest Paid Plan | Number of users in cheapest paid plan | Max Number of users in cheapest paid plan |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hootsuite | hootsuite.com | N/A | 2008 | Vancouver, Canada | Yes | 1 | 1 | $45/user/mth/billed annually | 1 | 1 |
Agorapulse | agorapulse.com | N/A | 2011 | Paris, France | No | N/A | N/A | $99/user/mth $79/usr/mth if paid annually | 2 | Unlimited (extra users $30/user/mth) |
Sprout Social | sproutsocial.com | N/A | 2010 | Chicazgo, US | No | N/A | N/A | $99/user/mth | 1 | Unlimited (extra users $99/user/mth) |
Sendible | sendible.com | N/A | 2009 | London, UK | No | N/A | N/A | $29/user/mth $24/user/mth if billed annually | 1 | 1 |
Zoho Social | zoho.com/social | Zoho | 2015 | Chennai, India | Yes | 1 | 1 | $10/user/mth $8.33/user/mth if billed annually | 2 | Not specified/addit'l user $10/mth |
ContentCal | ContentCal | N/A | 2014 | London, UK | Yes | 1 | 1 | £15/mth billed annually | 1 | Not specified/addit'l user £15/mth |
Social Report | socialreport.com | N/A | 2010 | New York, NY | No | N/A | N/A | $49/mth | 5 | 5 |
Muster Point | musterpoint.io | N/A | 2012 | London, London | No | N/A | N/A | $35/£25 per month per user | 1 | Not specified/addit'l user $35/£25/mth |
Jollor | jollor.com | N/A | 2014 | Prague, Czech Republic | No | N/A | N/A | $5/per mth | 2 | Not specified/addit'l user $5/mth |
MavSocial | MavSocial | N/A | 2012 | San Francisco, CA | Yes | 1 | 1 | $16/mth billed annually | 1 | 1 |
Tweetdeck | tweetdeck.twitter.com | N/A | 2008 | Yes | 1 | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Kontentino | Kontentino | N/A | 2014 | Bratislava, Slovakia | Yes | 1 | 1 | $10/mth | 3 | 3 |
Lately | trylately.com | N/A | 2014 | New York, US | No | N/A | N/A | $79/mth | 1 | 1 |
Find Out More
If you want to find out more then the best thing is to sign up for a free Hootsuite account. there are also plenty of tutorials and help as part of the Hootsuite website itself and on other blogs. Here are a few to get you started:
- 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 NOT use Hootsuite
I'm also very happy to answer any questions you have, so please ask away in the comments!
Summary
So there you have it, 7 valid reasons why you SHOULD use Hootsuite. What are your thoughts? Do you use Hootsuite regularly? What are the features you like the most? What don't you like? Don't forget to have a read of my 7 reasons why you should NOT use Hootsuite and you should be in a better position to make a decision on whether or not you should be using Hootsuite.
As ever, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Thanks for the article! I’m an indie author looking to drive readers to my site. ur writing piece is really helpful
So glad this was helpful for you!
hi sir. It helped me learn more about Hootsuit quickly
I am going to start with a WOW, the comparison table is awesome but the comparison tool is like 😍. Trust me I think I spend more time on that than actually exploring the tools, which i am going to do right after adding this comment. My issue with most tools is that when we post or schedule a post it does not always come out like it is shown in the preview. I can’t find a tool which would let me schedule Pinterest yet have LinkedIn. I cant even dream about having a tool for other platforms. According to the information I provided I got Agora plus, checking it out now.
Great work on the comparison part Ian.
so , beautiful blog and all article on this blog are owsome. thanks to admin for sharing great post
Thanks for the post – enjoyed both posts on the topic and really cool that you have been updating the detail too – thanks Ian.
Thanks, Rohit, so glad you found this helpful. Ian
This is genuinely an awesome blog for me. I have bookmarked it and I am anticipating perusing new articles. Keep doing awesome!
