People now use social media platforms as a new way to interact. Even small businesses and large corporations now use
them to interact with their customers. In my Hootsuite review, we will look at how this can help you to coordinate your social media.
To some people, social media is more of an informative than an interactive platform. Owning an account on almost every social platform is possible, though there is an issue that comes with it. Owning many social media accounts can be very hard to manage.
This is the reason different tracking tools have been created over the years. These tools are specifically made to help individuals and corporations keep track of their social media activities.
There are lots of these tools that make your social life easier. And if you are a business person, it will help increase your customers. I’m not going to talk about all these tools in this post. The particular one we will focus on is Hootsuite.
Hootsuite is a tool that comes to mind when talking about social media management. The tool has been around for a pretty long time, and most businesses and individuals prefer it to other social media management tools. But can we say it’s now the best tool?
I’m going to give you information regarding the Hootsuite tool. This information will help you decide if it’s the best tool for your social media management.
Hootsuite Details
Hootsuite was introduced to the internet in 2008. The tool has been used by individuals, small businesses, and corporations to manage their social media accounts.
It was initially meant to be a scheduler for Twitter users, but as time went on, a lot more social media platforms were included in it. The tool can now manage social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and many more.
It has a free version, but there is also a paid version that has a lot more features. If you purchase the pro version, then there is no limit to what you can do.
Features of Hootsuite
Features of Hootsuite:
1. Social engagement inbox
The Hootsuite tool allows you to keep track of your social media profiles. You can track direct comments and messages, and also respond to them by using the tool.
The dashboard refreshes itself manually and this easily notifies you of the changes on your profile. This feature is helpful to businesses that need to be responsive to their customers.
2. Scheduling and sending out your posts
Publishing content on your social media profile has never been easier with Hootsuite. The tool has a publisher icon on its dashboard. The icon allows you to easily create new posts for each of your social media profiles.
Once you are done preparing your post, you will be given an instant preview of what your post will look like before posting it. You can post these pieces of content immediately or schedule them for a later time.
If you are looking to publish posts multiple times, you can make use of the post duplicate option.
3. WordPress Integration
The Hootsuite software does not only work on social media platforms, but it is also applicable to WordPress sites. Once you have installed the WordPress integration on the tool, you will be able to publish posts on your blog directly from the tool.
4. Planning Your Content
The tool also has a post planner view or calendar. This feature will help you plan out your posts effectively. It is a good way to ensure that you are sharing relevant and updated content.
5. Features for a Team
The tool allows you to assign responsibilities to different members of your team. It will also help you keep track of your team’s productivity which will help you improve more. To use this feature, you will have to upgrade the team/enterprise plan.
6. Social Listening
Hootsuite comes with a social monitoring feature. This feature helps you stay informed about the happenings and changes in your niche. The tool also helps you know what your customers are saying about your business.
Setting Up
Getting an account
Setting up a Hootsuite account will not take you a long time. You just have to input your email and then your password. Your account will be ready in seconds. A tech novice can easily use the tool because everyone will find it easy to navigate.
Integrating New Apps
The tool comes with an excellent app directory. This lets you integrate new apps into the tool within a matter of minutes. It has over 100 app integration spaces. So there is virtually no limit to the number of apps you can integrate.
Hootsuite has a Google my Business integration feature. This shows you the reviews of your customers and helps you build more awareness of your business.
Adding Social Profiles
After logging into your Hootsuite account, you will see an icon that reads “my post and mentions”. When you click on it, you will be asked to input your social media profile information. Your account will be added once the validation process is completed.
Keeping Track of Content to be Posted
There is a schedule calendar that comes with the Hootsuite tool. This helps you in keeping tabs on your social media content. You can add different dates and times you would like to publish different posts.
Reports Creation
A very good feature that Hootsuite has is its pre-built templates. This helps in creating different reports on social media sites.
Content Analytics
You can use the Hootsuite tool to overview the performance of your content and social media profiles. The analytics shows you the report of your follower numbers, tweets, comments, engagement and so much more.
It’s pretty useful to businesses and corporations operating different social media accounts.
Security
The social media security of the tool is one of the best. With this tool, you won’t have to bother about sharing passwords with team members. It allows you to easily access your social media accounts with a one-time login.
Support
Hootsuite offers free training for its users through the Hootsuite Academy. It also helps its users in lots of different ways.
The homepage has a link to a blog where you can find useful resources about the tool. There is also a help center where
you can submit support tickets.
You can type in your complaints or messages and you will be given feedback.
Purchase
The Hootsuite tool offers you value for your money on a social media management tool. For small businesses and bloggers, the pricing of the tool may be perfect. The custom analytics report that comes with the tool is useful in building an audience for your business or blog.
You can use the tool for free, but if you are looking to upgrade your account, you will need to pay $19 a month for a personal account.
Knowing about Hootsuite
If you are someone who researches social media tools, then you might have come across Hootsuite a dozen times. The tool is one of the top social media tools on the internet. It was introduced in 2008, and up till now, its owners are still offering wonderful services to their customers.
The tool helps you keep track of the various accounts you might have on social media, it helps you analyze the performance of your marketing campaigns, posts, and other events on social media.
Why You Should Consider Hootsuite
Managing several social media accounts at a time can be exhausting, time better spent creating content.
The tool does not require you to submit your details to each platform. When you want to share a post, reply to a comment, or send a message on any of the platforms, the tool will save you a lot of energy and time.
It can help you post, comment, and even optimize different settings on your social media accounts. So if you want something that will save you time and energy, this is the perfect tool for you.
