It’s time to update family, friends and coworkers on what is new with you, which is a rather tedious task. You log-in to Facebook, Twitter and now MySpace. Once you log-in you realize you have numerous messages and notifications that never came to your email. Worse, you can’t remember your Twitter log-in information! Instead of remembering each website and all of your log-ins, remember one website: hootsuite.com
With HootSuite your social media is all conveniently placed into one dashboard with one log-in, one website and one place to manage all of your updates, friends, events and of course, pictures. Naturally the first question is how much does it cost? When you sign up for HootSuite you have the option of the Basic plan or the Pro plan. Basic gives you quick reports to keep up on your friends and family, five profiles you can manage and it’s free. The only drawback to the Basic plan is that it is ad supported, which means your updating will still have some banner ads floating about. The Pro plan offers you enhanced reporting, Google analytics integration, Facebook insights integration and the ability to opt out of those annoying ads for only $5.99 per month. Before you enter your credit card, you will have the option of a 30 day free trial to check out the service.
These days’ social media is done outside of the office and away from the computer. HootSuite takes full advantage of this by offering their social media dashboard service on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and even the iPad. Customize the downloadable apps to fit your needs, track visitations and stats, update all of your accounts from your phone using one app and even share photographs.
Unlike the traditional social media platforms that Facebook and MySpace offer, HootSuite has a few features you wont find anywhere else like the custom analytics, pre-scheduling messages and updates, the ability to send out assignments and themes. Most of HootSuite’s advanced features that come with the Pro plan are more suited for businesses that need to keep up with comments and queries from customers and contacts. Business owners can use the analytics feature to track their brand sentiment, the overall growth of site followers, and integrate Google analytics directly into their Facebook platform without having to leave the Hootsuite system.
Now, is the HootSuite dashboard worth it? Well, that answer is entirely up to you. If you are constantly tweeting, updating and sharing every photograph you get, then you can save time by using the HootSuite app or dashboard rather than logging into each service on it’s own. Business owners can benefit from the use of a HootSuite dashboard, especially for updates to multiple clients on multiple social media platforms. The good news is it’s free to try and for those looking for a simple update and share system, the Hoot Suite Basic is free and gets the job done.