Thanks for the post – enjoyed both posts on the topic and really cool that you have been updating the detail too – I am very happy….
That’s great to hear! Have you decided on which tool to use? Ian
Buddy, you need to update your article. Google+ already got shut down.
By the way, I am using hootsuite for last 1 year and it is really helpful in managing my social media accounts.
This was such a frustrating article. It’s out of date! No more google + and the prices for Hootsuite are incorrect. Your asking people to trust your opinion, update the bases of you article.
Hi Louisa, You’re so right and I do apologise. This is one of my articles that’s in a desperate need of an update. The other article on 7 Reasons NOT to use Hootsuite is a lot more up to date – https://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-not-to-use-hootsuite/ I recommend reading that one for now (it has reasons why you should read it and I do try and keep that one balanced and up to date).
Thanks for the reminder and I will try and get this one rewritten as soon as I can.
Great post! In fact, I hired an enterprise mobility management service recently and will share this knowledge with my team as well. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the article! I’m an indie author looking to drive readers to my Amazon page. Would Hootsuite be the right tool for that? I also run a proofreading business I’m looking to promote.
Hi Scott. Hootsuite is a social media management tool, and so it can help with social media marketing. And so, yes, that can help with driving readers to your Amazon page – as long as you have a decent strategy to do
Ugh. I have to say that Hootsuite is one of the worst companies I’ve ever worked with. Their customer service is atrocious, it takes them at minimum three emails to respond to questions. Plus their autorenewal policy is sneaky. We’re trying get out of our contract, but because we didn’t provide notice 60 days before the autorenewal, we’re unable to. And they just won’t budge. They won’t even let us downgrade our account since we have seats we’re no longer using.
You’d think since they have this autorenewal clause, that they’d reach out 90 days before the renewal to make sure you’re happy. But no – complete silence from their end. They want to trap you so you can’t get out.
Pretty disappointed since this is a fellow Canadian company. But overall, it’s expensive, terrible customer service, and their renewal policy is terrible.
Hi Katherine. Sorry for the late reply. And really sorry to hear your experience with Hootsuite. While I do hear some positive stories from Hootsuite users, you are not alone with issues with their customer service. I had hoped things were improving, but it seems not. Which plan were you on? Did you manage to get it sorted out? Ian
Yes, Katherine Hootsuite is a loathing company, they have absolutely no ethics, I was on hold for 45 minutes which is actually the norm for Hootsuite. I suggest legal action…
This article needs to be updated! Google Plus+ is gone, Facebook has stopped allowing scheduled posts to profiles…..
Thanks, Janet. Very true. Quite a few things have changed. While Google+ isn’t going until next year it is basically dead. The good news is that I plan on doing a complete update to this article very soon. I really appreciate you commenting. Ian
Your simple and clear narrative met my need …thank you
Thanks, Niki. My pleasure to help! 🙂 Ian
Thanks for the post – enjoyed both posts on the topic and really cool that you have been updating the detail too – thanks Ian.
[…] 22.30 Check out Hootsuite for your social media needs […]
[…] short, it is almost a necessary marketing tool for SMEs and startups in this digital […]
Old but useful until now. Thanks
This post made me to change my mind about Hootsuite, I know the benefits now.
Thanks so much, so glad that the article helped you! Ian
My heart skipped a beat when I saw 7 Reasons Why You Should NOT use Hootsuite. I went through the article and read this too. Thank you for your insightful perspective. I’m a new user to Hootsuite and I’m using the free plan. I post through Hootsuite to keep my facebook account active daily. I hope to maximize when engagement peaks with my country and friends but I’m still experimenting.
Hi Ian I’m checking this page one in a while and recently Hootsuite changed its pricing, again. Do you have any numbers on enterprise pricing ? Thanks
Hi, Efe. I’ve just updated the pricing for Hootsuite Pro. Unfortunately, I don’t have any updates on Enterprise. It’s very hard to receive any information. I am fairly sure that nothing major has changed with Enterprise pricing, though. It’s clear that Hootsuite is focussing away from their free customers and to make pro plan customers profitable for them. Their focus is on increasing profit and sustainability as a company.
