Social media has become a main focus for marketing departments, regardless of the organisation’s size.
A strong social media presence leads to brand awareness, strong customer relationship management, target market expansion, valuable feedback and a boost in web analytics.
While this may be true, you can’t achieve anything by just simply being on the most popular platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
It is essential to have strong social media skills in order to engage, listen and respond to your target audience.
Probably the most common problem in terms of social media is time management.
Experience has taught me that the most important skills are planning ahead and being organised.
However, with so many different networks to manage at the same time it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to be organised.
Monitoring tools allow you to schedule posts, keep an eye on different streams in a more efficient way and track stats which can help you improve your messages and posts.
There are quite a few good tools out there, but for this article I decided to pick two that stand out and are different from each other: Hootsuite and Buffer. Both of them are brilliant in their own way so let’s take a look at what they have to offer.
Hootsuite
According to a Pingdom survey, Hootsuite tops the social media monitoring tools chart. Hootsuite helps you manage your social media activity and track analytics.
It supports a wide range of networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress and even mixi (Japanese social networking service).
Apart from monitoring, you can collaborate with your colleagues/employees, assign them tasks, schedule messages and track analytics.
Hootsuite also provides social media training through the Hootsuite University – a series of lectures that feature best practices and tips from industry-leading brands, platforms and educators.
If you can demonstrate your expertise at the end of the course, you get a certificate that shows your professional credentials.
Hootsuite offers three different subscriptions:
- Free: up to 5 social profiles; 2 RSS feeds, basic analytics, message scheduling and app integration.
- Pro, £7.19/month: up to 100 social profiles; up to 10 enhanced analytics reports; advanced message scheduling; up to 9 team members and unlimited RSS feeds.
- Enterprise: the cost of this plan differs and is based upon the requirements needed
Strengths
Hootsuite’s main strength lies in the vast variety of features. You can pretty much do anything you can possibly think of in terms of social media.
Monitoring numerous streams at the same time is another great characteristic of Hootsuite. Here are a few example of streams: mentions, lists (favourites), hashtags, keywords, home feed, competitors’ feeds, etc.
Another thing that I love about Hootsuite is its bulk schedule feature. It allows you to upload .csv files with your messages and the times you want them to go live at.
Hootlet is a browser plugin that allows you to quickly share web pages and to all your networks. You can also use this plugin straight from Twitter to schedule/RT tweets.
Hootsuite has been in the game since 2008 – it’s a well-developed, mature tool. The customer support is spot on which is always an important factor taking into consideration that you might find yourself paying monthly for their services.
Note: Hootsuite recently added a content suggestion feature which ties in well with its auto scheduling feature.
Weaknesses
The worst part about Hootsuite is its dashboard as it is very complex. It’s not what you would consider user-friendly and it can be quite daunting at first (although you can definitely warm up to it).
Another weakness is the price – both free and pro plans are limited. If your social media agenda is very busy then you will probably need to go for the enterprise plan which can be very expensive.
Buffer
Buffer is the opposite of Hootsuite. You’re not going to have the wide range of features that Hootsuite provides, but instead you’ll get a ‘cleaner’ and easier tool to use. Basically, it simplifies sharing and message scheduling.
You can connect Buffer to the following social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, App.net and Google+.
Simplicity is what makes Buffer such a great tool. It doesn’t require any sort of training – it’s user-friendly and self-explanatory. Anyone can use this tool regardless of their social media skills. Message scheduling is very easy to set up, and reporting is basic with easy-to-understand analytics.
Buffer comes with two pricing plans:
- Free: limits the number of messages you can keep in queue
- ‘The Awesome Plan’, £6/month: unlimited updates; up to 12 social profiles; up to 2 team members for each social account and unlimited hugs from the Buffer team. You can’t find the latter in any other social media monitoring tool plan! (that’s literally what they say on their website).
Strengths
Simplicity – Buffer is more of an addon to your social accounts rather than a separate tool. Here’s why:
The tool integrates within your social media network, the ‘Buffer’ button allows you to schedule the message.
Using Buffer can save you time which means you end up spending more time creating social media content and less administrating your networks.
Weaknesses
Buffer is limited. There’s only that much you can do with Buffer. If you’re an agency marketer managing multiple accounts then you might find yourself struggling.
You cannot use the tool to view your Twitter feed or directly interact with your followers.
Conclusion
Both Hootsuite and Buffer are awesome tools that will help you be more organised and deliver better social media results. The best way to decide which one to go for is by analysing your situation.
If you manage numerous social accounts and have lots of followers then I suggest Hootsuite. It might take a while to get to grips with all its features and best practices, but once you do your life will be much easier.
On the other hand, if your social media time is limited and you want something that is super quick for scheduling updates, Buffer is a great way to go. Simple, fast and efficient – you can’t go wrong with that.
The third option is both because Hootsuite and Buffer do have the ability to complement each other very well. Scheduling is definitely easier with Buffer, but you still need to be able to respond and interact with your followers, which is where Hootsuite comes in.
That being said, Hootsuite is catching up, especially with the release of its Hootlet browser extension.
Finally, which one do you like better?
What other social media tools do you use?
Please let us know in the comments section below.
The post Hootsuite vs Buffer – The Heavyweight Social Media Showdown appeared first on UK Linkology.