Scheduling Updates
This is one of the most helpful features. It can help you schedule each of your posts on social media. The tool comes with an inbuilt calendar. This calendar is what you will use in setting the date and time for your posts. By doing this, your posts will keep updating even when you are not available.
App Directory
With applications like YouTube, Google Drive, and many others, the app directory feature of the tool is considered very effective. The tool gives you the opportunity to access your profile on any of the social networks mentioned above. so you can manage them all in one place.
Good Dashboard
When it comes to using any tool or software, the dashboard will greatly determine how easy it is to navigate the software or tool. The dashboard you will find on Hootsuite is a perfect description of what time saving is all about.
When you are on the dashboard, you will clearly see all the major activities of your social media profiles. This will save you the time of logging into every social media account you have.
Better Access for Your Team
If you are someone who has a team of members for online marketing, then you’ll love this tool. This is because it will be hard to keep track of the activities they perform. You will not be able to know who did what.
But with this tool, you will not be required to share your password with anyone. All you have to do is assign tasks to different members of your team by using the tool. Each and every member of your team will get notifications regarding their task.
Pricing of the Tool
Like most tools out there, Hootsuite also has a free version available for everyone. The free version Hootsuite offers is a lifetime version. By using the free version, you can manage and oversee up to 5 social media accounts. When you want more, you will be asked to upgrade to the pro version.
You will be allowed to use the pro version of the tool when you pay $10 per month. We can say the price is reasonable especially for businesses that have a smaller budget. If your plan is for an organization or bigger corporation, the price will be slightly higher than the one mentioned above.
You can also get a 30 days trial of the pro version, if it suits your needs, then you can purchase it.
The Affiliate Program Offered by Hootsuite
Hootsuite has been a very popular social management tool. This is why most marketers have picked it because of this interest. There have been a lot of questions regarding Hootsuite’s Affiliate Program.
Hootsuite does offer an affiliate program, but at the moment of writing this post, the company is not accepting any new applications into its affiliate program. This might last for a while, but applications will eventually be re-opened to the public.
Here Are Some Tips about the Affiliate Program
If you refer someone to use the Hootsuite software, you will be given an affiliate commission on the plan purchased by that person. You can promote the tool on social media or tell your friends and co-workers about it.
Advantages of Becoming an Affiliate
The major advantages of being an affiliate with Hootsuite are mentioned below:
- It is an easy-to-use tool and people will not have issues purchasing it
- It has a lot of features that will greatly benefit the user.
Disadvantages
The major disadvantage of becoming an affiliate with Hootsuite is that you cannot actually become part of the program at this time. Another is that they have a threshold of $150 payment, and most people might not fancy it.
If you are looking for ways to pay for your hosting while you learn check out my article here.
Wrapping up
If you operate a team, you will need to pay $19 a month. Large Businesses generally pay around $600 a month.
Managing different social accounts can be very difficult, especially when it happens to be a business or corporate
account. Choosing this tool will make your social media management a walkover.
Be sure to try out the free version in order to know if it fits your goals. After all these points, we can say the tool will be a good one for managing your social media profiles. Once you have viewed its features as listed in this post, you can make an informed decision whether to purchase it.
I hope this has helped, please leave a comment, like, and share. Thank you.
LILY
Managing social media can quickly build up the number of hours required. So, it’s natural for us to start seeking solutions. At $19 a month, it’s super affordable. And since this task may be assigned to several different persons in my team, I’m glad this tool is easy-to-use. Thanks for your review.
You are welcome, Paolo. I’m glad that you found this article and a way to streamline promoting your blog using your team.
Hi Lily. Thank you for another great review. I just recently started my online business and I’m still looking around for the most useful tools. I am testing Hootsuite free version for a while now and its great help for managing social media. For now I didn’t decided for premium version, but looking on your review and my experiences its something definitely worth investing. Looking forward to testing the paid version in practice and I’m sure it will be money well spent.
Great to hear that you are trying out the free version and thinking of using the paid version. Anything to get the promotion wheels working.
I find your article review on Hootsuite very informative. I also completely agree with you when you say managing multiple social media accounts can be quite hectic for most users- Be it individual users or even a business entity. For this reason , social media management tools have really come in handy to solve some of the challenges faced by mos frequent users of the Socials. I will definitely try and take Hootsuite for a spin and see how convenient they are.
Thanks for the detailed review,
Sergej
You are correct Sergej. Managing multiple social media accounts can be very hectic and it is too easy to just give up and not promote which is unwise if you are looking for organic traffic. Give Hootsuite a free spin and see if it works for you.
Hi Lily,
Great tool to know about! Thanks for sharing!
I used to be a non- social media person, with only a Facebook account and most of the time, just peeping, not much interaction. I see it before as a waste of time to use the social media accounts. Definitely yes, with that level of usage.
Now with an online business, I see their importance but I find them hard to manage.
Good thing you share this review about Hootsuite. I am one of those novice you have mentioned and in due time, I will try the free version first.
I agree with you Rose that managing social media to get traffic is tricky and there are some great tools out there to help like Hootsuite. It is definitely something that you need to master if you want to get organic traffic to your website.
I’m happy to learn all that I can about hootsuite before deciding whether or not to invest time and money into this tool. It’s a big platform with a lot of name recognition, which helps to build trust right off of the bat. I like the idea you mention to test out the free version if you are on the fence to really get an idea of how it may help (or not). Thanks for the informative hootsuite review!
We all have to get some help eventually Aly as there are only so many hours in the day. I’m pleased that you will take Hootsuite out for a test run when you are ready to get organized help to schedule promotion.