Hootsuite is one of the biggest (or the biggest?) social media management platforms, having been around for 12 years and having ~1,500 employees and ~16 million users. But is it worth using for you? To help you decide, we put out this query:
For people who have used Hootsuite to manage their social media, was it worth the cost for you and how does it compare to other social media management tools you’ve used (if any)? All comments welcome.
So far there have been just 10 good responses (if you’ve used Hootsuite yourself, please make a contribution here). Here’s the consensus so far: most people like Hootsuite, and it does what it advertises. But it may not be the best option for you. If you’re a smaller company with not many social media accounts, you may be better off going with Buffer instead (see this comment for a good rundown on them) which is significantly cheaper. At least a couple of people have reported that tools like Buffer are also easier to use. And if you’re using Hootsuite, see if you can get a discount on it. According to this comment, “Usually, they will email you a discount code after your free trial to try to lure you in” — so you may not need to pay full price immediately.
Have a read through the comments below in their entirety for more information. They’re quite succinct, so it won’t take you long to read through them.
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I was able to get my money's worth with Hootsuite. With Hootsuite, I can see all my social media accounts on one dashboard. That means I can engage with my customers without having to log in to each account. It's an all-in-one platform that allows me to curate and schedule content, measure social ROI, run social media ads, and do analytics. Managing my social media is now a breeze because of this tool. I can now do more with my time with the help of Hootsuite. --Jeremy Harrison, Hustle Life |
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Hootsuite is a great social media tool that also tracks mentions. However, to use the brandwatch add-on, which essentially is a listening tool users must have the business account. For me, the listening side is important and I found less-expensive tools that offer me a better all-round package. That said, I still consider Hootsuite as one of the top social media management tools. --Joanna Zambas, CareerAddict |
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Truthfully, I found it very basic. The layout is not very intuitive and feels like you have to go looking for the tools instead of them being found naturally when you are doing different tasks. Overall, it was not worth the cost, particularly when other cheaper options like Buffer offer the same tools in a more user friendly package. Another option that I tried was Planoly, which was rather nice but still the range was not as all encompassing as Buffer. --Joe Flanagan, 90s Fashion World |
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The best tools for media management are Hootsuite and Trello. Those two tools cover all of my needs for collaboration and scheduling. Hootsuite allows you to schedule ads, save drafts that need approval from management, resize images for every social platform, and schedule posts for each. I think it is only worth the cost if you receive discounts and promotions. Usually, they will email you a discount code after your free trial to try to lure you in. They also have an educational discount for Higher Ed. Social managers. I also find it too pricey if you are only using it for one channel's Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram. I pay regular price and I run all accounts on it except one, because they pay the university price. I think there are other platforms out there that do what Hootsuite does and then some, like how Later allows scheduling stories. However, you can pair Hootsuite at a discounted rate with Storrito for cheaper. I also find Hootsuite was the easiest to understand out of any other platform I've tried. --Abbey Cole, JADA |
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Managing social media through Hootsuite has absolutely been worth it. Since there are several different social media platforms and presences to keep, having a central platform to manage all of them is a very good idea. Reasons being, it allows for all necessary options to be taken from within the app. looking at analytics, handling customer queries, scheduling your content throughout the day, and managing accesses. It’s been of a great help. Although it may seem a little costly at first but it’s absolutely worth every penny. --Osama Khabab, MotionCue Studios |
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I love using Hootsuite. The platform is free up to three channels and after that, they have very reasonable annual fees based on how many accounts you have. You can publish directly to Instagram, which many platforms CANNOT do. This was a big win for us. With Hootsuite, you can schedule content, create analytics reports to track your account's progress (engagement, likes, followers, etc.) and create streams that are basically a homepage for all published posts, scheduled posts, and any posts that contain hashtags that are relevant to your brand or business. Super helpful! --Margaret H. Geiger, Twelve31 Media, LLC PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/hootsuite-reviews#margaret |
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I have used Hootsuite and Buffer in the past and I am currently using Hubspot for posting on my social media channels. Since Hubspot is a CRM and I have started using it recently, I won’t compare it with Hootsuite but let’s dive into the comparison between Hootsuite and Buffer. While both are simple, efficient, and easy to use Social Media Tools, Hootsuite provides too many functionalities and is a little difficult to navigate through. Buffer is much simpler and cheaper but doesn’t provide many functionalities. On the other hand, Hootsuite gives more features at every plan level. Both apps support most of the Social Media platforms. Hootsuite takes a step ahead with Youtube and WordPress Blog support. The most critical difference is that Buffer will only help you push posts on the channel while Hootsuite along with the posting, lets you see the timeline, replies, and enables you to respond to the comments. Buffer helps you with scheduling the posts by allowing you to set the time manually or using Buffer Queue. Hootsuite takes it to the next level with AutoSchedule. This automatically schedules your posts for you. Hootsuite is a much better tool when it comes to larger enterprises. You can break up your employees into segments and give them allowance on the segment level. Hootsuite is the only social media management tool that allows you to create and manage ads. All in all, when it comes to the cost, Hootsuite is expensive then Buffer but the features and functionalities it offers make it worth it. --Manisha Khandelwal, SurveySensum PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/hootsuite-reviews#manisha |
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I've been using a paid Hootsuite account to manage over 50 social media accounts for the past couple of years. I love it because it's very cost effective compared to other social media software - usually when you have that many accounts to manage the cost absolutely skyrockets. The scheduling is really good and includes automatic Instagram scheduling which works really well (and not all the tools have this) but my favourite side of the software is the reporting. You can see results for your accounts as one number or drill down by each account and you even get engagement metrics which are notoriously difficult to get. You can also set up automatic reports to send to yourself or to your management. I've tried a few different social media management tools and Hootsuite is by far my favourite. --Samantha Wragg, Coco Travels PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/hootsuite-reviews#samantha |
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Hootsuite for managing social media: HootSuite is a great tool when managing a lot of accounts. Connectivity and scheduling and planning are all in one place and we can engage with followers right through HootSuite. HootSuite shines even more if you have a social media team that all needs to contribute to content and planning. For someone with just few social media accounts, it isn't worth the money! --Jessica Kelly, AssetLab Marketing PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/hootsuite-reviews#jessica |
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We use Hootsuite to manage our social media across all major platforms. Having tried other social management tools, Hootsuite's user interface is intuitive, cost options are affordable and app integrations simplify publishing. We're able to set up monthly campaigns easily, and drag and drop posts to make adjustments or updates. With so many tools available to online marketers, Hootsuite is one we've been able to consistently count on. --Seth Cummings, GoDog Sports |