Just read both of your articles, have been trying to decide if HootSuite or similar is right for me. I was initially suggested by a friend to use CinchShare, but I see you don’t mention it. Anyway, have been looking around to see if this would be useful for MLM sales and promotion. I regularly post my own content, but the ability to schedule posts sounds helpful for days when I’m particularly busy, or for the ability to manage multiple online Facebook parties at once – even scheduling all the posts ahead of time. What are your thoughts?
Hi Meagan, There are hundreds of social media tools out there – in fact last time I did an audit, I found thousands. Many of these offer scheduling features and all of them at varying prices. I mention the main alternatives, but I can’t mention all of them. I have heard of CinchShare, but not spent a huge amount of time on it. For just basic scheduling you really can’t go wrong with Buffer. The awesome plan costs $10/mth and it allows you to schedule with up to 10 social profiles. If you want a tool that does everything, then really I would look at the main tools Hootsuite, SproutSocial and Agora Pulse. They are really robust tools that work. If they don’t, then of course you can look at the alternatives. If CinchShare works for you, then
Thanks for the post..!! I also use hootsuite..!! This is wonder tool for social media scheduling.
Great stuff! Glad it is working for you. Ian
Could you tell me which social media management tool you’d recommend for small businesses or non profits, who don’t have a large budget?
Sorry for being late in responding. I’m a big Agora Pulse fan, but you might find their prices a bit on the pricey side for now. Still good to check though! https://agorapulse.com/
Other than that, there are a few alternatives.
Firstly, there is MavSocial which has a powerful free option – http://mavsocial.com/
Secondly, check out Muster Point – http://musterpoint.co.uk/ – I have added a quick review in this sister article (in the alternatives to Hootsuite section) – https://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-not-to-use-hootsuite/
Thirdly, check out ContentCalendr – http://www.contentcal.io/ – it is a very new tool and I am fairly sure they’re free for non-profits. Worth checking out. Happy to introduce you to their founder if you like. Just zap me an email at ian (at) iag (dot) me
Hey Ian:
I have read the 7 whys and the 7 why nots…still confuses. I am a poet and will soon be launching my work more aggressively via social media. I may for example take one poem and post it as a meme on Instagram or twitter…post it as a short video YouTube and FB or just straight text somewhere else. I am also lauching a blog is kind of the central hub of material.
Do U think Hootsuite is a good choice under those circumstances?
thanks in advance… Ian
Hi Ian, yes Hootsuite would work for you. But I would do a comparison with other tools just to be sure you’re going for the one that works for you. Hootsuite is still fairly inexpensive for individual users, but it sounds like Buffer might be a good tool for you – in that it schedules to all the social networks you mention (except YouTube). Do check out my recent mega article which compares prices and features of the top social media management tools – https://iag.me/socialmedia/the-hidden-pricing-of-social-media-tools-revealed/ You might find this helpful.
Hi Ian,
Great article.
My question is this: I created a product and a company, it is just me for now. I consider myself a pre-start-up. I have putting all the pieces together right now and saw an add for Needls. I saw what they did and Googled it and found that Hootsuite is much more popular.
What I essentially want to do is: Whenever anyone on any of the social network platforms say keywords, I want my product to appear in their newsfeed. Needls said that they do this.
Does Hootsuite do the same or similar thing? I can’t find anything on this.
Thoughts? Much appreciated
Eli
Hi Elias, Hootsuite and similar social media management tools don’t really help with creating ads. You need to start by creating the ad or promoted post on Facebook or Twitter directly. Your product or ad can appear in the news feeds of people – you can choose what criteria you want. For example you might want to show it to people of a certain age range, living in a particular country, who like certain things. It is quite powerful, but a tool such as Hootsuite won’t help. Ian
Problem with Uploading a Story on Hootsuite
Hi everyone, While posting(publishing/scheduling) 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?
