Social media is becoming a buzz nowadays. With millions of people on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media marketing is becoming a must-have strategy for any e-commerce today.
It is common for most people to have an account on more than one social media platform. Whether it’s a business, personal, or celebrity profile, the main objective of having an account on social media is to gain followers and have more likes. For a business is all about letting prospects know your brand and what value you have in store.
As a business, to achieve this objective, you need a tool that will help you manage all your social media accounts in a single dashboard. This is where social media management tools like Hootsuite come to play.
In this review, we cover the basics of this fantastic tool and give you a reason why you should continue using it in 2021 and beyond.
What is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a one-stop social media management tool that helps you manage multiple social media accounts.
When you create multiple social media accounts, you may find it tedious to manage and keep all the profiles updated. With Hootsuite, you will log into one single dashboard and manage all your accounts with a click.
Hootsuite has millions of users and over 200,000 paid accounts making it one of the most popular social media tools you can find. Small businesses and large organizations worldwide are all using this tool to establish a solid social media presence.
You can use Hootsuite today to strengthen your brand online, establish connections with millions of prospects, and get marketing results that take your business to the next level.
This tool will help you to integrate socially across your entire organization. You will get access to the industry’s leading training, certifications, and coaching that can help you improve your social media marketing strategies.
Related: Best Tools To Measure Social Media Engagement
Who Should Use Hootsuite?
Are you the right person to be using the Hootsuite social media manager? Hootsuite is one of the best social media management tools for businesses that need to manage their social media accounts with one dashboard. The tool integrates well with a range of social networks, making it the best for small businesses.
As a startup, having Hootsuite saves you money. The tool is budget-friendly and gives you access to a platform for publishing and tracking all your social media content. It also comes with more tools you can use to communicate with your audience on social media.
If you are a tech-savvy business owner, Hootsuite is the tool for you. You can use this tool to set different integrations with other external tools while working directly with the Hootsuite API.
It is easy purchasing most of the advanced features of Hootsuite on the Hootsuite App Directory. That means even tech novices can upgrade and take advantage of this tool to manage their social media accounts. Small and medium-sized businesses have it all when they need a tool to manage their social media activity.
Hootsuite comes in different pricing plans, which makes it ideal even for private individuals. Influencers can subscribe to the pro plan and start managing their social media accounts with ease. The free trial option is an offer you don’t want to miss on Hootsuite. You can use the free trial period to find out what magic the tool does on your social media presence as a business.
Related: Ways To Use Social Media To Help Small Business
What Are The Key Features of Hootsuite?
When looking for the best social media managing tool, you have to check if the tool comes with some essential features. Hootsuite covers some of the basic elements within its core. Those features you don’t find on the platform can be accessed on other third-party applications.
Hootsuite comes with a straightforward user interface, reliable customer support, and other analytic tools.
These are some of the critical features of Hootsuite you should look up to when you subscribe to its plans.
1. Hootsuite App Directory
It would help if you considered this tool the best social media manager because it comes with the unique Hootsuite App Directory.
The app directory comes with over 150 apps, all in one platform. This extends beyond the native tools you get in the Hootsuite platform. Some third-party apps you get on the Hootsuite App Directory include Fourstarzz, Google My Business, and Adobe Stock. Most of these applications are free to use.
You can merge Hootsuite capabilities with the other apps when you have access to other third-party apps on the Hootsuite App directory. This means improved functionalities and convenience on your side as a small business.
For instance, you can easily access your Hootsuite data while on Oracle Eloqua. You can create your content on Eloqua and publish it easily on the Hootsuite social media account.
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2. Social Network Integrations
The social network integrations on Hootsuite are the primary differentiation between the social media tools. Hootsuite connects you easily with the other social accounts that you need to access. Over 35 social networks integrated on the Hootsuite platform, including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Hootsuite can start displaying your data on the social networks once they are open. This makes it easy for you to track your results on every platform.
The tool has a Streams interface which helps you to keep track of your latest activities. You can also view the latest topics that you are monitoring. It allows you to pull up content from other directories like Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, and Dropbox and publish them on your social media posts.
It refreshes every 15 minutes by default, and you can also refresh manually if the situation is urgent. There are some exceptional restrictions based on how Instagram is programmed to connect with most social media marketing tools. For instance, you are only allowed to submit one page per post when using the social media manager.
Related: Ways To Use Animated Videos For Social Media
3. Hootsuite Analytics
Hootsuite Analytics is another amazing feature you find when you subscribe to Hootsuite. This feature makes it easy to report on Twitter. It provides audience insights, proposes influencer recommendations for your brand, and hints you at optimal publishing times.