Thanks, Amna. I responded to your comment on the other post. Ian
Hello, i was going through searching new social networking sites and i came across this one at (http://www.sochialtyme.com). UI is great and its pretty simple to use. I hope you guys will give it a try. Thanks.
Thanks. It’s difficult to know what Social Tyme does from the website. Could you give more information on it? It appears to be iOS only for now.
Thanks for the post – enjoyed both posts on the topic and really cool that you have been updating the detail too – thanks Ian.
Thanks, William. Glad it was helpful.
I am just reviewing the prospects of Hootsuits and wondering if I can use it for more than one twiiter accounts in one go. I am a blogger and a social media manger and very new to Hootsuite
Hi Sneha. It is worth looking at this review and my “7 Reasons NOT to use Hootsuite” article so that you get a balanced view of the pros and cons.
You can definitely add more than one Twitter account. The free version of Hootsuite allows you to add up to 3 accounts. The pro plan allows up to 50.
I’d also take a look at all the alternatives listed below.
Ian
Great post. I have not started using hootsuite yet. After reading both your article on ‘why not’ and ‘why’ use Hootsuite, i have a lot of reservations.
My brand is still very new and acquiring new and more customers is very important at this stage. Do you think signing up for Hootsuite a good idea?
Thanks
I couldnt help but chip in here and reply to your question. Personally I love Hootsuite! It’s hands down the number 1 best social media management tool there is! You say that your brand is still very new. What does that have to do with anything? I don’t even have customers and I simply use Hootsuite to manage my social media profiles in one centralized place without having to separately log in and out and in and out of each social media platform. Its a question of efficiency and whether you want something to manage your social media, new brand or not. Hootsuite has also helped me engage with my audience, like on Twitter and Instagram, where I can easily reply to comments and retweet specific content to generate more followers interested in that specific subject (based on a hashtag stream). Because of Hootsuite my audience has grown, because I engage with my audience much more easily. Again, your brand being new is irrelevant. So you have a new job, do you ask whether buying a car to get to your job is a good idea? Because in the end it’s really up to you! You can take public transit… Read more »
Thanks for that, Jade. Great to hear from someone who is an avid Hootsuite user and who is a big fan! As you’ll know I’ve written about the reasons why and why not you can use Hootsuite. I believe Hootsuite is a very powerful tool and can be perfect for many businesses to manage their social media. Is it the number 1 social media management tool? That’s a more difficult question to answer because it is so subjective. It can be the perfect tool for some people, but it’s certainly not perfect. I wrote an article on the top social media management tools of 2015 and analysed the reviews from G2Crowd. Hootsuite was 3rd for user satisfaction, 4th for product direction, 4th for being easy to learn, 4th for support, 4th for usability, 4th for meeting requirements, no. 1 for market presence and no. 1 for base price. https://iag.me/socialmedia/top-4-rated-social-media-management-tools-of-2015/ Agora Pulse and Sprout Social did very well in the study. However, it is clear that Hootsuite integrates with a huge number of networks and it is very good value for money. For many businesses, Hootsuite is the cheapest way to start and since they have a free trial as you… Read more »
Hi Adey, Glad you found my articles helpful. I’d agree that the best way would be to try Hootsuite and see how you get on. However also try a few other tools.
I’ve written a few other articles that might help including the Top 4 Social Media Management Tools for 2015 – https://iag.me/socialmedia/top-4-rated-social-media-management-tools-of-2015/
I’ve also put together a video on how to choose your social media management tool – https://iag.me/socialmedia/how-to-choose-your-ideal-social-media-management-tool/
There is no perfect tool, however you may find a tool that helps with your top priorities. Then you could use another tool or two to help with smaller things. That tool could be Hootsuite, or it might be an alternative. I hope my video and articles help.
Ian
Nice article! I just started hootsuite this week, mostly to help me post to twitter without having to sit at the computer all day. I feel that it has taken over my life, when actually, I need to spend more time writing for my blog. I comb the news each morning for articles that relate to my blog and set up tweets that post every couple of hours or so. I mix my blog posts in there, too. I might choose three blog posts and tweet them twice each in a day. The news articles seldom repeat. The purpose of this is to be visible on twitter and attract people to my blog, which I need to eventually monetize. Twitter hasn’t really driven much traffic to my actual website, even though I’m gaining a presence there. My hope is that it’s just going to take time and that by using hootsuite, I don’t spend too much time on twitter, which really isn’t doing much for me, yet. I’ve used it for my Facebook page, also, but I only post to Facebook once a day, usually a news article except for the days I publish a new blog post. Does this… Read more »
Hi Laura, apologies for not getting back to you sooner- I’ve been away at a conference. Thanks for your comment and I am glad you found my article helpful. I assume you read both Hootsuite articles – giving the reasons why and why not Hootsuite? You’re not alone in feeling overwhelmed and that all your time is sucked up with social media usage! I spoke at a conference last week on this very topic. I asked the audience how they felt about Twitter- did it make them feel full of joy or did they feel frustrated. Most felt frustrated I’m afraid! Most people used words such as “not enough time” or “overwhelmed” or “too much noise”. That’s why tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, AgoraPulse and others can help us be more productive. They key is to find the tool or selection of tools that works for you and set up a system. I always recommend setting aside a couple of shorter sessions each day to manage your social media- and stick to these times. Perhaps this would be 3 fifteen minute sessions at fixed times each day. Using a scheduling tool will allow you to set up content to be… Read more »
Ian, thank you for such a thoughtful response. I do use feedly and evernote in addition to hootsuite. I will check out your other suggestions,too, and again, I appreciate your lengthy, helpful reply.
Hi Laura, glad you found my article helpful. I am a big fan of Evernote and Feedly as well! Ian
Your article(s) were very helpful. My school is looking into a social media management system. We are a very small public school for students with special needs. We are newbies in this area of social media but we do have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts as well as a You Tube channel. We are hoping that Hootsuite will help us manage these accounts. As of now we would have two administers assigned to the site. At this time we are looking at the free version. So far everything I have read about Hootsuite is connected with commercial enterprises, do you think it would work with school needs? Do you have any other recommendations? Thanks!
Hi Kathy,
Sorry for the delay- just got back from a conference.
Hootsuite may be the best tool for you, but it really depends on your needs. You’ve read this article, but also have a look at my 7 Reasons NOT to use Hootsuite article and make a balanced judgement – https://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-not-to-use-hootsuite/ If you have 2 admins, you’ll need the pro account which gives you two team members for the same price. Hootsuite works well with Facebook and Twitter and has a workaround for Instagram. I’ve not tried YouTube with Hootsuite so I’m not sure how that works.
Hootsuite makes its money from their Enterprise plan without a doubt. Their pro plan seams inexpensive but as soon as you start adding extra team members and reports the cost can rack up. Assuming you just need two team members, though, you should be fine.
The other tools to look at would be SproutSocial (although it doesn’t integrate with YouTube), Jollor (does integrate with YouTube) and AgoraPulse (I think YouTube is coming). If you want to post/schedule to Instagram then I recommend Later (previously Latergramme).
Hope that helps. I’m happy to help further- just get in touch.
best wishes,
Ian
Hi Ian..i was having an assignment about social media platforms used to communicate and i fount this one interesting…im interested on knowing more about hootsuit since my husband is a business man.thanks alot about this article it really helps
Thanks, Annah. Glad this helped.
Ian
[…] has analytics. Just click and you can see your analytics. According to Iag.me, Hootsuite sends you your analytics once a week, but they are often inaccurate. Buffer’s […]
It helped me learn more about Hootsuit quickly.