The level of detail on Hootsuite Analytics is not replicated in all the social networks. You’ll only be allowed to publish content on Pinterest through Hootsuite, and you cannot view some reporting data on the platform.
You can access the reporting template you prefer the most. You should also check the subscription package that you will purchase on Hootsuite to access the reports. In most cases, Hootsuite will only allow you to access the advanced Instagram, and Facebook reports when you purchase the Enterprise or the Business plan.
Hootsuite stands as one of the leading social media management platforms for Facebook and Twitter insights. You find all the essential metrics for the two social networks so that you plan your marketing well.
If you want more details across most social media networks, you should pitch Hootsuite against other tools like Sprout Social and see which one works best for you.
Related: Tips To Build And Grow Your Social Media Presence
4. Content Curation
Besides helping you find content for your social media posts, Hootsuite can also help you locate content that others have posted which may interest your audience. You can create streams on the Hootsuite dashboard. Streams are the panels dedicated to displaying content on the platform that is most relevant to the parameters you set.
For instance, you can create a stream that helps you track tweets with a particular hashtag that relates most to your business. You can easily retweet whenever you find some content that you believe your clients will be more interested in with a click of a button.
Once you find terms that interest you the most but don’t think of the right time to post them, you can save the content on your content library. With Hootsuite, you can easily tag someone or content on Twitter. You can also search and stare at the usage statistics for all the items in your library.
You can also integrate Hootsuite to put information or content from other cloud-based services like Dropbox and post them on your behalf. This is also possible if you have things like RSS feeds. This is one way Hootsuite populates all your social media accounts with the content you like the most.
Related: What is Content Writing?
5. Contests
Contest is one great way to increase how social media users engage with your brand. This is quite a challenge to manage all the logistics that come with increasing user engagement on social media, and that is why you need Hootsuite to help you out.
Hootsuite is equipped with more robust content management features like entry moderation and a form creation wizard, ensuring that the content you don’t want to post doesn’t appear on the platform.
It also comes with other features for campaign posting across multiple media and detailed analytics to help you find out how your social media contest is fairing.
6. Security
The security features are unique to Hootsuite. It comes with an active account monitoring feature that notifies you of any suspicious activity on your social media account. Also, Hootsuite makes it easy for your small business to remain compliant on any social media marketing campaign.
If you are in a field like medicine that is heavily regulated, the tools will ensure you meet all the regulations in the content you post. It does this by offering you some useful integration like Proof point, Smarsh, Global Play, and ZeroFOX.
Pricing And Billing Plan For Hootsuite
Hootsuite comes in four different plans you can choose from based on your budget. Some of these plans include:
- Professional: This is a one user plan that enables you to manage up to 10 social accounts. With this plan, you can schedule unlimited posts and access messages in your inbox. The plan goes for only $19.00 per month.
- Team: The team plan is available for three users and enables you to manage up to 20 social accounts. This plan goes for $99.00 per month.
- Business: This plan is available for five users and allows you to schedule unlimited posts. You can manage up to 35 social media accounts on this plan which goes for $599.00 per month.
- Enterprise: This is a custom plan you can create when you subscribe to Hootsuite. When on this plan, you can manage up to 50 social accounts. It is available for unlimited users. The price is subject to custom by the company.
Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial on all its package. While on the free trial period, you can learn how to use the tool to manage all your social media accounts.
Hootsuite Pros
- Small businesses can use it to schedule posts for multiple clients and social accounts.
- It comes with ample analytics capabilities and social media management.
- It connects and integrates with some of the latest technologies and platforms.
- The platform has built up third-party integrations over the years, making it stand out from the rest of the park.
- It has set an industry standard with the Streams interface, enabling you to monitor multiple feeds and audiences.
- It comes with recognized certifications.
- It is safe and reliable for managing multiple social media accounts.
Hootsuite Cons
- The add-ons on this tool can be expensive sometimes
- The insights and analytics are not in-depth for some users
- The most advanced features are only available on the Enterprise or higher plans
Final Thoughts
When looking for the best social media management tool, your search should stop when you find Hootsuite. With this tool, you get a complete dashboard for managing all your social media accounts. You can monitor some useful insights and metrics and choose which posts drive the most user engagement.
Hootsuite offers you a free account and a 30-free trial on all of the paid subscriptions. It is easy to use, affordable and integrates well with tens of social networks.