Nice post
I am using buzzbundle and only wire could you give me an idea how this is better than them? And how many social sharing i can do i $10 account of hootsuit?
Hi Omkar. I’ve not used Buzzbundle to be honest. It really depends on what you’re looking for. Make a list of your top priorities and then look at the different social media management tools out there to see what fits the bill- Sprout Social, Agora Pulse, Sendible, Hootsuite, buzzbundle etc
[…] HootsuiteHootsuite is a social media management system also referred to as a social relationship platform that helps brands track and manage its social network channels. A survey from the monitoring tool Pingdom reported that Hootsuite is the top social media management system, and over 20 percent of companies are using it to manage its social media empires [1]. […]
Hello,
Thanks for the great post, nice article. I am personally using this tool brilliant tool. Please keep sharing this type of articles.
Thanks,
Varun.
Thanks Ian for both articles listing the reasons not to use and the reasons to use Hootsuite. If I were to write an article today about the social media tools that I use, I would definitely say that Hootsuite is my #1 ”can’t live without” tool – despite its shortcomings in certain areas – just because no other tool seems to offer as much as Hootsuite does. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love how many social media profiles I can monitor from one single interface. With that being said, I really dislike how as a Canadian I am billed in US dollars to use Hootsuite when Hootsuite is a Canadian company. That’s pretty shameful in my view. So for a US citizen Hootsuite is $14.99 per month for the pro plan whereas for a Canadian it’s more like $23 a month just because of the currency rate. Same service, same program – just more expensive if you live in the same country where they have their head office. Again, quite shameful in my view! I also dislike how so many apps cost so much extra – so that if you want to add… Read more »
Thanks Jade. There’s no perfect tool unfortunately. I always recommend that people do their own research or hire a consultant to find the best tool or set of tools for their situation together with a good system and strategy. If Hootsuite works for you then that is great. Hootsuite definitely integrates with a huge number of networks and offers other features such as reports, team access and more. Since I wrote the article many of Hootsuite’s competitors have upped their games. I’ve updated the Alternatives sections accordingly. Sprout Social and Agora Pulse really do compete very well indeed. However, it really depends on what you need. I think the reason that some of the apps cost extra is because some of them are offered by 3rd parties. It was a way that Hootsuite could expand their offerings without having to develop these on their own. I definitely dislike the way certain tools charge different fees to different countries. In the UK I am forced to pay in pounds and the fees are significantly higher than the US ones. I would prefer to pay in US dollars myself. However I do appreciate your view that it’s a little mad to pay… Read more »
Does anyone in the community or newsletter here have experience with Social Owl vs Hootsuite ?
A number of people have mentioned SocialOwl, but I’ve not investigated it.
There are so many tools- but it is on my list!
Ian
Thanks Ian,
Do let us know when you do review it.
hi Ian
Have you heard about Social Owl’s social media management tool. Its offering seems costlier than Hootsuite but not being a techie / social media savvy, can’t tell beyond this if am comparing apples with apples…if you know what I mean. Any thoughts?
Rgds
Larry
I have seen other articles that say it costs money every time you print an analytic report from hootsuite. Is that true? Are there any other “hidden” fees with hootsuite pro besides the monthly fee and the user fee?
Hi Terry. So sorry that I missed your comment from last year. You get one free report each month, but you can view it or print it as many times as you like. You need to pay for extra reports and there are some reports only available to enterprise users.
Hope that helps.
Ian
Hootsuite offers some real good services. However, the pricing of hootsuite is higher compared to few of the competitors. It offers some real good tools to help improve your social media presence.
Hey there Ian! I read both of the posts. A little insight on the Enterprise pricing:
There is a one time $1000 set up fee for an Enterprise account, and then a $100/client monthly fee. If you commit to several clients, and you ask, they’ll give you a discount per client. For agencies that manage several clients/accounts, it is definitely worth it. For us, as we have interns working on social media and like the team management/approval options and we like giving our clients access to view the scheduled posts, it is a lifesaver. We pay about $375 a month to manage our several clients and while I think there was merit to the article about why NOT to use Hootsuite, it’s the closest thing to a silver bullet out there, especially with the expanding app directory.
Thanks for this insight Ian!
Thanks so much for this. It’s rare to hear anything factual about Enterprise pricing. Since I wrote the article I think Hootsuite’s Enterprise pricing model has changed a few times. It may have been a set “one price fits all” monthly fee, but now I think they have a different charging structure for each type of business. In your case, since you are using as an agency, it makes sense to be charged per client. However if there is a medium to large business using it, they’d have to have a different structure. Do you get charged per team user as well, or do you have unlimited there? Although there is never going to be a perfect tool out there, I think Hootsuite has developed a robust tool that scales. Enterprise prices are going to be pricey for some, but they do allow you to manage multiple clients with multiple dashboards and multiple clients. I wonder how Sprout Social would work for you though? Sprout is expensive for individuals, but I wonder what their Enterprise pricing is like. The reason I mention this is because I prefer Sprout’s interface and the way they handle engagement. Hootsuite is a real pain… Read more »
We actually used to use Sprout Social. It wasn’t as robust as we wanted it to be, but maybe we just weren’t looking close enough. 🙂
It allows three logins per client I believe, and we allot one for our client to access and two to use internally.
I will check out Agora Pulse, as those three are our priority mediums and Jollor too. We are bringing on a new social person and we certainly don’t mind changing things up. You’re a true gem Ian!
[…] many people assigned to work on social media, Hootsuite keeps confusion at a minimum because the administrator can delegate customer inquiries to different members of the social media team. That way, no two […]
what a detailed post on hootsuite. really impresive
Glad you found it useful. Ian
Good info. My question is more about design work. I am not too tech savy and am challenged at producing eye-catching posts on Linkedin for example. Getting my posts to be sized correctly is a problem.
Will hootsuite help with this?
I am a non-fiction author trying to promote a title and therefore my budget is low but I can handle $10/mo. if it will assist with making sure posts fit properly into LI;FB;T etc.
Good article. By publishing the costs of Hootsuite you have convinced me NOT to use it. The jump between Free and Pro is too big for (very) small businesses or content providers to be spending £7.99 a month. And charging significantly more in sterling than in dollars for a web-based service is an insult to us Brits. Until Hootsuit addresses those two issues I’ll be looking elsewhere.
Thanks, Jamie. I do hate when businesses charge more in other countries. It seems that us in the UK always get a bad deal. I pay a lot more for my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for example. I suppose they have to add VAT, but still, it seems a lot more. However, I don’t think £7.99 per month is too much for Hootsuite Pro. At the end of the day, it costs a huge amount of money to build and maintain an app like Hootsuite. They have employees to pay, and an infrastructure to maintain. The issue I have with Hootsuite is the complicated payment structure. Once you want to add extra team members, it costs more for each subsequent member and can get expensive. Hootsuite Enterprise has a magical mystery price that is difficult to determine. The price of the vanity url is very expensive and the point system for analytics and reports is an unnecessary complication and expense. Sprout Social is a lot more expensive (from $59/user/month) but everything is included in that. AgoraPulse starts around $29/mth but you get unlimited users. There aren’t many decent free options out there for small businesses. If you really don’t want… Read more »
Thanks for the review, dude. I cant make a decision between Hootsuite or Buffer. I like the fact that Buffer will let me post to Pinterest with their pro version. I dont think Hootsuite does at this time, but fingers crossed they will in the future!
No problem! Buffer an Hootsuite are very different tools, and I know a few people that use both at the same time. Hootsuite is a full social media management tool that allows you to monitor and engage- Buffer doesn’t do that. However, Buffer does a great job at scheduling your posts and I love the Pinterest integration too.